What’s harder than building a high-touch service business from scratch? Building a high-touch service business from scratch, having to almost immediately shutter the first and only location for nearly two years, and then anxiously trying to reignite momentum. 

Squeeze co-founder and CEO Brittany Driscoll lived that nightmare and has come out on the other side impervious to the slings and arrows of entrepreneurship. In fact, she feels it gives both her and her team a true kinship with the five-year-old brand’s franchisees—or Operating Partners, as she prefers to call them.

“I’ll tell you, that was such a pressure-cooker time,” Driscoll recalls of the lengthy Covid shutdown, which started in March 2020. Chatting on Zoom recently from Los Angeles, where she was meeting potential Operating Partners for a “Squeeze the Day” two-way exploratory session at the brand’s Studio City flagship, Driscoll sounds simultaneously incredulous and empowered. “It was really challenging to figure out, do we believe in this vision? Do we believe in this brand? Can we weather the storm?”

Now with up to 10 fully functional Squeeze locations, and close to 90 more in development, it’s clear Team Squeeze was more than capable of meeting that moment.

“Just the grit and perseverance that experience created has given us so much passion and enthusiasm for what we’re doing,” says Driscoll. “We’re able to walk alongside our Operating Partners who are basically mini entrepreneurs in their communities building their own businesses, and say, ‘We’ve been there. This is hard. This is not for everyone.’ There are moments of real challenge, and then there are amazing moments, and neither one lasts forever.” 

Just prior to Squeeze, Driscoll spent four years overseeing marketing for Drybar, and was instrumental in taking the company from $30 million to $100 million. During her stint, 50 new shops opened, and she was able to ensure safe passage for the Drybar product line into Sephora, Ulta, and Nordstrom. The latter is no mean feat given how relatively few haircare brands those retailers carry. 

Referring to that time as “the rocket ship years,” Driscoll, who has also logged time in marketing and advertising at Mattel, Coca Cola, and Hilton, says she nonetheless started to feel restless at Drybar and up for her next challenge. 

“I got to the point where we had opened over 80 doors, we launched the product line into prestige retail, there was international expansion,” she says. “It was rinse and repeat, and I was ready to get back into building mode. And that’s how the Squeeze origin story started.”

With the goal of creating “a way better massage experience,” Squeeze indeed feels like a breath of fresh air compared to its primary competitive set—entrenched chains like MassageLuxe and Massage Envy. At the same time, it offers a far more affordable experience than massage enthusiasts would find at a luxury spa. 

“On one end of the spectrum, there are discount chains that I always like to say, to their credit, have made massage accessible to the masses and created this category,” says Driscoll. “But they just lack a lot from a consumer-experience standpoint. And on the flip side you have high-end hotels and spas that are really lovely but unattainable for that regular routine experience.”

Enter the cheeky, cheerful, and utterly customer-driven middle ground, with monthly memberships priced at $95 for one 50-minute massage and $125 for one 80-minute massage to à la carte 50-minute and 80-minute massages for $129 and $159, respectively.

From its signature hue—a bright blue Driscoll concedes serves major Tiffany vibes—to its proprietary technology that allows customers to book, customize their treatment, tip, and rate their massage therapists on an app, it’s all about creating what the brand calls “the feel-good revolution.” 

Drawing heavily on the Drybar ethos of affordable luxury, the Squeeze experience is packed with bells and whistles, from an interactive aromatherapy bar and multiple playlists to choose from to a “ready” button that cues massage therapists to enter the room. 

Armed with the customer’s preferences, including the desired pressure and specific areas of the body to address or avoid, therapists can dive in with confidence. “They’re equipped with your expectations,” says Driscoll, “so you’re not having to deal with any awkward conversations or maybe forgetting to mention something you wanted.” 

Once the treatment is complete, you hop off the table, get dressed and scoot off. 

“We like to say that guests walk in and float out,” says Driscoll. “You don’t have to stand in a lengthy checkout line, there’s no awkward tipping exchanges; it’s really trying to make this a truly relaxing, seamless experience. And as avid massage-goers ourselves, we just felt like there had to be a better way to do it.” 

While Drybar was a mix of corporate-owned and franchise locations, Squeeze has been 100% franchise from its inception. Ranging in size from 1,700 to 2,700 square feet and six to 10 treatment rooms, franchises can clock in at between $500,000 and $890,000. 

In other words, it's an investment, albeit one with key members of the original Drybar team, including Architect Josh Heitler and Creative Director Cam Webb, both of whom are Squeeze co-founders, driving the aesthetics. 

“Hindsight being 20/20, there were a lot of things at Drybar we did well, and that we learned from, and we brought those things into Squeeze, from the branding to the really thoughtful shop design,” Driscoll says. “But there were also things that if we could have done differently from the outset, we would have. And franchising was one of them.”

In short, Driscoll believes franchise owners are highly likely to propel themselves toward profitability. “We learned very quickly at Drybar that Operating Partners run their businesses better,” she says bluntly. “They’ve got skin in the game. And because it’s their community, they have higher retention rates for employees and guests and are very passionate about their business.”

The goal, says Driscoll, is not hundreds of individual Operating Partners with one Squeeze each. Rather, she prefers multiunit owners, of which there are currently 35. “That’s really what we’re looking for as we scale this brand,” she says. “We believe in the opportunity to bring Squeeze to multiple markets within a city, and we really want small business owners to own multiples in their community.” 

On the Squeeze website, upcoming territories, which are splashed across the entire country, are clearly tagged “Coming 2024.”

“We will be everywhere,” Driscoll promises. “The ‘feel-good revolution’ is kind of our tagline and what we stand for, and we’re excited to bring that all across the country.”