“You can come and everyone can eat, everybody can drink and our goal was always this.”
—Curt Skallerup
BACKGROUND
• Skallerup, also CEO, created Larks in 2023. It has one location open in Texas. A second is set to open in Kansas City, Missouri.
• Skallerup is the author of “Volume: The Path to Profit.”
Reporter Megan Glenn asks what makes emerging brand leaders tick—and presents their edited answers in this column in each issue. To suggest a subject, email [email protected]
What led to the creation of Larks Entertainment?
We opened our first Altitude Trampoline Park in 2012 and in six years we had 100 open. Then we branched out. We ended up doing internal accounting, real estate and construction. We opened up other concepts similar to Altitude.
When you open a trampoline park, it’s a $3 million investment. You have to have over a million dollars, and even when we did SBA lending and such for people, it was prohibitively expensive. If we met with 100 people, only two could maybe afford to franchise with us.
While I was with Altitude, I was reaching out to things that weren’t as expensive. While I was doing that, we ended up selling to private equity. Then COVID happened. So here I am during COVID, writing a book and leaning into the idea of how do we make something multipurpose and optional. We called it modular franchising, and then we created Larks.
How is it different from other entertainment concepts?
Basically, Larks is a package. Some type of food, there can be liquor and an arcade of some sort. Those three things would be in every one of them. And then you’d have the option of adding other packages with shuffleboard, mini golf, obstacle courses and gel blasters, which is basically Nerf on steroids. You can literally go to us depending on your pleasure. If you’re not a big shuffleboard guy, you can go play mini golf.
Since it’s modular, people get to design their own business. With all of our experience, we developed a manual, operations and training. So, when people come to us, we have everything they need to get started. We’re basically a one-stop shop. You can build a 10,000-square-foot Larks in Minot, North Dakota, or a 50,000-square-foot one in Madison, Wisconsin. We generally give you a plan of how you can get into your own business.
A lot of franchisees, their eyes are too big for their stomach. We’ve got a formula to not put them in deep debt. If they want just a café with shuffleboard, we can do that. They can also choose what activities they offer, and we’re looking for more to add in.
Why start another brand at all? Why not just retire?
I never intended on selling Altitude. Once it became sexy enough for private equity to be interested, we sold it.
Simply put, I wasn’t ready to put up my cleats. I just wanted to do something else. I did a lot of speaking and different things at different venues, and I had the opportunity to revolutionize some of the franchise stuff that’s never been there. If you want a small franchise, you go to an accounting firm. You want a big franchise, you go to McDonald’s.
We wanted something everyone could do. You don’t need to cater to pro football players, you don’t need to be part of the cool kids. Everybody can play shuffleboard. Everybody can play mini golf.
We’re also not here to break the bank. We don’t have tokens; you don’t need to be a diamond member to get in. We really do want people to come in and enjoy themselves. I’d rather go into the smaller tertiary markets and grow from there. There are a lot of people looking to own their own business there, in my opinion. I would rather make 10 percent of $100 million than 50 percent of a million.