When The Now Massage opened its first location in Los Angeles in 2015, co-founder and chief creative officer Gara Post wasn’t trying to build the next national chain. She was solving a narrower problem: massage concepts sat between utilitarian, low-cost chains and expensive day spas that felt more like special-occasion indulgences than routine wellness.
Post’s answer was a design-forward, service-only model that treated massage as a habit rather than a luxury, and it took off. Since launching franchising in 2019, The Now has grown its footprint by more than 1,500%, with over 80 locations open and more than 200 franchise licenses sold nationwide. According to the company’s 2025 franchise disclosure document, the average franchised location generated about $1.37 million in gross revenue, with the highest-performing locations nearing $2.5 million and corporate-run boutiques averaging nearly $3 million. The Now expects to surpass 100 open locations in 2026, with a longer-term target of nearly 200 locations within 24 to 36 months.
Below, Post and president Jeff Platt share the strategies that set The Now up for scale.
Proof Of Concept Before Scale
The first unlock came early. Within 18 months of opening its initial location, The Now scaled from one to four corporate-owned boutiques. Demand wasn’t an issue; replication was.
“That early traction proved the demand for an elevated, accessible massage experience and validated our proof of concept,” says Post. “It also led us to a key decision: continue growing through additional corporate-owned locations or scale via franchising. Franchising ultimately made the most sense for the pace of growth we envisioned.”
Rather than overextend corporate capital or dilute the experience through rushed expansion, The Now chose franchising as a growth engine, but only after the concept had demonstrated durability across multiple locations.
Building Institutional-Grade Systems
Choosing franchising created a second, more complex challenge: execution at scale. The Now brought on Platt, former CEO of Sky Zone Franchise Group, as president in 2021 and assembled a franchise-focused executive team with deep expertise across real estate, construction, operations, training, human resources, marketing and public relations. Platt is COO of holding company Post Investment Group, which has backed The Now and is founded and led by Post’s husband, Jason.
“The second inflection point was bringing on The NOW’s President Jeff Platt and a team of franchise executives with more than 150 years of combined experience,” explains Post. “Their expertise helped us build the systems, training, membership structure and brand standards needed to scale successfully.”
In practice, that translated into disciplined site selection criteria, standardized buildout timelines, centralized training and a playbook that prioritized unit economics over headline growth. Membership, introduced in 2017, well before franchising, became a foundational part of that system.
The Now’s Ritual Membership reframed massage from an occasional splurge into a recurring wellness behavior. With monthly savings, rollover credits and perks designed to encourage one to four visits per month, the program created predictable demand in a labor-intensive category.
“In order for our franchise owners to be successful, we knew a strong membership program would be a great foundation for their business,” says Post.
The predictability supports staffing consistency, reduces volatility during slower periods and gives multi-unit operators confidence to expand while allowing The Now to maintain accessible pricing with healthy unit-level margins.
Cultural Relevance As A Growth Multiplier
From its earliest days, The Now connected deeply with millennials and gen Z customers, long before wellness became mainstream cultural currency.
Post says: “When we first launched, Instagram was just gaining popularity and we were one of the first brands in the massage space to cater to these generations through a strong social, PR and influencer strategy. That early traction showed us that we had a brand that deeply resonated with the next generation of consumers.”
A strong social, PR and influencer program helped fuel awareness, but the model scaled locally as well. Franchise owners became embedded in their communities, helping the brand grow organically, market by market. Today, The Now has assembled a nationwide network of influencers, ambassadors and self-care enthusiasts that continues to feed demand.
That cultural relevance informs innovation, too. With more than 80 locations across varied markets, The Now operates as a live testing ground. New services are piloted regionally, evaluated for performance and operational feasibility and only then rolled out systemwide. Recent launches include Crystal Hot Stones and Infrared Sauna Residencies, with lymphatic-focused offerings such as Body Gua Sha next in the pipeline.
The same discipline governs brand partnerships. Collaborations with Ouai, Rare Beauty, Summer Fridays, OSEA and Arrae are embedded directly into treatments rather than positioned as passive add-ons. In fall 2025, guests received Arrae Debloat supplement sachets with every Gua Sha enhancement, fueling incremental revenue, new guest acquisition and high social engagement. The latest example is a limited-time Mousse & Mist enhancement featuring Rare Beauty’s new hydrating body mousse-to-oil and body and hair fragrance mist.
“These partnerships have become essential to our marketing strategy and service innovation, helping us grow brand awareness, reach new audiences and drive revenue,” says Platt.
Scaling Without Dilution
Even as demand for licenses remains strong, The Now has treated franchisee selection as a constraint, not a growth accelerator. The brand favors multi-unit operators and entrepreneurial professionals who view hospitality as a business, not a passion project.
“You can replicate the design aesthetic, but you can’t replicate the team member and guest experience,” says Post. “For that reason, we put significant focus on choosing the right franchise owners, identifying the best real estate, training their teams and ensuring every boutique delivers the five-star guest experience The Now is known for.” Notably, a significant share of franchise leads come from existing guests and members.
As The Now looks toward nearly doubling its footprint over the next three years, leadership remains concentrated on the fundamentals: unit-level health, membership penetration, disciplined site selection and repeatable innovation.
Amid macro uncertainty, the philosophy holds. “Even when sales are strong, our focus remains on innovation and continuous improvement of our guest and team member experience. It’s easy to stay the course when things are going well, but the brands that stand out are the ones that challenge themselves before they have to.”
