Vagaro empowers beauty and wellness professionals to excel in a digital age.
Vagaro App Providing Software for Salon Business Operations Turns Fifteen
Vagaro is a leading software designed for spas, salons, and fitness centers to streamline their business operations. It also serves as an online marketplace where consumers go to find and book services in these industries. Founder & CEO Fred Helou created the Vagaro platform in 2009 after realizing a need for a convenient, online hair appointment system where clients could book with their stylist at any time, regardless of their location or time zone. This came after Helou personally needed to schedule a haircut with his California barber while overseas on a business trip in South Korea, but was unable to due to vast time zone differences and – at the time – long distance call fees.
Vagaro simplifies appointment scheduling, facilitates effective marketing, offers online payment and credit card processing, provides detailed reports for businesses to track their financial performance, and so much more. Vagaro takes care of the tedious administrative work so service professionals can prioritize their clients and their beauty and wellness needs.
Besides being the first booking app of its kind available for the industry, what continues to set Vagaro apart is its adaptability. Businesses of all sizes, from the solopreneur to the multi-location enterprise, can customize it to suit their needs thanks to their robust suite of a-la-carte features. It’s a flexible tool that any business can tailor to fit their unique requirements.
Today, Vagaro continuously improves its platform with new and innovative features; many of which spawn from direct feedback from the valued community of users themselves. In a tech-driven world, Vagaro allows beauty, wellness, and fitness pros to get back to focusing on the human side of what they love, by automating essential business support for every step.
Immigrant Entrepreneur Builds Successful Unicorn Company
Vagaro reached a $1 billion valuation after investment by FTV Capital. The unicorn company’s very humble beginnings meant this ascent was anything but guaranteed. Founder and CEO Fred Helou is an immigrant entrepreneur from Beirut, Lebanon. He left the country during the Lebanese civil war at the age of nineteen in hopes of making a better life for himself in America.
Helou had just a few thousand dollars to set off and start his new life, but he was pickpocketed for everything he had during an airport layover on his way to the U.S. He arrived in America with $0 and began working as a delivery/pickup boy for just $5 an hour. Helou tirelessly worked his way up the ranks while also attending school full-time. Years later, he landed a job as software director at Novellus but was subsequently laid off during The Great Recession.
Turning adversity into opportunity, Helou decided to put the wheels in motion for the Vagaro. At the time, there was no app or online option to do so. In 2009, he created Vagaro from the ground up, which later bloomed into the successful start-up it is today.
Helou hasn’t lost sight of the importance of the personal connections with users that he fostered during the company’s infancy. “I was 24/7 support. I’d answer the phone at 2 A.M. for somebody asking me how to upload a photo. I still have a lot of customers that call me that signed up with me from day one. They still have my cell phone number.” Helou says, “We’re still learning as we go. I feel like we’re barely scratching the surface, I feel like this is just the beginning.”
Vagaro continues to grow at the forefront of innovation and recently expanded full services for international customers in several countries.
About Vagaro
Vagaro is the leading salon, spa, and fitness software, serving hundreds of thousands of professionals worldwide. Vagaro simplifies business management, credit card and payment processing, and makes it easy for businesses to grow their clientele on a modern consumer marketplace. Vagaro’s a-la-carte options and affordable pricing provide a unique level of scalability, making it suitable for businesses of all sizes, from the solopreneur to enterprise franchises. Simple, innovative, and reliable, Vagaro empowers beauty and wellness professionals to excel in a digital age.
Visit Vagaro to learn more.
Beauty Hub Magazine chats with Vagaro Founder Fred Helou.
