What It Takes to Build Denmark’s Most Loved Salon Brand

Update: 2025-08-12

Description

Tommy Nielsen didn’t set out to run a salon empire. With a finance and consulting background, the beauty industry wasn’t on his radar until an unexpected partnership led him to Rodeo, a bold new salon concept in Denmark.

Under Tommy’s leadership, Rodeo has expanded to 11 locations, attracted over 20,000 members, and redefined what a salon experience can be. In this episode of Growth Diaries, host Sudheer Koneru sits down with Tommy to explore how approaching the salon business like an entrepreneur, not a hairdresser, changed everything, from building an in-house academy and training stylists from day one to creating a membership experience that keeps 95% of clients coming back.

What You’ll Learn:

How Rodeo turned a simple loyalty card into a membership program with a 95% adoption rate
Why making salon data transparent to staff became a game-changer for culture and performance
How creating an in-house training academy solved the stylist shortage and built loyalty from day one
The role of “The Big Five,” Rodeo’s secret framework for unforgettable client service
Why efficiency matters more than endless expansion when scaling service brands
How being an industry outsider can help you see opportunities insiders miss

Tommy Nielsen is the CEO and Partner at Rodeo, one of Denmark’s fastest-growing salon brands. With no hairdressing background, Tommy brought an auditor’s precision and an entrepreneur’s mindset to Rodeo, helping turn it from a scrappy startup into a respected brand with 11 salons, 100+ employees, and one of the most successful salon membership programs in the world.

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