Booksy

Booksy operates a two-sided platform for the beauty, wellness and health services sector. Consumers use the Booksy app and website to search for local providers such as barbers, hair stylists, nail technicians, estheticians, massage therapists and tattoo artists, view profiles, portfolios, pricing, availability and verified reviews, and book, reschedule or cancel appointments without calling. Automated reminders are sent to reduce missed appointments, and consumer use of the marketplace is free.

On the provider side, the BooksyBiz app (with Lite and Pro tiers, delivered on mobile, tablet and web) supplies calendar and appointment management, client records, integrated card payments and payouts, point of sale, staff shift and commission management, inventory, gift cards, packages and memberships, reporting, and marketing tools including message blasts, loyalty stamp cards, automated rebooking reminders and the paid Boost lead-generation feature. Bookings can be taken directly from a provider's Booksy profile, Instagram, Facebook, Google and Reserve with Google. The company also offers Booksy E-Commerce for providers to sell products online. Payments are processed through Stripe, and the company states bank-grade encryption, PCI compliance and 99.9% platform uptime.

Booksy was founded in Poland by Stefan Batory and Konrad Howard, launched in 2014 and was subsequently headquartered in San Francisco, with the United States as its largest market. It has expanded across multiple regions including the US, UK, Poland, Spain, Brazil, South Africa and Mexico, and has grown partly through acquisitions of local competitors.

Founding story

Stefan Batory took up running to lose weight and was encouraged to enter the Marathon des Sables ultramarathon in the Sahara. Training injuries meant frequent physiotherapy appointments, which were difficult to schedule because the therapist was working with clients and could not answer calls. Batory concluded that service professionals who work with their hands face this problem at scale, and built Booksy to address it. Having previously built software businesses and a taxi app in Poland that taught him marketplace mechanics, he launched Booksy in the United States before his native Poland on the view that category leadership required winning the American market.

Business model

Booksy describes itself as a SaaS-enabled marketplace, combining subscription software for service providers with a consumer-facing booking marketplace. Providers pay a monthly subscription fee while consumers use the marketplace for free; providers can optionally pay commission-based fees for lead generation and marketing through the Boost feature, and payment processing and hardware are charged separately.

Recurring subscription fees charged to beauty and wellness professionals (a US plan is advertised at $29.99 per month plus tax, with $20 per additional user and a 14-day free trial), optional pay-per-result commissions for the Boost marketing/lead-generation product, and payment processing.

Traction

The company reports over 330,000 beauty and wellness professionals worldwide and more than 44 million customers booking on the platform, up from 13 million active consumers reported in 2021. It cites 38% of appointments booked after hours, 20% more bookings per customer, up to a 25% drop in no-shows and cancellations, and 60% more bookings for providers using Boost with over 250% ROI. Revenue grew 1500% over the three years preceding the 2021 Series C, and headcount grew 500% to more than 500 employees at that time, later reported at approximately 600 after the Versum merger and more than 1,000 subsequently.

Latest developments

Booksy reports over 330,000 professionals and more than 44 million customers on the platform, and markets an all-inclusive $29.99 monthly plan with Tap to Pay, a proprietary card reader, next business day payouts, automated waitlists, digital loyalty cards and Reserve with Google integration. The founder and CEO has relocated to Miami and outlined an AI-driven roadmap in which customers upload photos of a desired hairstyle and of themselves so the platform can assess suitability and match them with an appropriate nearby stylist.