When you step up to your in home treadmill, you may feel like you are missing out on the gym environment. While this motivating feel of the gym is often nice, it’s often not convenient. Studio brings audio group running glasses to your home and treadmill so that you can feel like you are in the gym without ever leaving your home. The platform offers differing genres that matches your desired intensity, style of running, and type of motivation. The audio group classes are led by expert trainers with curated playlists and the company has built in an incentive program that gives you the ability to earn Fitcoin. With Studio there is no reason to not keep pushing yourself to your limits.
AlleyWatch sat down with the cofounder Jason Baptiste, who previously cofounded OnSwipe, to learn more about the company, its origin, and its future plans to provide an entertaining run on demand.
Tell us about Studio.
Studio’s platform delivers audio group running classes that pair a motivating instructor with a killer playlist at anytime that’s convenient to you. Compete in real-time on our leaderboard against runners from across the world. Earn Fitcoin with every class to level up and unlock prizes. We’re bringing the world’s best instructors together to deliver you the best workout of your life at anytime that’s convenient to you at an affordable price.
How is Studio different?
We believe that fitness is entertainment. We also believe that having great instructors in your home or at your gym shouldn’t require an expensive $4,000 piece of hardware.
What market are you attacking and how big is it?
We believe that group fitness, a $10B+ a year industry, is going to go the way of movies, books, and music – it will shift from brick & mortar to digital subscriptions. What Netflix did to blockbuster, Spotify did to Tower Records, and Kindle did to Barnes&Noble, we’re doing too.
What is the business model?
We charge a subscription of $99 per year or $14.99 per month.
What inspired the business?
I used to be 50 pounds overweight and decided to run to lose the weight. On June 7, 2009 I made a promise to myself to run a 5K everyday for the rest of my life and have kept that promise everyday since. I was also formerly the founder/CEO of Onswipe, the world’s largest mobile publishing platform. Through that experience I understood how the media business model works and that the future was in subscription.
Would you mind telling us about your new partnership with Life Fitness?
Our partnership with LifeFitness allows us to reach millions of runners in gyms across the country. The same way Netflix is available anywhere someone wants to watch a movie, we want Studio to be available anywhere on any device that someone is using for fitness.
What is the one piece of startup advice that you never got?
The importance of managing expectations upwards and downwards. As CEO, the best hires are ones who have mastered this skill. If they haven’t you’ll have twice the problems – problems with your board and problems with individual contributors.
If you could be put in touch with anyone in the New York community who would it be and why?
We would love to get in touch with Mike Bloomberg.
Why did you launch in New York?
NYC is for fitness what Silicon Valley is for tech. Studio, Peloton, ClassPass, SoulCycle, FlyWheel, and Skyfit all started here.
What’s your favorite restaurant in the city?
Gaia Italian Cafe in the East Village. It’s the best Italian food on Earth and the owner treats it like her own house. It isn’t fancy, which I love – no pretentious brunch crowd, just amazing food in a loving environment. It’s one of the last hidden gems.