ƒôà Welcome Back and Upcoming Events
Q&A with VP of Marketing at MIRROR: Join us for our FIRST EVENT EVER on January 29th from 7-8PM for a short presentation and Q&A with the Eric Mandell, the VP of Marketing for MIRROR. In addition to serving as the VP of Marketing at MIRROR, Eric is the Founder & CEO of Blue Lantern Consulting, which specializes in growth marketing for early-to-mid stage startups. In his years at Blue Lantern he's helped drive the growth of a number of successful startups including Codecademy and Maven. Prior to founding Blue Lantern, Eric led user acquisition at LearnVest and worked in strategy and operations consulting at Deloitte. Eric holds a BA in Mathematics and Government from Wesleyan University. Sign up and if you have any specific questions you’d like to hear Eric answer, let us know in advance by submitting them here.
ZLI & FitX Collaboration: FIVE Ideas - Health and Wellness: Join us on Friday, January 31st from 12-3:30PM to be part of a facilitated design thinking workshop focused on ideating entrepreneurial solutions to health and wellness. Explore human experiences, gain ideation skills to craft impactful solutions, and empower yourself and others to take action. Together we will make the world five ideas stronger. Please register here in advance (lunch will be served).
Q&A with Ann Arbor Orange Theory Owners & Entrepreneurs (+ a FREE class co-sponsored with BizFit!): Join us on Wednesday, February 5th from 1-2 PM as we welcome Bret Borock and Matt Grabowski (UM alum!) who own Ann Arbor’sOrange Theory Fitness studios as well as Reach Bodywork, a specialized stretching studio start-up, and local restaurant PoCai. They will discuss launching the Orange Theory franchise in Michigan and their entrepreneurial approach to operating their other businesses. In partnership with BizFit, attendees will also be able to join us for a FREE Orange Theory class to be held after the Q&A at the Orange Theory on Plymouth road at 3 PM. Please be at the studio by 2:30 to get set up. Click-race for the free class begins this Friday 11/17 at 9AM.
FitX is trekking to NYC! We’re excited to announce that FitX will be taking a mini-professional trek to New York City on February 13th and 14th and you won’t want to miss this! The trek will provide the opportunity to meet with industry leaders within the fitness, health & wellness space to understand different business models, tech innovations, consumer trends, and disruptors. We’ve secured an awesome agenda including visits to ClassPass, Equinox, Aaptiv, SoulCycle, 305 Fitness, and MIRROR! More details on the schedule and the trek interest form will be released this Friday, 1/17 with trekkers to be confirmed by the end of the month. Please email Elise Gordon and Meredith Chapekis with any questions.
ÔÅ® Industry Updates
ClassPass Becomes a Unicorn The New York-based fitness subscription app just became a unicorn this week with an influx of Series E cash. The latest funding, in the amount of $285 million, was led by L Catterton and Apax Digital, with participation from existing investor Temasek. It brings ClassPass’s total known raise to about $550 million.
FlyWheel Seeking Sale FlyWheel changes may be on the horizon. The national cycling brand is close to selling its studios to the owner of New York Sports Clubs, part of a chain with 630,000 members. Negotiations to potentially sell Flywheel’s at-home bike business to other bidders are continuing. Flywheel was co-founded in 2010 by Ruth Zukerman, one of the founders of SoulCycle before splitting off. If you are interested in learning more about the founding of FlyWheel, SoulCycle, and the early New York boutique fitness scene check out Zukerman's book.
The in-home fitness war is on: Equinox vs. Peloton Equinox is in discussions to secure new funding from investors including private equity firm Silver Lake to expand a digital platform to compete with Peloton. The deal has not been finalized but could be reached this month.
Meet the 2020 Faces of Wellness As the wellness industry has grown to $4.5 trillion, these 27 people are the leading movers and shakers and positioned to be the forces behind pushing innovation in 2020 and beyond.
Year on WHOOP Do you love data? What about your own personal health and wellness data? Seeking more than the Apple Watch provides? Check this podcast on the data Boston based start-up, WHOOP, provides to its consumers.
ƒÆ╗ Job Postings
Sakara Life - Director of Product Management
Equinox - Product Manager - Equinox Media
Withings - Business Development Associate
Plyo - Growth Intern *ideal for BBA and looking for immediate start*
Health and Wellness Content Creator Detroit - Fitt *ideal for BBA*
ƒôº Reminder: Join our Board!
Thanks to those who have expressed interest so far! If you are still interested… We still have a few openings for people passionate about this industry to join our Inaugural FitX Board. Think you might be interested? Send Sonja Manning & Elise Gordon an email with why you’re interested and what unique ideas you have for the club.
ƒºÿ Action-Based Learning: Alternative Practitioner Market Analysis
Thanks to the many individuals who applied to participate in our market analysis with Bridge Builders Collaborative. We will notify the individual’s selected on Friday and kick-off the analysis next week. Apologies for the duplicate emails sent out about that...blame it on CampusGroups.
ƒÿ£ FitX Fun
Trying to do dry(ish) January? Try out THIS APP to help you drink less!
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