Anti-Aging Now Comes on an Installment Plan

Inflation, layoffs and hybrid work got you down? It might be your serotonin levels.

Amid the flood of retail health and wellness clinics that have come to market during the pandemic era, there’s an entrepreneurial effort afoot to address this hormonal imbalance.

The brainchild (no pun intended) of RetroFitness founder Eric Casaburi, Serotonin Centers was launched because, as its website says, Casaburi noticed that “accomplished health and fitness enthusiasts, along with non-exercisers alike, were actually fighting an uphill battle against their own aging process. No longer enjoying the results they were used to seeing, these people were experiencing steady declines in their appearance, performance and overall health.”

Casaburi isolated the culprit as low serotonin levels, a known problem for which an entire school of psychopharmacology was invented — selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) — now benefitting tens of millions of Americans who suffer from the effects of low serotonin.

For millions more who can’t or won’t take SSRIs, there are now Serotonin Centers.

It’s also a business opportunity, as the company is actively franchising to bring its upscale wellness clinic model to more Americans.

In a Thursday (May 25) press release, the company announced its latest franchise — Springfield, Missouri — where local entrepreneurs Travis and Rhonda Little plan to open the first of five Serotonin Centers in January 2024.

“While we’ve been fortunate enough to avoid any serious health concerns during our life, we’re not blind to the ways in which traditional healthcare is lagging behind the times,” Travis Little said in the release. “More than ever, communities want access to health solutions that do more than just keep them alive. They want solutions that can help them thrive and enjoy the full extent of their time on this earth. And that’s what Serotonin Centers is uniquely poised to do.”

A Feel-Good Business Model

There are 58 new franchise locations under development, as Serotonin Centers taps into an anti-aging market that it valued in the release at $67.2 billion for 2022, “with expectations for the market to grow to $98.6 billion by 2028.”

The company has a four-tiered member program, and one of its packages comes with “telehealth sessions, with a guaranteed 24-hour response for non-emergency health inquiries” and “personalized health and nutrition coaching application, offering robust content and on-demand workouts.” Prices aren’t listed.

Serotonin Centers promotes installment payments FinTech Cherry, a care now, pay later provider specializing in healthcare financing and with expertise in “medical aesthetics,” which spans injectables to Coolsculpting.

So, that’s subscription plans, check; installment payments, check; and an anti-aging brand that brings together “the expertise of both medical practitioners and health coaches in a concierge eco-system under one roof to slow down the human biological clock and extend the prime years of looking and feeling your best.”

Those interested in owning a Serotonin Centers franchise and slowing people’s biological clocks need only have a net worth of $1.3 million and be liquid to $300,000, per the website, and be ready to make an initial investment between $527,000 and $1.2 million. If that pricing doesn’t affect your mood — and perhaps even if it does — this could be worth looking into.