ƒôà FitX Programming Update
Happy St. Patrick's Day! We hope everyone is staying safe, healthy and FIT during this uncertain time. Given ongoing developments and guidelines, we will be moving to virtual programming for the immediate future. As community will be so important during this time, we hope to still hold a virtual event or two before the end of this quarter. We urge everyone to stay safe, informed, kind, and reach out to others for support (or virtual workouts!) during this time.
ƒæÅ FitX Feature: Kene Onuorah and TrapFit
This week we are featuring our very own amazing Rosser, Kene Onuorah, who founded TrapFit, a fitness facility serving low-income neighborhoods in Raleigh, where he is originally from. Kene is an MBA1 focusing on marketing & entrepreneurship at Ross and worked in consulting and entrepreneurship prior to business school. Read Kene’s inspiring founder story below!
“The story of TrapFit Raleigh is about providing value and options to a neighborhood that is traditionally underserved. Against all odds, TrapFit became the first and only fitness facility serving the historically low-income neighborhood of Southeast Raleigh. And this is what I am most proud of as a co-founder.
In 2016, a friend and I launched TrapFit, a fitness bootcamp geared toward women in Southeast Raleigh (SER). The bootcamp met on Saturday mornings at the practice field of SER High School. Through word of mouth and social media marketing, we grew from seven participants to thirty-five in six weeks. Throughout the next year and a half, we strategically crafted our fitness community. We bolstered the group dynamic by using GroupMe to increase engagement and Snapchat to facilitate workout challenges. To increase visibility, we started hosting our Saturday sessions at different parks in Raleigh, gaining new interest at every stop. As we shut down operations for Winter 2017, we were confident that we had enough traction to change the narrative in Southeast Raleigh. But we weren’t aware of the obstacles ahead.
Raising the capital to take TrapFit to the next level was the ultimate test of perseverance. We had a functioning product, evidence of success, and a robust business plan, but no bank or investor seemed to care. Before long, I realized that it wasn’t our product that investors didn’t believe in, but rather, our target market. The lack of data to demonstrate historical success of health and wellness businesses in SER proved to be a red flag for investors. Eventually we found an investor, an African American businessman and native of SER, who empathized with the challenges that the community was facing. Thanks to his support, TrapFit Raleigh opened its doors in Fall 2018 in the heart of Southeast Raleigh. Today we serve both women and men in a personal training and group/class training format. We’ve also had the opportunity to work with several professional athletes as well as Olympians. Trapfit Raleigh continues to be a very community centric business using health and fitness as a means to bring people closer together. Check us out online at trapfitraleigh.com or on Instagram @TrapfitRaleigh.”
Want to learn more? Reach out to Kene Onuorah.
ÔÅ® Industry Highlights
SoulCycle and Equinox Launch Home Cycling: SoulCycle’s At-Home Streaming Bike Is Finally Here (and just in time for self-isolation). In a partnership with Equinox Media, the two brands are announcing the official rollout of Variis, a streaming platform that provides an immense amount of on-demand fitness content, from cycling to HIIT, right at your fingertips. A home-version of the SoulCycle stationary bike and five classes will be available for $2,500, slightly above Peloton’s $2,245 sticker tag.
Apple Working on New Fitness App: Apple seems to be the next tech giant entering the fitness application space. While details not officially announced, word has spread that Apple is working on a new app for the iPhone codenamed “Seymour.” The new application will guide users through workout routines on their Apple Watches and iPhones, according to a person familiar with the plans. Check out this CNBC article for more details! Additionally, the release of new features in iOS 14 could present challenges to start-ups, outlined in this Tech Crunch article.
Another New Player - FUTURE: Future Launches $150/mo Exercise App where real coaches “nag” you. Future is built on the premise of changing human behavior through accountability and personalized work-out plans. While this may be the most expensive exercise app at $150/mo, they also give you an Apple Watch to track your activity and ensure accountability.
Celebrating International Women’s Day: Check-out some of the amazing Women Founders of the Fitness Industry as we celebrated International Women’s Day on March 8th!
ƒôê *New Newsletter Section*: Industry Financial Highlights
Mind Medicine, a psychedelics-based medicine startup, closed a $24.2M funding round, and also plans to be the first publicly traded neuro-pharmaceutical company for psychedelic-inspired medicines.
ClassPass acquired MuvPass, one of Chile’s top fitness platforms, and Clickypass, a leading fitness network in Argentina.
Tempo, a connected fitness company, raised $17.5M in funding from Founders Fund, DCM, and Khosla Ventures. The company, formerly known as Pivot, offers live and on-demand strength and HIIT classes combined with AI to make home workouts feel more like personal training sessions.
ƒÆ╗ Job Descriptions
Full-time
ClassPass - Product Manager
Noom - SEO Marketing Manager
Peloton - Logistics Analyst - Connected Fitness
Whoop - Business Intelligence Analyst
Fitbit - Product Marketing Manager - Devices
Internship:
Strava - Product Management Intern
Fitnescity - Growth Marketing Intern
ƒî┐ BBC Action-based Learning Project Complete!
In February, FitX completed our first-ever action-based learning project with sponsor Bridge Builders Collaborative. A stellar team of 7 (Gus Young 20’, Rohan Karla 21’, Rob Kasper 20’, Payal Parikh 21’, Zach Eddy - Ross Partner, and Sonja Manning 21’) completed an industry analysis of the Alternative Practitioner Marketplace and created a set of investment criteria for the partners at Bridge Builders Collaborative to consider when making future VC investments. We are entering a new age of services marketplaces, and the Alternative Practitioner Marketplace (think wellness services like yoga, acupuncture, reiki, energy healing, nutrition etc.) is ripe for disruption. Digital technology, as well as Automation and AI, can convene practitioners and consumers in a way that has never been done before and start-ups are beginning to enter this marketplace. What start-ups will take advantage of opportunities to create value? Investors, entrepreneurs, practitioners, and consumers should closely follow the evolution of this marketplace.
So, what were our the project outcomes?
- A fun learning experience with a diverse team of MBA1s, MBA2s and a Ross Partner
- The enthusiastic acceptance of findings and analysis from the sponsor and his VC partners
- ...and even an internship offer from one of the start-ups the team analyzed!
We plan to do a webinar to share more about the project findings of this project and the current MIRROR action-based learning project at the end of April. Stay tuned for more but BIG congrats and thank you to this team in the meantime!
ƒÅà FitX Fun Fact
What’s the next big thing in sports? In June, the International Olympic Committee gave preliminary approval to bringing breakdancing to the 2024 games in Paris. The IOC will make its final determination in December. Other sports with growing profiles include underwater hockey, drone racing, quidditch and Cybathlon. Anyone want to start practicing?
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