Los Angeles-based Boulevard launched in 2016 as an online booking platform for salons and spas. Since then, it’s grown into an AI-driven SaaS platform designed to help appointment-based beauty and grooming businesses manage everything from scheduling and client communications to payments and marketing.
That evolution reflects part of a broader shift across the beauty and wellness sector, where data, automation, and personalization are reshaping how professionals run their businesses — and how consumers experience self-care.
To date, Boulevard has raised roughly $188 million in funding, including an $80 million Series D round in July led by JMI Equity, valuing the company at about $800 million.
Co-founder and CEO Matt Danna said at the time the funding would help expand “the enterprise-grade features our customers are asking for” while advancing the AI tools “that will define the future of self-care.”
Danna recently gave American Salon some insights on how technology is reshaping the beauty consumer experience (and vice versa) and what’s steering Boulevard’s latest investment.
AS: How do you see technology reshaping the beauty service consumer experience over the next 5 years?
MD: I can’t possibly overstate how important personalization is and will continue to be. We already see this today. Something as simple as personalizing a text leads to 22% more revenue per appointment, 28% higher completion rates, and 16% higher client retention.
Now think about how much more powerful personalization can become as software continues to get even more predictive. We’re not far from an era of what I call anticipatory service, where systems account for and act on a client’s history and preferences to proactively suggest services and treatments that are highly customized and strategically tailored to the individual.
Already today, 66% of clients say that being remembered by their service provider drives long-term loyalty. That number is going nowhere but up.
The question you should be asking yourself is: Is my platform making the client experience better? Your software has to make every single client interaction feel effortless. Otherwise, you’re detracting from the client experience, and that’s an opportunity tax you do not want to pay.
AS: How is Gen Z (and soon Gen Alpha) influencing the direction of beauty tech?
MD: They’re influencing it in more ways than I think even most salon owners realize.
Young generations are discovering salons and stylists in entirely new ways, on their own terms. Fifty-five percent of Gen Z and 47% of Millennials say that your Instagram or TikTok activity is “very” or “extremely” important in deciding whether to book at your salon. Social networks, online communities, virtual marketplaces — these are the customer acquisition and referral channels of the present and future.
It goes beyond discovery, though. Younger generations want every interaction to feel like it was designed just for them. They want every aspect of the experience to feel curated around their preferences. They expect you to offer what they want without them ever having to ask for it. In fact, 55% of clients today say they expect to be proactively offered add-ons, memberships, or retail options as part of their experience.
All of this is pushing the boundaries of what we mean when we refer to the client experience, and technology has a huge role to play — not just in terms of automating tasks and personalizing experiences, but in ensuring your brand shows up with style at every single touchpoint.
AS: Salon and barbershop owners generally want their software to help them save time and make money. What is the one platform feature every business should be using to accomplish those goals?
MD: This one is simple for me: intelligent scheduling, which we at Boulevard call Precision Scheduling. Every salon and barbershop owner should be treating their calendar as if it’s their Profit and Loss statement, because it is.
Every time you book an appointment, you are in effect managing your revenue. How intelligent your system is and how well it optimizes your daily calendar is what determines if you’re booking a profit or booking a loss.
Your system should be able to learn from data such as historical booking patterns and appointment durations so that it can book appointments in a way that drives the most dollars per hour. And it has to be able to do this in a matter of seconds, because that’s often all you have. Clients aren’t interested in waiting around for you to figure out the best time. Your system has to be able to move at their speed.
AS: Can you think of any digital platform capabilities that are widely used and appreciated by beauty businesses today, but were nonexistent just a few years ago?
It’s wild how far the industry’s come in just a few years. Things that were once considered cutting edge, like online booking, client profiles, integrated payments, and text marketing, are now table stakes.
I remember a time when proactive texting was considered pushy and intrusive. Now it’s not just OK; it’s expected, and expected to happen immediately: 41% of clients expect a same-day follow-up after their appointment, and 44% say they want those to come via text.
We at Boulevard have been obsessed with creating the absolute best online booking experience in the industry, because it’s the digital equivalent of the exterior facade of your storefront.
Online booking is such an important factor for prospective clients who are browsing and doing research for deciding to book. Two-thirds of prospective clients are lost if your booking experience isn’t what it needs to be.
AS: On the flip side, what do you think will be the next must-have digital tool for beauty businesses that’s just now emerging or currently under development?
MD: That’s thinking too small. The future of self-care tech isn’t about any single tool; it’s about evolving technology to match the shifting nature of the salon-client relationship.
For the longest time, salons dictated the terms of engagement — how to interact with the business, when and how to book, what to buy, and the vehicles through which to do it all. But today, that dynamic has flipped.
Clients are in the driver’s seat, which means the next generation of self-care technology has to be about allowing salons to meet clients where they are. It has to be about adapting in real time to their preferences, behaviors, and communication styles.
AS: Boulevard recently secured an $80 million Series D investment. Can we get a sneak peek at what new and/or improved features the company is focusing on bringing to its platform?
MD: Two big priorities, both of which were priorities even before we raised our Series D. The first is all about what we call enterprise without compromise. It’s ridiculous to me that franchises and multi-location brands have to trade elegance, usability, and platform stability for enterprise-grade capabilities.
That should never happen. There’s no reason scale and design can’t co-exist, so we’re doubling down on ensuring that these larger enterprises can get the capabilities they need, along with the design and usability Boulevard is known for.
The other area of focus is on high-quality AI. Our approach to AI is very simple: outcomes and impact are what matter. It has to be about doing something meaningful that delivers value beyond what humans can do on their own.
Many of our team members come straight from salons and spas. They’ve been stylists, educators, front desk staff, coaches, and managers. They understand the challenges firsthand.
AI is an incredibly valuable tool, but it’s not the goal. The goal is and always will be to help our customers deliver flawless, deeply personalized experiences that keep clients coming back.