I see three classes of operators in the space. A) Mum and Dad small business owners who are making enough to survive and enjoy the work, but aren't making enough to expand. B) Get rich quick operators who think it's a booming market with low starting costs, and mostly buy franchises or designs from other groups. C) Empire builders who try to franchise or sell their designs to others (mostly people in B.)

The groups in A are all friendly and collegiate. The groups in B are less so. We see group A continuing happily, but not really growing or turning significant profits - one of my friends in this group described it as "I bought myself a fun job".

We've seen a fair few groups in B fold. As the article suggests, you can't start with a mere $7000 now - customer expectations are higher, and there are enough review sites (e.g. TripAdvisor) that anyone with a low quality game will be called out pretty quickly.

Groups in C (include Nate Martin from the article) all seem to be doing well, but it's a hard slog to get sufficiently well known to become a primary supplier to others. My company is kind of in C, but we partnered early with a key chain in our geography and there's both good and bad to that choice. Not personally operating our rooms certainly has some drawbacks, but being able to build multiple copies of a room simultaneously has enormous cost savings too.