STUDIO NOIR

Private · Master Plan · v1.0
STUDIO NOIRSTRATEGIC THESIS

STUDIO NOIR · Strategic Thesis

Why this business. Why now. Why boutique-first is the right way to build it.

Written in plain English.

The three shifts we’re riding

Three long-term shifts in the market open the door for STUDIO NOIR:

  1. Luxury wellness is a category being invented right now. The Aman hotel group opened Aman New York with a private wellness club. The Peninsula opened Peninsula Wellness Club. Equinox opened Equinox Hotels. Remedy Place opened in LA and NYC. The pattern is clear: hotel-grade hospitality applied to a physical training practice. This category barely exists in the American South.

  2. Pole is not what it was 15 years ago. Pole moved from adult entertainment to fitness studio to elite athletic discipline. It is now a real sport with international governing bodies (FISAF, IPSF, POSA). Cirque du Soleil recruits from it. Major music artists tour with pole aerialists. Nobody has built a broadcast-quality competition IP around it. That is a moat waiting for an owner.

  3. Corporate wellness spend became fiduciary, not perk. Post-2020, C-suite retention and executive wellness are line items with real budgets. The RTP tech and finance corridor (Cisco, IBM, Epic Games, Red Hat, Fidelity Cary, MetLife) all have wellness budgets looking for a venue that reflects their brand. This becomes real for us in Phase 2, but the relationships start in Phase 1.

What STUDIO NOIR is (and is not)

Is: - A luxury hospitality brand with training as the practice - A physical anchor (the studio, later the flagship) for a national IP - A wealth vehicle for Taj

Is not: - A gym - A pole studio (that word undersells it; we do pole plus movement, at hotel standard) - A boutique fitness studio (Barry’s, Solidcore, Orangetheory are boutique fitness; we are hospitality-first) - A hotel spa - A women’s-only fitness club

The category-of-one lives at the intersection: hospitality + athletic discipline + (eventually) broadcast IP. No competitor in the Triangle or the South sits at that intersection today.

Why we start boutique instead of going straight to flagship

The first version of this plan called for a $6 to $8 million flagship in Charlotte. That is a real business but it needs one of three things: - $2 to $3 million of founder equity Taj does not have - Sophisticated outside investors who trust the model without seeing it work first - A national franchise brand parent (not us, we are the parent)

None of those exist for us right now. What we have is $85,000 and a founder with real brand gravity, plus Trill and Tia.

$85,000 opens one lean boutique studio. That is enough to prove: - The Triangle will pay $200 to $350 per month for a luxury pole and movement experience - Taj can command a member base (waitlist fills, retention holds) - The hospitality standard holds at boutique scale (which is harder than at flagship scale because we have fewer amenities to hide behind) - The unit economics work

With 12 months of real numbers proving those things, Phase 2 capital is a very different conversation. Lenders and investors fund revenue and retention, not slides. That is the whole reason we phase it.

Why RDU

The Triangle (Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill): - Real, concentrated wealth density (RTP tech and finance corridor: Cisco, IBM, Epic Games, Red Hat, Fidelity Cary, MetLife, plus biotech at RTP) - 119,000 households in Wake County earn $200K+; West Cary (27519) has 38.9% of households above $200K - Duke and NC State athletics, Carolina Hurricanes (NHL), RTP-adjacent film and biotech - Raleigh-Durham International (RDU) growing global hub (talent and press fly in easily; matters more Phase 2) - Raleigh retail vacancy at 2.3%, one of the tightest in the country - Founder lives in Raleigh; running the launch from her home city is a real operational edge

Charlotte becomes a candidate for a Phase 3 franchise unit.

Full analysis in 04_MARKET_SELECTION_RDU and 07_MARKET_BRIEF_RDU.

Why now

  • North Hills and Fenton (Cary) are in the sweet spot for a boutique lease right now: wellness is preferred tenant category, 6-12 months free rent common, $40-$80/sqft TI available, and 7-10 yr terms standard.
  • The luxury wellness club category is validated on the coasts but the South is 18 to 24 months behind. That is our window.
  • Taj is done with SoftPlay Era and ready to move. Every month of delay is a month of not compounding.

Why Taj

  • Real athletic discipline (pole, dance, movement history)
  • Founder track record: SoftPlay Era proved she can build brand and get customers
  • Reads on camera and in person; magazine covers happen for her without agencies pushing
  • Widow, mother, moved to NC with intent. Story with gravity.
  • Capital to seed Phase 1 without draining reserves ($85K committed, more untouched)
  • Trill as strategic partner: brand, production, network

She is not the operator. She is the founder. The entire plan is designed to keep her out of ops.

