Heyday

The skincare services industry has a fundamental access problem. For decades, quality facials and personalized skin treatments were either prohibitively expensive at high-end spas, inconsistently delivered at budget salons, or buried inside hotel wellness centers that prioritized atmosphere over outcomes. Millions of consumers who genuinely needed expert skincare guidance were left navigating an industry fragmented between luxury excess and cut-rate mediocrity. Heyday was built to solve exactly that problem. Co-founded in 2015 by Adam Ross, who continues to serve as CEO, and Michael Pollak, Heyday launched in New York City with a clear mandate: reframe the facial as an essential, accessible, recurring wellness service rather than an occasional indulgence. The brand's mission centers on delivering expert, personalized skincare that empowers individuals, removing the intimidation and price barriers that had historically kept mainstream consumers out of the professional treatment room. From its founding New York base, Heyday expanded to Los Angeles and Philadelphia before beginning to scale its franchise model, which launched formally in early 2021. By March 2022, the brand operated 10 company-owned locations across New York City, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia, plus its first franchised shop in Bethesda, Maryland. By December 2022, total locations had grown to 13, and by February 2023, Heyday reported 20 locations nationwide. As of early 2024, the brand operated 18 active locations, including 8 U.S. franchise units. This is not a mature, saturated franchise system — it is a brand in active early-to-mid-stage franchise expansion, with over 100 franchise agreements signed within the first 12 months of franchising and 115 agreements executed by August 2022. For franchise investors evaluating early-mover positioning in an emerging wellness services category, Heyday represents a data-rich but still-evolving opportunity that demands rigorous independent analysis. This profile provides exactly that.

The professional skincare services market sits within the broader U.S. spa and wellness industry, which the Global Wellness Institute valued at over $1.8 trillion globally, with the U.S. representing one of the largest national markets. The facial and skin treatment segment specifically benefits from a powerful convergence of secular trends. Consumer awareness of dermatological health has expanded sharply, driven by social media, the growth of skincare content creators, and the mainstreaming of ingredient-level skincare education. The result is a generation of consumers who understand the difference between a niacinamide serum and a retinol, who actively seek professional guidance on regimens, and who are willing to convert that interest into recurring service spending. Membership-based wellness services have also demonstrated exceptional resilience relative to discretionary retail, as consumers who commit to monthly plans tend to maintain those habits even during economic softness. Heyday's membership model, which drives approximately 70 to 75 percent of system revenue, is structurally aligned with this behavioral dynamic. Additionally, the professional skincare treatment category benefits from a meaningful barrier to digital disruption — a facial cannot be delivered through an app or replaced by an e-commerce purchase. The competitive landscape within professional facial services remains highly fragmented, dominated by independent estheticians, hotel spas, and unbranded treatment rooms, with very limited nationally scaled, franchise-based competition. That fragmentation represents a classic franchise opportunity: a large, proven consumer demand category with no dominant national brand occupying the accessible, personalized positioning that Heyday has staked out. The company itself projects that there are over 500 defined prime territories available across the United States, suggesting the total addressable franchise expansion opportunity is substantial and largely unpenetrated.

