Our firm Integrity Square is a leading advisory firm focused on M&A in North America. Here are the current trends and Top 5 list from our perspective:

1. CAPITAL: The recent IHRSA (now HFA) trade show in Los Angeles was well attended with a lot of entrepreneurial enthusiasm. A key underlying fact was that there was more PRIVATE EQUITY FIRMS snooping around for investment opportunities than ever before which is a forward indicator that institutional capital is keen to invest billions in our HALO sector. (Health, Active Lifestyle, Outdoors.)
   
   
2. WEIGHT LOSS: There is consensus that the proliferation of weight loss drug usage in the U.S. will be a net BENEFIT to the health club and studio operators as patients on these GLP-1 drugs must exercise or their muscles will deteriorate quickly.
   
   
3. ANCILLARY REVENUE: There is a $150 billion windfall of Health Savings Accounts that are now able to be used for memberships as the IRS has modified their definitions of use and a “Letter of Medical Necessity” can be granted to members with widespread acceptance and services in the HALO sector qualify for pre-tax dollar usage.
   
   
4. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: We are encouraging operators to go deep on member surveys to fill in as much info on their members as possible in order to have a more robust database that can then be powered by AI tools. We are firm believers that, “You cannot have Artificial Intelligence until you have Intelligence.”
   
   
5. IRRATIONAL GROWTH: Our ONE concern on the HALO sector is that there are several franchisors who are selling franchisees on concepts that are NOT good AUV business models. A franchisee should be able to generate $60,000 per month in top-line revenue to be an attractive franchisee for an owner/operator. Littering the market with under-performing business models is a black eye on our industry and we hope prospective franchisees DO NOT sign up for these poor franchising opportunities.

The future is bright for those with strong unit economics. Optimize your playbook and you will WIN.

About Pete Moore

Pete is the Founder, Managing Partner and Chief Dream Architect at Integrity Square (“ISQ”), a leading boutique financial advisory firm focused on the $4.7T Health, Active Lifestyle, Outdoor (“HALO”) sector. 

Since founding ISQ in 2010, the firm has played an active advisory role in 100+ mergers & acquisitions, private placements and advisory assignments across North America. Pete Moore and his team have also invested in passionate entrepreneurs at HigherDOSE, XTEND, and Promotion Vault. ISQ’s media and “live education” properties include HALO Talks, the leading B2B podcast in the sector, as well as HALO Academy, an Executive Education Bootcamp Series.

Prior to ISQ, Pete was Head of the Active Lifestyle & Wellness Group at Sagent Advisors (2003-2010.) Prior to 2003, Pete was co-founder of FitnessInsite, a SasS sales management platform with 1500+ clients (based in AZ.) At FitnessInsite, Pete invested his personal capital, leveraged his credit cards and learned what it takes to manage a startup. 

Pete built his business and financial acumen on top of the foundation laid at three critical positions early in his career: Senior Associate at Brockway Moran & Partners, the private equity owner of Gold’s Gym International, Inc;  worked as an Associate at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette; and an Analyst at Chase Securities. (Now JP Morgan.) ISQ saw a need for a deeper & more useful level of education in the HALO sector. In response, we launched the HALO Talks podcast, with 250+ completed interviews and over 50,000 downloads. HALO Talks has become a “must listen” for anyone working or investing in the sector. 

Pete graduated from Emory University (BBA, 1994) and received his MBA from Harvard Business School (1999.) While at HBS, he co-founded IRON PLANET, the leading B2B auction site for used heavy equipment, which was sold to Ritchie Bros for $758 million. His hobbies include: Football, basketball, tennis, podcasting, amateur ventriloquism, pro bono DJ and fitness enthusiast. Notable Stats: Wingspan 76”, 33 yard dash at 4.3 seconds.