HALO Talks

"People are recognizing the more they do things like massage, the more they can prevent injury, the more stress and tension they can reduce. . . and as the health care plans and employers start to subsidize, people will buy it more," states Samer Hamadeh, CEO. As a highly successful entrepreneur, ZEEL's massage on demand service has already has done over 1 million massages, 3/4 of which are medically related, pain management issues. ZEEL's growth has been tremendous. Venus Williams recently joined their board, and they're currently in 6 core cities with hundreds more seeded in the last 3 years. Currently, ZEEL is raising their Series C $25M round. Listen now to learn about their future plans, the continued rise of their B2B business, current deals with Hyatt, Amex and healthcare plans, how the recovery space is no longer a "vitamin" but is becoming the "aspirin" (in VC speak) and more! 

"Fitness was a minor part of NYC landscape. It was always looked at little bit negatively. Fast forward to today and now it's one of the bright lights in our industry. It's an incredibly growing field!" states 30+ year real estate veteran, Jeff Roseman. In this wide ranging discussion, Jeff chats about landlords changing attitudes around the HALO sector, leases, why "branding opportunities" in real estate is nonsense, good guy clauses, factors to consider when evaluating a location, and--in a fun story--how Donald Trump blew a deal with Equinox!     

"The passion for the business came first, the passion for fitness actually came later," states Scott Lutwak. Scott is a seasoned entrepreneur having started Restaurant.com many years ago. His first facility was 33,000 sq feet and he fully admits, "I knew absolutely nothing about gyms!" Listen to learn his incredible story about how he grew to 6 locations, how he got over his worst month ever, the evolution of the FIT brand, his expansion into founding a non-profit for the San Diego homeless, and much more! 

"I think people are looking for the quick fix, but there is no quick fix. It's lifestyle changes. It's changing your diet, eating habits, recovery, exercise routines, changing your mindset. . and it takes time, but what I love about Wim's method is that it doesn't take long to feel the difference," states Avi Greenberg, one of only three Wim Hof Instructors in NY. Listen now to this wide ranging discussion around the increasing popularity of breath work, its positive affects on the body, how it's slowly starting to get attention in the HALO sector, and much more!

"People don't know the power of nutrition. They're given lies. . . It should be reading, writing, arithmetic, and nutrition taught in grade schools. It is one of the most critical factors that control our life, our longevity, our happiness and our health and the ignorance and confusion in the American population is barbaric and needs to be changed," states Dr. Joel Fuhrman. Dr. Furhman is a former athlete, a board-certified family physician, six-time New York Times best-selling author and internationally recognized expert on nutrition and natural healing. Listen now to this wide ranging discussion on everything from GBOMBS and why they're critical, farm subsidies, specific ideas on nutrition education, and much more!

Sean entered the entrepreneurial world after launching a company around a concussion detection sensor. "You need to have a big vision and fully understand where you want to be in 5-10 years. . .but also know you're never going to know that!" he jokes. Holisticly is a fantastic product that's long overdue. It fills a gap in the market to help growing companies support employees on a day-to-day basis. Listen now as Sean discusses how to handle long sales cycles, the negatives of "point based" systems, their go to market strategy, tips on securing B2B deals and more! 

"Muay Thai should be popularized and become more commercial and available to a larger scale of people," states Tyler Scott, a 12 year veteran of Muay Thai and creator of the patented Bishop heavy bag. Along with his wife, they began Hit House in 2017 after being inspired by the type of community they saw at a SoulCycle. Listen now to this wide ranging discussion on everything from the pros and cons of ClassPass, working with your significant other, hologram and VR technology, and more!

"The gym was full every day, even when the economy tanked. I always remembered that," states Alex Zaltsman. Alex now owns 3 Row Houses and 1 Pure Barre studio all under the Xponential family of brands. Originally from the technology, software & mobile application worlds, Alex discusses his entry into the HALO sector, what some of the similarities & differences are, and much more. There's great information here for anyone considering becoming a franchisee.