The Heyday franchise investment begins with an initial franchise fee of $60,000, a figure that increased from an earlier $50,000 fee noted in December 2022 documentation, reflecting the brand's growing market position and expanded support infrastructure. Total estimated initial investment ranges have been reported across multiple disclosure periods, spanning from approximately $574,000 at the lower end of earlier estimates to as high as $1,300,000 at the upper end of more recent ranges, with a commonly cited range of $966,010 to $1,072,748. The spread in investment figures reflects meaningful variation driven by geography, lease conditions, construction costs, and local permitting timelines. Key investment components include architect, engineering, and permit costs of $46,500 to $56,500; fixtures, furniture, and equipment in the range of $545,000 to $665,000, which represents the single largest cost category; signage at $12,000 to $22,500; technology hardware and setup at $12,500 to $15,000; opening services at $50,000 to $78,500; legal and professional fees of $5,000 to $12,000; and banking fees of $1,500 to $1,800. Prospective franchisees must demonstrate minimum liquid capital of $350,000 and a minimum net worth of $1,000,000. The ongoing royalty fee is 7 percent of gross sales, and an advertising or brand fund fee also applies, with reported figures ranging from 2 percent to a structure involving 5 percent plus $7,000 per month, depending on the disclosure source and period. At the 7 percent royalty rate, Heyday sits slightly above the franchise industry average of approximately 5 to 6 percent, which is worth factoring into cash flow modeling. The total cost of ownership — combining the franchise fee, buildout, working capital, and ongoing fees — positions Heyday as a mid-to-premium franchise investment, comparable in cost profile to other wellness and personal services concepts requiring dedicated treatment room buildouts and specialized equipment. Level 5 Capital Partners, identified as Heyday's largest investment partner and its first and largest franchisee, provides institutional backing that signals confidence in the brand's unit economics from sophisticated capital.

Daily operations at a Heyday studio center on delivering personalized facial treatments through licensed estheticians, with the franchisee responsible for hiring, training, and managing a skilled service team. The Heyday model is not absentee-friendly in its early stages — the franchisee is expected to be engaged in culture-building, team management, and local community development, particularly during the critical first year of operations. Revenue flows through four primary channels: the core membership facial program, optional treatment enhancements including gua sha, microdermabrasion, LED light therapy, professional peels, and lip boosts, in-store product retail sales, and e-commerce. The membership structure, which accounts for roughly 70 to 75 percent of revenue, is operationally central — the booking cadence, front desk experience, and retention protocols all exist to maximize membership conversion and reduce monthly churn. Heyday provides franchisees with a comprehensive brand and operations playbook, site selection assistance, and lease negotiation support. The leadership team responsible for franchisee support includes Arielle Mortimer as Chief Operating Officer, who joined in late 2021, Sean Bock as President of Franchising and Chief Development Officer, who joined in February 2021, Kate Carroll as VP of Franchise Operations, who joined in April 2022, and John McKinney as Chief Technology Officer, who joined in April 2021. This leadership team was deliberately assembled after the franchise program launched, bringing in executives with experience scaling nationally recognized brands in the health and wellness sector. Training programs equip franchise teams with the tools needed to deliver Heyday's standardized yet personalized treatment experience. Territory structure provides exclusivity within defined geographic markets, with over 500 prime territories identified across the country. The brand does not currently offer cooperative advertising cost-sharing for recruiting, but does provide cooperative advertising support for consumer-facing marketing.

Item 19 financial performance data is not disclosed in the current Franchise Disclosure Document, which means prospective investors must approach revenue modeling using publicly available data, systemwide figures, and their own independent market analysis. That said, Heyday has shared meaningful financial performance data through other channels. System-wide average revenue has been reported at approximately $2,126,957, and average first-year revenue figures have been cited as $2,188,749, with corresponding first-year EBITDA of $287,764. A separate data point references average first-year revenue of $1.6 million with EBITDA of $80,360. Product sales as a component of first-year revenue were cited at $557,401. The average ticket in year two has been reported at approximately $127.64 to $160. The brand was tracking toward $100 million in gross system sales by the end of 2023, a figure that, when evaluated against the number of open locations at that time, implies strong per-unit revenue performance. The gap between the $80,360 and $287,764 EBITDA figures across different reporting periods reflects a real range of outcomes — driven primarily by local market maturity, franchisee operational execution, membership conversion rates, and the ramp-up timeline from opening. The membership model's structural advantage is that approximately 70 to 75 percent of revenue is recurring and predictable once a member base is established, which reduces revenue volatility relative to purely transactional service businesses. Investors should request the most current Franchise Disclosure Document directly from Heyday and work with a franchise attorney to reconcile the range of reported figures before making any investment commitment. Independent benchmarking against comparable wellness service franchise models is strongly advised as part of a complete due diligence process.