Why Trill and The Walker Group

  • Music direction and playback for global tours (Beyoncé, MJB, Teyana, Kelly, Khalid, 50 Cent, GloRilla, Doechii, Future)
  • TWG has production infrastructure no gym or pole studio has access to
  • The competition IP (THE NOIR INVITATIONAL) is unbuildable without production credibility at TWG’s level; that becomes the flywheel in Phase 2
  • Sponsor pipeline through TWG’s existing relationships (athletic apparel, energy, banking, automotive) for when the competition activates

The flywheel (from Phase 2 forward)

Phase 1 Boutique
    proves
Model works + Taj commands audience
    justifies capital for
Phase 2 Flagship
    powers
THE NOIR INVITATIONAL (TWG-produced)
    builds
National IP + streaming + sponsor economics
    drives demand for
Digital + apparel + corporate wellness
    scales without
More real estate
    enables
Phase 3 Franchise system
    generates
Royalty stream + strategic exit optionality

Each layer protects the ones below it. The flywheel does not depend on any single revenue source.

What Phase 1 alone is worth

If Phase 1 works and we never build Phase 2, this looks like:

  • 60 to 80 members, $15K to $25K per month gross revenue
  • $8K to $15K per month clean cash to Taj after all costs
  • That’s $96K to $180K per year in her pocket
  • Business could sell for 2x to 3x seller’s discretionary earnings = $200K to $500K enterprise value

That alone is a real outcome. Not the wealth-transforming outcome, but a real outcome.

What Phase 2 changes

If Phase 1 works and we build Phase 2:

  • 400 to 600 members at blended $475 per month = $190K to $285K per month membership revenue
  • Plus classes, PT, café, retail, corporate wellness = another $75K to $150K per month
  • Annual revenue: $3.2M to $5.2M
  • EBITDA (profit before interest, taxes, depreciation): $700K to $1.5M annually
  • Founder distribution capacity: $250K to $500K per year sustained
  • Business worth 6x to 10x EBITDA = $4M to $15M enterprise value
  • Plus THE NOIR INVITATIONAL streaming and sponsor revenue starting Year 2 of Phase 2

What Phase 3 changes

If Phase 2 works and we franchise:

  • Raleigh flagship continues to operate as corporate flagship
  • 5 to 8 franchised units live by Year 5 of Phase 3 (Charlotte a candidate Y1 franchise market)
  • Royalty stream (typically 6 to 8% of franchisee revenue) flows to STUDIO NOIR IP LLC
  • Combined enterprise value: $30M+ realistic, $75M+ possible
  • Strategic exit conversations become real (private equity roll-up buyers, or hospitality group acquirers)

Or we don’t sell and keep compounding.

The unfair advantages

  1. Trill’s production infrastructure. No competitor has this. The competition IP is not replicable.
  2. Taj as face. Founder-led hospitality brands outperform faceless ones. She has the story and the gravity.
  3. Taj’s audience. Deep influencer network. Drives organic waitlist and grand-open buzz without paid customer acquisition cost. Warm launch, not cold.
  4. Trill’s dance world network. Founding instructor roster, later the Y1 competition talent (choreographers and dancers from major tours), and later inbound franchisee interest from celebrity ownership groups.
  5. Tia Dunn as Marketing Director, cross-brand from Nomad Society. In-house creative. No agency retainer needed.
  6. Category-of-one positioning. No direct competitor. Adjacent competitors (Equinox, Life Time, Barry’s) each miss one leg of the triangle.
  7. The Triangle’s underserved luxury lane. First mover in a market that has crossed the wealth threshold with no direct competitor at the intersection of luxury hospitality plus pole plus private-club membership.
  8. Franchise-ready IP structure. STUDIO NOIR IP LLC holds trademarks from Day 1. When Phase 3 arrives, no restructure required.

What we are not betting on

  • We are not betting on discovering a new fitness modality.
  • We are not betting on beating Equinox at scale.
  • We are not betting on franchising in Year 1 or Year 2.
  • We are not betting on Taj becoming an operator.
  • We are not betting on Phase 2 or Phase 3 working before Phase 1 proves out.

We are betting on: luxury hospitality plus pole plus a founder with brand gravity plus a production partner with category-defining capability, sequenced correctly, in a market that is ready.

That is the whole thesis.