Jun 23, 2023 · 19m · founders-journal
European Wax Center…for Dogs
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In this episode of Founder's Journal, Alex Lieberman analyzes European Wax Center's franchised, subscription-driven model to establish a five-part framework for disrupting fragmented retail markets. Applying this blueprint, he pitches four unbundled startup opportunities, spotlighting express dog grooming and modernized daycare chains as high-potential ventures.
Statements from this episode (8)
European Wax Center did $910M in systemwide revenue across 978 stores
“Across all 978 locations, European WAC Center did nine hundred and ten million dollars in revenue.
So that across all of their stores, nine hundred and ten million dollars in revenue.
The average store that's been around for at least five years does 1.1 millio…”
European Wax Center corporate made $72M EBITDA on $207M revenue
“So in terms of European Wax Center corporate, the actual revenue to European Wax Center based on
Products that are sold in stores, the marketing fees that they charge, I believe their franchisees, and the royalty fees that franchisees have to pay, that number …”
European Wax Center is 11x larger than its closest competitor
“European Wax Center is 11 times bigger than their next closest competitor in terms of sales, and the rest of the market, there's only, like, two competitors, the rest of the market is tens of thousands of
Just mom and pop shops, so it's completely fragmented.”
Sixty percent of European Wax Center purchases are prepaid appointments
“The vast majority of purchases for European Wax Center, I believe it's 60%, are prepaid purchases because their customers are coming in frequently enough, you know, let's call it every four to eight weeks, such that they are buying many appointments well in ad…”
Low-skill services avoid talent supply constraints when scaling
“When you think about scaling like a law firm or a medical doctor's practice or a financial advisory firm, oftentimes the bottleneck is your supply, like supply for talent is your biggest constraint to scale. So a way to think about this is what is a service yo…”
Unbundling standardized, high-demand services creates highly scalable brands
“And then the fifth, and I think this is the most unique aspect for brainstorming a business idea, is focusing on an existing product service and pulling out the most standardized version of that service that still has high demand.”
Dog grooming brands struggle because customers attach to individual groomers
“I think if you were to go with the route of dog grooming, I think a dog grooming brand is a great opportunity, but where you end up getting stuck is it requires very high skill talent. Dog owners are very particular about their dog's cuts. They expect someone …”