Episodes

In this info-packed episode, we're treated to an "insider's look" at the public and private markets from a highly experienced veteran. Sharon chats about what public markets look at and why some companies get valued the way they do. "Any analyst worth their salt is doing their own modeling and trying to figure out where the risks lie, and where the opportunities are," she states. She continues about the importance of playing the long game, (regardless of whether you're public or private,) calibr...

Bob began his career with Healthtrax in 1980. Due to his strong science background, they were one of the first to get into company healthcare. "I was a company intrapreneur," he states. "Starting divisions, selling some off, and keeping others. I forged a lot of relationships with hospitals like John's Hopkins as well." In this wide ranging discussion, Bob offers his thoughts on the corporate wellness market, ACO's (accountable care organizations) the continuum of "upstream and "downstream" care...

Going from a former insurance agent to a successful entrepreneur with a Shark Tank appearance under his belt (January 2020,) Genius Juice Founder Alex Bayer has quite the story! Genius Juice makes the purest coconut smoothie on the market, and produces over 20,000 coconuts per day and brings in several containers per month. They use less than 10 ingredients per bottle, their top seller has 2 ingredients and their number 2 seller has only 5 ingredients. "We pride ourselves on simplicity, taste, ...

After a 20+ year background in finance, Pete Moore brought Brent into the industry in 2005. After acquiring Crunch while at Angelo Gordon and then working with New Evolution Ventures, Brent is now firmly on the operating side. Since founding Equity 38, he has since become the new owner of the highly regarded TRX brand. Leffel states, "You can't model people and culture. That's the most important thing in these businesses . . . All my time in private equity, we were focused on the wrong things. ...

Regarded as one of the top body transformation studios in NYC and very well known for the fantastic community they foster, this podcast was conducted right from UpFit Academy! Junior high school classmates, Wes Chow and Paul Park have co-owned UpFit for the past 4 years. "We treat members as if they're extended family. I don't want someone paying for something that they're not getting tremendous value out of . . . if they're coming here, they know they're going to get results," states Chow. They...

Bobby founded Active Entities after a successful college and professional basketball and tennis coaching career. "Health clubs don't matter to people these days. Health matters to people!" he states firmly. "People will pay for quality and results. Out of this pandemic, we learned a lot about ourselves as an industry--a lot of our shortcomings. When you get grouped with casinos, it really tells you where you're at." He shares his in-the-trenches experiences with independent "big box" operators,...

Kevin is a 28 year veteran of the beautiful, 44 acre Atlantic Club. 33% of its business comes from the health club, and 67% from ancillary revenue. They have one of the biggest day spas and tennis programs in the country and most managers have been with the organization for over 20 years. "During COVID we had to ask ourselves what would we need to be in the future . . . Pretty much everything has changed. We are a completely different company . . . also we also learned our competition can be our...

In business for 12 years, Anthony started in the industry at 16 and worked his way up. Now 41, he's the owner of five Push Fitness locations in the tri-state area. "I always wanted to do a luxury gym at an affordable price . . . a lot of people think running health clubs is an easy business, but it's really not, especially if you run them the right way," he states. Tony reviews some tips anyone opening a new facility should consider, the right (and wrong) reasons to expand, how he competes (and...

Founder & CEO of 305 Fitness, Sadie Kurzban opened her first studio in 2014. Currently with 7 locations across Boston, DC, and NY, over 1,000 trainers trained (with plans for 25,000+ in the next three years) 305 is perfectly positioned for massive growth! "The new woman isn't sold on an aspiration of exclusivity, thin-at-all-costs, performance and leaderboards. She's sold on the aspiration of inclusivity, self-confidence, owning her truth and feeling like there's a place to love her body," stat...

At 19, Coss Marte was making over $2 million a year selling drugs. Imprisoned at 23, he quickly realized he had "all sorts of health issues." He lost 70lbs in 6 months and started CONBODY after his release 8 years ago. He states, "I knew it was going to work. Just show up everyday, deliver a great product, and trust the process. . . 95% of the people in Rikers Island are Black or Hispanic. I've hired over 50 people with a zero recidivism rate. Nobody has gone back into the system." And people ar...

As the Founder of Crossrope, (which he bootstrapped from the beginning) Dave has jumping in his blood! He spent 12 years as a Naval pilot and, while in the Academy, also competed in both long jumping and high jumping. He says, "I've always had this indescribable, innate, passion for the freeing feeling . . . for the challenge and enjoyment of jumping!" Crossrope has a hugely dedicated following with an incredibly enthusiastic online community. He and Pete discuss how the company went about sett...

With a 40 year background in the industry, Sara started in group exercise, eventually owned her own studio, became the #1 distributor for Les Mills for years, and then founded SCW Fitness Education. She was at the inception of the boutique fitness world, before it was even called that! In this wide ranging discussion, she and Pete chat about everything from the future of the industry post-COVID ("We're going to have a shortage of . . . group exercise instructors and personal trainers,") to why ...

