Why it matters:
- Zoom Room shows how a fun, gamified approach to dog training that adapts core tenets of early childhood education can scale in the $152 billion U.S. pet services industry.
- The franchise business’s repeatable, lifestyle-focused model—dogs and their owners socialize through Zoom Room playgroups, parties, and even “doggy disco nights”—keeps customers coming back and spending more.
- Zoom Room is now aiming to shape the future of pet care and uncork new revenue streams by helping businesses accommodate dogs as they become an ever-growing part of owners’ daily lives.
Nearly two decades ago, dog lover and Early Childhood Education Specialist Mark Van Wye was designing after-school programs for clients including the Boys and Girls Club of America when he started mulling over a business problem in the pet services industry that was nagging at him.
He noticed that, while doggy day cares served a purpose, they didn’t always spark joy for pet owners. For day care owners, startup costs were often steep, build-out logistics could be complicated, and the potential for animals to get sick or hurt, prompting pet owner lawsuits, was high. “It’s such a rough business to start,” Van Wye said.
He wrote on a whiteboard, “How do I get rid of every single issue one by one?” He envisioned a dog-centered business lower in liability that would benefit dogs while bonding them to their humans. “Something that’s more of a lifestyle ritual,” he said. “For example, you don’t graduate yoga one week. It’s something you do over and over again.” Now, he’s the CEO of dog training franchise Zoom Room.
The business, which specializes in dog agility, has grown rapidly, driven by the increased demand for dog services, particularly among millennials. It has 57 locations in 22 states, with average year-over-year growth of 11.9% across stores. Mature Zoom Room stores (those with a median age of three years), which are about a quarter of all stores, averaged over $600,000 in annual sales each from 2024 to 2025, with a net profit margin of 29.6%, translating to $181,700 in net profit per store, said Van Wye.
Zoom Room is a part of the $152 billion U.S. pet services industry, projected to climb to $157 billion through 2025, according to the American Pets Products Association. It’s an industry marked by resilience, with 77% of U.S. pet owners saying the current economy has not affected their pet ownership, and with 94 million U.S. households owning at least one pet in 2024, compared to 82 million in 2023.
Applying principles from early childhood education to build a dog training model that strengthens the bond between dogs and their owners
Van Wye brought lessons learned from working in education to his dog business idea. He knew research points to time spent with a caregiver as a top metric in ensuring students’ success. As a classroom teacher, he embraced positive reinforcement, rewarding students for good behavior. Both would be core tenets of Zoom Room.
“My idea was a kind of a Gymboree for dogs,” or a place where dogs would learn and play alongside their humans, he said, referring to the iconic child development play classes for babies and toddlers. “At the time, nobody was owning [the] dog training [business], and dog behavior is really the thing that impacts families lives the most. I thought, this could be huge, we could really own the category.”
Zoom Room gamifies dog training, with owners using agility courses and games like tic tac toe and musical chairs to teach dogs skills like sitting and heeling. The focus is on empowering owners, brain stimulation and fun, and building a community. Like at a yoga studio, customers buy class packs or a recurring membership.
Dog training venues that double as social hubs for pets and their owners
Dogs and their owners socialize through Zoom Room playgroups, parties, and even “doggy disco” nights. “The dogs are having a blast,” Van Wye said. “They’re getting treats and they’re with their favorite human in the world. We have nice music and fresh fair trade coffee for customers every day. I’m really passionate about pet socialization, and that drives lot of our decision making. It’s a very good north star for us.”
It’s a model that leans into the trend of consumers favoring experiences and continuing to spend on services that offer social and emotional payoff like wellness memberships and pet care programs, even as they drop discretionary purchases.
From day one, Van Wye knew he wanted to build his business as a franchise. He didn’t want the heavy burden of raising capital. “I wanted to be capital light, fueled by my belief that I can teach others to teach others,” he said. He called a franchise attorney and learned everything he needed to know about getting started and the legal structure.
In 2007, he launched a proof of concept with a single store in Culver City, California, a city brimming with media and tech professionals, young residents with dogs, and ample disposable income. Two years later, he started franchising.