Heyday's growth trajectory since entering franchising in early 2021 is one of the most aggressive in the wellness services category. Signing over 100 franchise agreements in its first 12 months of franchising, reaching 115 signed agreements by August 2022, and awarding 120 units in 2022 alone represents a signed-agreement growth rate that significantly outpaces the pace at which physical locations have opened — a dynamic that is common in emerging franchise systems and reflects both the lead time required for site selection, permitting, and construction, and the gap between agreements signed and studios actually operating. The company's stated goal of reaching at least 300 open locations by 2026, with an additional 300-plus markets identified for future development, positions Heyday as a brand with a long runway of expansion ahead of it. Targeted pipeline markets include Phoenix, Dallas, Austin, Atlanta, Nashville, Washington D.C., and Chicago — all high-density, health-conscious urban and suburban markets where demand for premium personal care services is well established. Current geographic strength includes Texas, New Jersey, Georgia, the Northeast corridor, California, the Mid-Atlantic states, and the Midwest including Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Illinois. Expansion opportunities are specifically noted in the Mountain and Pacific Northwest regions. The brand's competitive moat derives from several reinforcing factors: a proprietary treatment protocol, a membership model that creates compounding retention economics, a technology platform built under CTO John McKinney's leadership, and a brand identity that has successfully repositioned facials from an occasional luxury into a routine wellness investment. While Heyday currently operates exclusively in the United States, leadership has indicated interest in international growth, which would represent an additional long-term expansion lever for the brand.

The ideal Heyday franchisee is a service-oriented operator with demonstrated experience managing people-centric businesses, a genuine passion for wellness and skincare, and the financial profile to sustain the investment through the membership ramp-up period. Heyday is not a background-agnostic franchise — the treatment model requires a team of licensed estheticians, which means the franchisee must be skilled at recruiting, retaining, and motivating a licensed professional workforce in a competitive labor market. Multi-unit development is an explicit part of Heyday's growth strategy, and the brand's track record of signing multi-unit agreements is reflected in the rapid escalation of total signed agreements relative to open units. The minimum financial requirements — $350,000 in liquid capital and $1,000,000 net worth — screen for investors with the balance sheet depth to absorb the ramp-up period and invest in team building. Available territories span 42 states as of 2026 data, with the notable exceptions being Alaska, Montana, New Hampshire, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wyoming. The most immediately available expansion markets with the strongest demographic alignment are concentrated in the Sun Belt, the Pacific Coast, and major Midwest metropolitan areas. The timeline from franchise agreement signing to studio opening is variable and depends heavily on lease execution and construction timelines, which prospective franchisees should model conservatively. Franchise agreement terms and renewal structures should be reviewed carefully with legal counsel, as the brand's disclosure documentation has evolved since the 2021 franchise program launch.

The Heyday franchise opportunity sits at a genuinely interesting intersection: a brand with a proven consumer concept, rapidly signed franchise agreements, meaningful publicly available revenue data, and a secular tailwind from the mainstreaming of professional skincare services — but with the inherent risk profile of a franchise system that is still in active early-stage expansion with a gap between agreements signed and units fully open. That tension — between compelling unit-level revenue signals and the execution risk of scaling from under 20 open locations to 300-plus — is exactly the kind of nuanced dynamic that demands independent, data-driven analysis rather than promotional franchise marketing. The investment thesis is grounded in real consumer demand: the U.S. professional skincare services market is large, fragmented, and structurally resistant to digital disruption, and Heyday has carved out a defensible positioning as the accessible, membership-based, personalized facial brand. But the 7 percent royalty rate, the $1,000,000 net worth requirement, the premium buildout costs, and the reliance on a licensed professional workforce all represent legitimate due diligence considerations that deserve thorough analysis before any capital commitment. PeerSense provides exclusive due diligence data including SBA lending history, FPI score, location maps with Google ratings, FDD financial data, and side-by-side comparison tools that allow investors to benchmark Heyday against comparable wellness service franchise concepts across every meaningful financial and operational dimension. Explore the complete Heyday franchise profile on PeerSense to access the full suite of independent franchise intelligence data.