Ian Mullane is the Founder of keepme.ai. With a strong background in finance, predictive analytics, and the fitness industry (he owned Vanda.fit in Singapore) Ian related, "I asked myself if I could possibly utilize the data within my organization to predict whether or not a member will stay or go? That's how Keepme came about . . . if you're going to build a platform of substance, it helps to have had the problem yourself." He and Pete chat about the importance of retention in the industry, ho...

As Founder of The Wellness Agency ("TWA") Jay describes it as, "Kind of a Y-Combinator meets William Morris or UTA for wellness." Prior to TWA, Jay founded Mammoth Records and was Head of A&R at Atlantic Records before selling to the Walt Disney Company. His extensive experience helping artists grow carried over perfectly to his business ventures. TWA has a vision to being a material part of creating 10 unicorns in the next decade. They provide startup accelerator services, access to an investo...

With a challenging history of severe autoimmune disease, Shauna Reiter's journey to eventually founding Alaya Naturals has been a long, but rewarding one. Alaya's annual revenue is $6 million with over 100,000+ customers and a team size of 5! On evaluating other products, she states, "You have to ask whose agenda is it? What's their Mission and purpose? Who are they associated with? If there's a big profit to be gained, then sometimes quality can be overlooked, and there's plenty of marketing g...

Erika Flint is an award-winning hypnotist, best-selling author, speaker, co-host of the popular podcast series Hypnosis, Etc., and co-host of the radio program Reprogram Your Health. She is the founder of Cascade Hypnosis Center and the creator of the Reprogram Your Weight System. Before becoming a hypnotist, Erika designed software for the high-tech industry. She was working in that field for over a decade when she realized how interested she was in the most powerful computing device available...

The Joy of Mom's Mission is, "To unite and empower women everywhere to be unapologetic warriors and sisters while navigating the ever-evolving life cycle of motherhood." To say they've succeeded would be an understatement! Founder Vicki Reece has, from the ground up, built a "natural, organic, beautiful community of over 5 million Mom's!" "They have a 60 million reach average monthly," which is, according to COO Dush Ramachandran, "Completely organic. Not one like or share has been paid for. Eve...

Aileen Hoffman is the VP for the National Sunrise Walks,, a series of walks to help raise funds for the incredible Sunrise Association. "It's been an unbelievable 15 year journey serving thousands of children impacted by pediatric cancer," she states. Their next event is June 4-6, Rise Up for Sunrise. The Founder Arnie Preminger, realized a while back that there was not a single day camp in the entire world for children with cancer. He started small in Long Island with 96 kids and--15 years lat...

A former student-athlete and author of #sponsored: How Athletes & Brands Can Leverage Each Other to Create Value, Jasmine Chou chats with Pete about the differences between--and ways companies approach--both amateur and pro sponsorships, concrete steps on approaching companies, the three types of amateur sponsorships, how recent changes in the NCAA have impacted the sponsorship community, challenges of social media and more! Click here for complete transcript.

Kaumil Gajrawala is the author of a seminal, recently released (April 6, 2021) initiating coverage report from Credit Suisse titled, Wellness Sector Initiation: An Apple a Day which can be downloaded here. "We think HALO will be a $7 trillion industry. Not every piece will be a winning piece . . . but at the end of the day you're talking about something growing very significantly on a global basis," he states. Integrity Square views this as a critical milestone for the industry in that it's th...

A former NHL Hall of Famer, (Top 100 all time NHL), Stanley Cup Champion, NHL MVP and 2x Olympic Gold Medalist (4x Olympian,) and now President of Well Inspired Travels, Chris has gone "all in" on his strong beliefs around the "healing power of travel, and how it can take your personal and professional life to that next level." A family owned business, their agency caters to elite athletes, entertainers, C-level executives and business owners. It's been a ". . .passion project for my wife Lauren...

Sal has been in the industry since 1979, first as a club owner and then in 1984 when he moved to selling equipment. "You have to put yourself in the position of the customer . . . you have to see what's happening in the field and need boots on the ground. You need to see what customers are doing!" he states. He recently returned from his first 6 day road trip post-COVID and brings good news! He gives his take on the current "temperature" of the industry, some positives that have resulted from th...

A former investment banker for almost 24 years with entrepreneurship in his DNA, Todd is the CEO of Title Boxing Club and Co-Founder of Box Union. He chats with Pete about his experiences going from banking into the entrepreneurial world of building a brick and mortar business from the ground up. On the parallels (and differences) between the two, he jokes, "Investment banking is an unbelievable training ground . . . we're not going deal to deal, but rather within the company, topic to topic so ...

"We're going into these deals with the intent of partnering with Founders, that they're going to continue to be involved, and the last thing we want or need is for them to be surprised or disappointed with something along the way," states Rob Fioretti, Managing Director of Palladin Consumer Retail Partners. Rob has been in the private equity space for more than 25 years and in this chat with Pete, he provides extremely valuable information on what Palladin looks for in companies as well as the ...