Kayla Seely has spent nearly 2 decades on both sides of franchising, and it shows in what she has built. As Chief Operating Officer of Red Barn Dog Holdings, she oversees the largest franchisee group in the Dogtopia system, a 36-location portfolio spread across 10 East Coast states that generates roughly $35 million in annual revenue.
Her route there ran through wellness. Seely started in operations at a Massage Envy franchisee, where the owner drilled into her how much detail goes into supporting employees and creating experiences customers remember. She then crossed to the franchisor side as a regional business manager at Miracle-Ear, learning why consistency, brand integrity and operating standards matter. After 3 and a half years there, she missed the entrepreneurial side of the business, and in 2019 she formed Red Barn Holdings and became a Dogtopia franchisee.
The growth plan was deliberate. Rather than relying only on new construction, Seely bought existing Dogtopia units and converted independent operators, so stable locations could carry the portfolio while new stores were built. Construction slowed during the pandemic, but she still reached 20 locations by the end of 2021, and her stores stayed open on modified schedules to serve essential workers and their pets. Demand climbed in the years that followed as pet ownership rose and people returned to offices and travel. To date, she has acquired 21 stores and built 15 more, and she describes the early years as fast and furious.
What holds the portfolio together, in her telling, is a bench built from within. Seely promotes almost exclusively from inside the company, letting managers lead multiple locations and moving people from general manager to area manager to district manager. Keeping that bench deep is also her biggest challenge, since growth can outpace readiness. New leaders spend 4 to 6 weeks in daycare operations learning canine behavior and daily execution, and the company hires with the Predictive Index to check behavioral fit. With plans to add 3 to 5 locations a year, her team has already earned top sales in the Dogtopia network for 3 years running.
Technology supports that day-to-day execution, from activity-tracking collars that monitor how engaged each dog is, to digital whiteboards in every playroom and a mobile app that lets pet parents alert staff when they are on the way for curbside drop-off. Still, tools only help when every new manager learns the same standards, and a portfolio that promotes from within depends on training that stays consistent from one promotion to the next. Gorilla Dash offers a Knowledge Base feature designed to keep onboarding materials and operating procedures organized in one place, helping multi-unit operators bring newly promoted leaders up to speed without relying on word of mouth.