Evaluating only SalonRunner’s profile at its peak — without knowing the outcome — the model ranked Competition as the #1 likely cause. That’s exactly how it died.
Key Events Timeline
FOUNDING
Mark Torres founded SalonRunner in Austin targeting independent salon owners with scheduling and POS software.
FUNDING
Raised $4.5M from angel syndicate, reaching 2,200 salon clients across 35 US states.
PIVOT
Annual churn hit 60% as Square Appointments launched free tier; pivoted to enterprise chains but lacked features.
SHUTDOWN
SalonRunner filed for bankruptcy in August 2019 after exhausting $4.5M in funding with negative MRR growth.
Full Analysis
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Documented cause
SalonRunner raised $4.5M from angel investors to build scheduling and POS software for independent hair salons. By 2017, the company had 2,200 salon clients but faced brutal competition from Vagaro, Mindbody, and Square Appointments, all offering free or near-free scheduling tiers. SalonRunner's $89/month subscription seemed steep to salon owners earning under $200K annually. Churn hit 60% in 2018. CEO Mark Torres attempted a pivot to enterprise salon chains in Q1 2019 but ran out of runway by August 2019.
Lesson
“Never price vertical SaaS above 0.5% of average customer revenue without clear differentiation.”
Failure anatomy
Collapse type
Bankruptcy
📉 MEDIUM
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