The Bunny Hive co-founders Brittany Schmid, left, and Katy Doar started the brand to give kids and their grown-ups the chance to socialize in an adult-friendly environment.
Brittany Schmid and Katy Doar co-founded The Bunny Hive to create a means of socializing with other guardians and their kids. “We’re really focused on the community piece,” said Schmid, CEO of the brand. “We really pride ourselves on focusing on the grown-up experience; it’s top of mind, whereas some other concepts really just focus on the little ones.”
The Bunny Hive is a bunny-themed social club “for little ones and their grown-ups,” Schmid said. The brand hosts children from infant to kindergarten and “grown-ups” can encompass relatives, parents, nannies and more. The franchise tries to keep classes evenly focused on both parties. “There’s a very large emphasis on the bonding piece,” said Doar, president. “It’s a place you come to bond with your little one and those around you, other grown-ups within the community.”
The Bunny Hive has a membership model, similar to a boutique fitness studio, Schmid said, and offers class packages. The five-unit brand has several different class offerings, with options such as ballet, art, sensory and music. The Bunny Hive offers private event rentals as well. Children also have the option to explore culinary, kindergarten prep and exploratory play classes.
Schmid, with a background in marketing, has experience in roles at business schools such as Harvard and the University of Virginia. “I think being in a business school setting, even though I wasn’t a student … it just really put me in that entrepreneurial world,” she said.
The “grown-ups” emphasis—rather than just parents—is an important part of The Bunny Hive’s effort to be inclusive. “We want to educate little ones from an early age that not all families look the same,” Doar said.
Doar worked in the early education space and writes the curriculum for The Bunny Hive. After each had her first child, they noticed the loneliness that can come along with being a parent.
Ashley Murphy
The pair’s shared mission comes from that experience, Schmid said. “Once I became a mom myself, I just really saw the gap in the market in terms of a space where you could really spend time with your kids and in an environment that felt really catered to me as the adult,” she said.
The total investment required to open a Bunny Hive franchise ranges from $145,000 to $235,000. Its royalty fee is 7 percent. Franchisees are required to spend the first six months of ownership as a studio director to learn the ins and outs of the business. After that, if they choose, they can hire someone else for the role.
The Bunny Hive is concentrated in the southeastern United States, with most of its open units in Georgia and others set to open this spring in the Carolinas, Virginia and Florida. Many of the company’s franchisees are parents who’ve decided to change careers.
“I think when they have little ones, they’re really evaluating their career and saying, ‘Am I really passionate about this?’” Schmid said.
The brand has a quality over quantity approach for franchisees, accepting about a third of applicants. Franchisees should have some relevant experience, Schmid said. Personality is a big factor as well, she said, so ensuring the applicant would be a good representative of The Bunny Hive is essential.
Ashley Murphy, a franchisee in Smyrna, Georgia, wanted to create a sense of community in her area. A mom of two, she wanted to meet other caregivers who could relate to her experiences. “I thought it would be a really exciting thing to explore, but also a bit intimidating,” Murphy said. Finding The Bunny Hive took away some of that intimidation with the team’s support.
She has one unit, which opened in early 2024. Murphy isn’t signed on for additional units, but hopes to grow within the system. “I can honestly say they’re going a lot better than expected,” she said. “We’ve had such an incredible success from our community. … We have so much foot traffic, so much interest from the community.”
Murphy is in her studio every day, but has enough employees that she doesn’t need to be. “I want to meet our community. I want to make sure that the studio is relevant in a way that I feel really confident and proud of,” she said. “Right now, it feels important to me to be really embedded in our community and in our business in the early days.”