Hawaii Fluid Art Franchising

The vendor opportunity at Hawaii Fluid Art

Hawaii Fluid Art Franchising operates a small but growing system of 24 total units, 21 of which are franchised and 3 company-owned, according to its 2024 Franchise Disclosure Document. The brand sits in the personal services segment and is headquartered in Texas. For software vendors, the immediate addressable market is limited to those 24 locations, all governed by a centralized technology mandate. There is no disclosed year-over-year unit growth rate in the FDD, and no average unit volume is reported. The royalty rate is 8.0% of gross sales, and the initial franchise term runs 10 years.

Because the system is small and tightly controlled from HQ, any software sale must go through the franchisor. There is no multi-unit operator footprint mapped in our corpus, meaning all franchisees likely report directly to the franchisor without an intermediate owner layer that might make independent technology decisions. This structure simplifies the sales path but also means a single “no” from HQ closes the entire system.

Who controls software purchasing

The 2024 FDD lists two executives in Item 1: Maya Ratcliff, Founder & CEO, and Trinity Kirk, Director of Franchise Expansion. In a system of this size, the CEO is almost certainly the final authority on technology procurement, with the Director of Franchise Expansion likely handling operational evaluation and vendor screening. There is no separate CIO, CTO, or VP of Technology named in the disclosure. Vendors should expect a lean decision-making unit where the founder’s vision directly shapes the tech stack.

Because the franchisor mandates specific technology systems, the purchasing process is not delegated to individual franchisees. Any software that touches point-of-sale, business management, or operational workflows must be approved—and likely selected—by HQ. This makes Hawaii Fluid Art a classic centralized-sales target: one conversation, one decision, 24 units.

Mandated and current tech stack

The FDD is explicit about the operational technology stack. The franchisor mandates a “Business Management and Technology System,” and that system is Clover by Fiserv, Inc., running on Clover devices supplied by Clover Network, LLC. This means the POS, payment processing, and likely core business management functions are locked into the Clover ecosystem.

For software vendors, this creates both a barrier and an opportunity. The barrier is that displacing Clover as the mandated POS is a heavy lift requiring a compelling replacement across payments, hardware, and software. The opportunity lies in adjacent tools that integrate with Clover—such as scheduling, marketing automation, inventory, or analytics—that the franchisor might approve as add-ons without disturbing the core mandate. Any pitch should acknowledge the Clover investment and position your product as a complement, not a replacement, unless you are explicitly selling a full-stack alternative.

Procurement, renewals, and timing

The FDD does not include an Item 8 extract, so the formal procurement model—whether designated supplier, approved supplier, or open—is not publicly disclosed. In practice, the technology mandate functions as a de facto designated-supplier arrangement for POS and business management. For other software categories, vendors should assume HQ approval is required and that no purchasing happens at the unit level without it.

Renewal timing offers a potential entry point. The franchise agreement has a 10-year initial term, and Item 17 outlines renewal conditions: franchisees must notify the franchisor of intent to renew between 6 and 12 months before expiration, sign the then-current franchise agreement, refurbish the studio to current specifications, execute a general release, complete updated training, secure landlord rights, and pay a successor fee. The renewal process is a natural moment when technology requirements may be updated, and vendors who are already on the franchisor’s radar could be written into the updated agreement or recommended as part of the refurbishment and retraining process.

Because the system is only 24 units today, the absolute number of renewals in any given year is small. Vendors should track when the earliest franchises were sold to anticipate the first wave of 10-year renewals and align outreach accordingly.

How to read the Hawaii Fluid Art FDD

The 2024 Hawaii Fluid Art Franchise Disclosure Document is the definitive source for understanding the franchisor’s obligations, franchisee requirements, and technology mandates. Key sections for software vendors include Item 1 (executives and ownership), Item 11 (franchisor’s assistance, including mandated technology), Item 8 (procurement restrictions, though not extracted here), and Item 17 (renewal and transfer conditions). The FDD is filed with state franchise regulators and is available in the embedded viewer below. Reading the full document gives you the exact language around technology requirements, approval rights, and the franchisor’s reserved powers—language you can reference directly in your pitch to show you have done your homework.

For a ranked target list of franchise systems that match your software category, reach out to FranCloud and we will help you prioritize based on technology mandates, decision-maker structure, and unit growth signals.