How a tech leader ventured into a franchise ownership
Applying my technical skills to open and grow a skincare location
April 1, 2025
I recently opened a skincare franchise in Kirkland, WA - Heyday skincare. As a technology professional, I knew nothing about skincare. As a tech entrepreneur, I had never run a physical storefront. Yet talking with others in my professional circle, this is not an uncommon dream. So why and how did I go about taking this step? Now that I’m nine months into operating my store, I thought I’d share the journey.
Why Franchising? And why Heyday?
First a little about my background. I started my career at Microsoft. After 15 years as a developer and dev lead I switched to a 10 year stint at Expedia. I grew through the ranks to the CTO of the CarRentals.com brand. In 2019, I cofounded LegUp, a startup in the early child care space. After selling the company in 2022, I returned to Microsoft to lead the Events group in Teams. This February, I left Microsoft to focus on a fractional CTO role. In my current role, I provide companies technical leadership and hands-on development expertise.
As with many considering this step, I started exploring franchise opportunities during a time of transition. After selling my startup I wanted to continue my entrepreneurial path but also wanted a bit more stability. I wasn’t looking for full-time work, but wanted more than a passive investment. I wanted something to diversify my tech-heavy financial portfolio. I wanted something that would give me a sense of community and purpose. The idea of a franchise was appealing to me.
I realized a franchise could give me a sense of community and purpose with something that wasn’t full-time work.
Most people seem to equate franchising with food businesses. While I started my search in this space, I soon realized it wasn’t the right fit for two main reasons. First, most opportunities were already large and had limited territories to choose from. Second, these low-margin business models work by squeezing what you can from all angles, especially labor. That’s the antithesis of my core values and my technical leadership experience.
I enlisted the help of a franchise broker. This let me narrow my search on some key criteria. I wanted something small but growing. I felt the wellness space would provide good diversification and some recession resistance. My search led to Heyday, a skincare company based out of New York. At the time they only had 15 locations, but had national expansion plans. They had a focus on personalization and client education of skincare needs. I felt the business model was solid, and would be a good fit in my market.
Applying technical leadership principles
A skin care franchise is quite removed from a tech leadership role. But I found that several skills carried over, even if I wasn’t managing the day-to-day operations of the store.
Problem solving skills are an important part of running this, or any, business. I faced lots of new challenges starting this business. Learning a new industry. The legal and HR aspects of setting up a location. Determining the right local marketing events. Finding and brainstorming partnership events, and so on. Coming from a product development background, these were new challenges. A natural problem solving approach helped. Heyday corporate provided help, but it was a “don’t get stuck - figure it out” attitude that carried me through. These challenges provided me with personal and professional growth.
Defining KPIs is a must - especially if you aren’t running the day-to-day operations yourself. I was relentless in understanding what the drivers of Heyday were and made sure I could accurately measure them (building out my own dashboard in the process - technical tinkering never dies!). Even more important than tracking KPIs was communicating the key ones with the shop. I made sure my management team understood them and why they were important. This resulted in my shop leads (who have much more wellness experience than I) coming up with ideas of their own. A key to leadership is achieving that multiplier effect through your team.
Know your KPIs and communicate them clearly and often to the team
Test and Learn is a competency that I learned at Expedia and that is common among startups. It’s the idea of trying different things, seeing what works, and fine tuning the winners. This helped in the early days as we tried different discounts, local marketing efforts, and offsite events. We’re still testing and while most things haven’t moved the needle, some have. Those are the ones that helped grow the business and that we refine and repeat.
Don’t be afraid to test new ideas - most will fail, but those that don’t will propel your business forward
Employee Development skills was another transferable skill. One thing setting Heyday apart is that our estheticians are not independent contractors. They are employees of my business and don’t rent their chairs. This focus on the employee was one of the things that drew me to Heyday, and a personal area of passion. I brought in practices like career ladders, review discussions, and salary bands. While mainstays at tech companies these are generally new concepts in small businesses. We have a strong retention rate, with 80% of our opening staff still with us (knock on wood). As one of my estheticians put it “this is a place you can build a career.” It’s sound business practice in a service-oriented industry like ours. But it also feels good to be able to “do right” by my staff.
“This is a place you can build a career.” Music to my ears
Summary
Does franchising sound like an interesting opportunity to you? A technical background and basic business skills are a natural fit for franchising. Being your own boss is rewarding. True, many find playing by the rules set by the franchisor overbearing. But if you see value in running with an established playbook, a franchise can be a great way to own a small business.
A technical background and basic business skills are a natural fit for franchising
I’d suggest starting with a franchise broker (shout out to my broker, Jim Judy from Try Franchising). Like a real estate broker, they’re paid by the franchisor putting less pressure or commitment on you. Reflect on what industries, business models, and level of effort you’re interested in. A good broker will use this to put the right opportunities in front of you.
And of course, if you’re in the Kirkland area - drop on by for a facial! I’m now seeing the benefits of a monthly treatment. It’s keeping my skin glowing and removing some of the age spots and wrinkles! Hope to see you in my shop!