Kennel Connection refers clients considering a sale to Cantara Pet Advisors

Most boarding and daycare owners sell once. Buyers do it for a living, and that imbalance is where sellers lose money.

Kennel Connection, the facility management software provider that powers over 5,500 pet care locations nationwide, announced a strategic partnership with Cantara Pet Advisors, a boutique advisory firm that preps pet care facility owners for sale. The software company will point clients toward Cantara when those clients start thinking about an exit, regardless of timing. The two firms have no financial arrangement: Kennel Connection receives no referral payments, commissions, or back-end compensation.

Craig Pollack founded Cantara after spending over 15 years in pet care as an operator, co-founder of the PE-backed aggregator Village Pet Care, and advisor to buy-side private equity groups. The firm runs two engagements: Sale Readiness Consulting, a flat-fee project for owners who want to fix valuation problems before listing, and Business Sale Advisory, a success-fee engagement for owners ready to run a structured sale process with multiple qualified buyers.

The operational data a buyer asks for first

Facilities that run on Kennel Connection already have documented revenue history, occupancy trends, service mix, and client retention in exportable form. Buyers request those reports early in diligence, and owners on a modern platform can pull them in minutes instead of reconstructing years of spreadsheets or paper logs. Pollack's firm evaluates businesses on financial clarity, owner dependency, operational stability, risk exposure, and facility condition, then maps the work required to maximize outcome. According to the company, private equity and family office capital remains active in pet care, and sellers who arrive prepared continue to secure higher multiples than those who do not.

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What to do if you're three years from selling

Start now. The problems that depress valuation take time to solve, and you cannot solve them in the 90 days before a buyer walks the property. If you are the only person who knows how to run the schedule, train someone else and write down the process. If your P&L mixes personal and business expenses, separate them and keep them separate going forward. If deferred maintenance has piled up, address it before a buyer's inspector catalogs it.

If you already use a facility management platform like Kennel Connection, pull your occupancy and revenue reports every quarter and save them in a folder. When a buyer requests three years of data, you will have it ready. If you are not on a platform, the cost of migrating records later will exceed the cost of adopting one today.

Our read on the no-fee referral model

This partnership works because Kennel Connection takes no cut. The moment a software provider starts collecting referral fees from the advisor it recommends, the recommendation stops being a recommendation and becomes a revenue stream. Owners notice, and it undermines trust. Jeff Brodsly, Owner and CEO of Kennel Connection and 100GROUP, said his company points clients to Cantara based on industry expertise and operational fit, not financial incentive. That is the only structure that keeps the referral credible over time.

Selling a pet care facility is no longer a handshake deal with a local buyer. Private equity groups and family offices run structured diligence processes that penalize unprepared sellers. According to Pollack, owners who enter the market without organized financials, documented operations, and a realistic valuation often forfeit significant value. The difference between what a prepared seller commands and what an unprepared one accepts is large enough that advisory fees typically pay for themselves in the first buyer conversation.

Beyond introductions, Cantara will act as an informal industry advisor to Kennel Connection and 100GROUP, weighing in on market shifts and strategic questions. The two companies also plan joint webinars, trade show sessions, online Q&A events, and speaking engagements designed to teach owners how valuation works well before they decide to sell.

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