Think of it like the Whitewater Center for dogs in the middle of South End. That was Meggie Williams’ pitch to Axios in August 2020, and it is still the fastest way to explain Skiptown to someone who has not been.
The facility on Rampart Street is 24,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor turfed dog park, a bar for the humans with 25 taps and a dog friendly beer of its own, daycare, boarding, grooming and dog walking, all run through an app. It opened on August 24, 2020, five months into a pandemic, and had thousands of members within its first five months.
It started as an app
Williams founded the company in 2016 as The Waggle Company and relaunched it as Skipper in 2018, a dog walking service booked and monitored through a phone, according to WRAL TechWire. The startup went through a Techstars accelerator and opened daycare facilities inside Charlotte apartment complexes as it grew.
Then the pandemic sent everyone home, and demand for dog walking collapsed. Williams told Axios the business hit pushed her to pour everything into a bigger idea she had been planning: a single destination for everything a dog owner might want, including a place to have a drink. The Skipper brand was absorbed into Skiptown when the South End facility opened.
The details reflected someone who had thought hard about the customer. Barking spots, dedicated places to park a dog while its owner used the restroom. Skippers, staff who monitor dogs at play. Playgroups matched by personality. Multiple daily visit reports sent to the phone. Founding members got their dogs painted on a mural by local artist Sydney Duarte.
The people behind it
Williams was the founder and CEO through the company’s growth, and in January 2021, with the Charlotte site five months old, she announced expansion to Dallas, Atlanta and Nashville, backed by Techstars Ventures, Bull Creek Capital and Firebrand Ventures. Dogs are family, she said, and with people working from home more of them than ever were adding one.
The company raised more than $27 million in a later round that brought in Focus Impact Partners and Meaningful Partners, and added Steve King, the former chairman and chief executive of Dave & Buster’s, to its board, according to WRAL TechWire. Skiptown now has locations in Charlotte, Denver and Atlanta, and Mike Rotondo is the chief executive.
In 2025 the company began franchising. Its first franchise agreement, announced in January 2026, was a multi unit deal in Charlotte itself, and in August the first franchisee group, Tkatch and Fender, two engineers who met through work and bonded over their dogs, signed a lease in Pineville. A Denver franchisee who had been a loyal member signed for five locations, and the company reported more than 8,000 active memberships and its strongest month ever in June 2026.
What you actually get
The app runs everything: booking a walk, overnight boarding, daycare drop off, even ordering a drink. Entry to the park and bar is free for a human without a dog, and monthly adoption days mean that may not last. The Clean Pup Plan and a rebuilt VIP membership bundle daycare, boarding, grooming and social access into one fee.
Petfolk, the Charlotte veterinary startup, runs mobile wellness clinics at the site, which puts a vet visit and a beer in the same building. The bar serves the humans. The dog beer, on tap, is for the customers who came for the park.
The Pineville franchise, signed in August 2026, is the first test of whether the model travels. The franchisees, Tkatch and Fender, came from welding engineering and civil engineering respectively, met through work and discovered a shared devotion to their dogs and to Skiptown as members. Tkatch said bringing the brand to more of Charlotte was about creating a place where dogs are genuinely cared for and their parents feel just as welcomed, and the pair have said they plan to keep growing in the region.
The company has also built a charitable habit. Its Paws Up for Pride photo program donated all net proceeds to youth organizations in Charlotte, Denver and Atlanta in 2026, and monthly adoption days at the South End park have placed dogs since the first year. The corporate office remains at 222 Rampart Street, the same address as the original park, which is worth noting for anyone using an older listing.
Why it matters
Charlotte has a high share of dog owners in apartments with no yards, and Skiptown was built for exactly that person. What made it more than a good idea was timing: a founder who had watched her first business shrink in a pandemic and decided the answer was to build something bigger, in the same year, in the same neighborhood.
The Whitewater Center for dogs is now a franchise with a board and a national plan. The mural of the founding members’ dogs is still on the wall in South End.