“Then, we just started learning our way through the franchising model,” Van Wye said. “We’ve made dog training not just about obligatory obedience, but we’ve turned it into a human-focused ritual that’s repeatable and so delightful with positive results.” Zoom Room jumped from nine locations in 2020 to 60 by early 2024.
Currently, within the first eight weeks alone, each Zoom Room customer brings in an average of $679, he said, over ten times the $63 cost to acquire them.
[Zoom Room Founder Mark] Van Wye knew he wanted to build his business as a franchise. He didn’t want the heavy burden of raising capital. “I wanted to be capital light, fueled by my belief that I can teach others to teach others,” he said.
Early lessons: Partner with franchisee pros, practice careful cash flow management, and build scalable systems before rapid expansion
Navigating the complex franchise model, however, didn’t come without its share of hurdles early on. In fact, it was a steep learning curve. Van Wye had his share of want-to-be business owners who lacked experience yet eagerly scraped together money for a franchise. Those types of owners are often unsuccessful, he said.
People who’ve been employees their whole lives and are used to human resources, accounting, and other departments handling tasks for them, plus lifelong entrepreneurs used to calling the shots themselves, aren’t necessarily ideal franchise owners, he said. Instead, through trial and error, he learned the franchisees that worked out were professional ones.
Around 2016, Van Wye stopped selling franchises to regroup and reevaluate cash flow management, supply chain dynamics, and building processes. He linked up with a venture capitalist who was looking at emerging franchises to invest in. The VC went on to buy several Zoom Room franchises himself, then became the company’s CFO.
“He put cash into the business and it really helped,” Van Wye said. “It was the first wave of professionalization of the business.”
In 2018, Van Wye was ready to sell franchises again. He hit another obstacle around the pandemic, when cash was cheap and people without franchisee backgrounds, but who loved dogs and got funding, wanted in on the business.
“It was an impulsive thing people were doing after COVID,” he said, and turned out to be another lesson learned. With franchisees, “you have to be more strategic,” he said.
Accelerating growth with execs from big franchise players like Orangetheory Fitness and Panera
At around the same time, Van Wye zeroed in on building out his leadership team to exponentially accelerate growth. His goal is to have 125 Zoom Room locations by 2027 and 500 by 2030. “The pet industry just keeps continuing to rise, and we decided we needed A-plus players so that we could be ready to take on the world,” he said.
In January, Zoom Room brought on Don Allen, who got his start in franchising with Orangetheory Fitness, as Vice President of Operations.
The company’s Chief Growth Officer, Herb Heiserman, known for his work with iconic brands like Starbucks, Whole Foods, and Panera, helped Zoom Room lower so-called "dead rent"—rent a franchisee pays for a location when their lease starts, even if construction is delayed—from four weeks to zero weeks. Zoom Room has refined and streamlined the process of helping franchisees find the best general contractors and getting their construction or renovation plans approved quickly.
“Because of our growth, we’re attracting good people who’ve had prior successes in similar franchises,” he said.
Van Wye’s vision: Helping businesses accommodate pets and creating new revenue streams that make life easier for dog owners everywhere
Beyond opening hundreds more stores, Van Wye has a bigger vision for his business. “We want Zoom Room to be synonymous with dog training,” he said.
He’s been following the trend of dog owners increasingly making decisions, such as where to have a beer with friends or go on summer vacation, based on the location’s dog policy and accessibility. “The only way you can get a dog that can go with you anywhere and everywhere is socialization, not a YouTube video, or reading a book, or having a guy come over to your house for training.”
Van Wye wants Zoom Room to be “the architect of what good dog behavior is” and help set standards for businesses that welcome in peoples’ four-legged friends, including airlines. He’s working on plans to provide a medallion for dogs who spend a certain number of hours training at Zoom Room, a clearance of sorts that businesses could rely on to ensure that the dogs they allow in are well-behaved and safe to be around customers.
“Right now, we’re calling it Clear for Dogs, and I think lot of money can be made. We’re staying in one lane, but it’s a really really deep lane and it pulls together a lot of different revenue streams. We can make the world easier for you to navigate through with your dog, and we’re currently looking for strategic partners.”
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