"What do you mean boxing and yoga? That makes no sense!" said basically everyone when Olivia floated the idea of this particular combination during her research. She went ahead, bootstrapped it all anyway (for all the right reasons!) and was immediately profitable. She had no outside capital and is now opening a second studio. "I created a business, the basis of which is resistance and ease. When you let go of whatever is holding you back, you can find your flow," she states. This is a fantastic entrepreneurial journey and a must-listen for anyone who is on the fence!

"You can and must make time for yourself, even if you think there's no time at all," states Rebbecca Schonfeld. Rebecca has battled mental health issues since she was young and has started sharing her story & experiences to help others on their own journey. Listen now to this important discussion around the changing attitudes & treatments of mental illness, her (extremely positive) experiences with CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy), her studies with Keri Glassman of Nutritious Life and much more.

"Stay true to who your customers are. You also have to be ok not being appealable to everyone out there," states Andrew Hirsekorn, Principal & Founding Member of Eagle Merchant Partners. Eagle is a private equity firm and one of the owners of the largest Planet Fitness franchisees. Listen now to this wide ranging discussion touching on ideas around Planet's place in the sector, thoughts about member attrition, the importance of unit economics, pros and cons of taking on private equity and more.  

"We wanted to find a way for health and wellness professionals to sell something that they were more confident in," states CEO Brett Maloley. Their team interviewed approximately 22,000 members, 11,000 trainers, and 1,000 physicians in the research phase. Ladder has ~65,00 users nearly 10,000 of whom are coaches and the rest are clients. "We need to not start with the technology, but rather what we're trying to solve for," he continues. Listen to this wide ranging discussion of current technology and how that applies (or not!) to the HALO sector.

"When times were tough, the Mission and Vision of our club kept us going. It would have been very easy to slash our values for the sake of the dollar," stated Stephanie Coulon of Stone Creek Club & Spa in Louisiana. She and Larry Connor helped build this award-winning, high end facility from the ground up 10 years ago and it's been going strong since. They opened in a down time, and in a saturated market where 40% of the market already belonged to a club. Listen now to learn more about how they did it!

Mike Morris worked in specialty retail for nearly 25 years and helped scale national brands like J. Crew, The Vitamin Shoppe, and others. He specializes in retail & supply chain operations, software, and data management. After going through 4 private equity sales, he became a full time advisor in the PE world 12 years ago and currently works in both the fitness and retail side. Mike's wealth of experience in both sectors is a must listen for any entrepreneur who may be looking to scale. 

Peerfit began with 8 employees and now has 100+ spread across the country. Their mission is ambitious! "It's to refine corporate wellness," states Chris Patton. He continues, "The value add is that we're doing something that it's hard for gyms to do, which is make that connection to the insurance carriers. Gyms and studios are good at what they do, but dealing with insurance probably isn't in the top 5 of that list!" he jokes. Peerfit's model is an idea whose time has come and is a win for all parties. Listen now to learn how your organization can get involved.

Texas Capital Bank is a 30 billion dollar publicly traded company. (They do business nationally, not just in Texas!) The group just celebrated their 20th anniversary and have nearly 175 million invested in the HALO sector. "We're significantly different in that we talk about 'selecting partners' versus 'collecting clients,'" states Charles Adams. Listen now to learn more about the process of applying for a loan, factors considered in company valuation, concerns of lending into the space and more.

"I look at private equity as a movie. You're walking into the theater halfway through, and there's all this action going on before you got there. If you don't try to understand how the plot has developed, where the players are, and what's going on, you're going to make mistakes. Our job is to figure that out!" states finance industry veteran, Peter Brockway. This comprehensive discussion touches on the history, benefits, risk/return of PE for entrepreneurs, why PE groups may (or may not) invest and much more!

Physmodo is a software that, at its core,". . .measures human movement," states Andrew Menter, CEO. It's a 30 second screening using an infrared camera and proprietary technology which addresses some of the the negatives of the Functional Movement Screen. It also, ". . .helps with front desk engagement. It really grabs people's attention. It kind of looks like a video game!" laughs Tyler Nicholson. The technology is found all across the country as well as in the military to help increase the number of soldiers who are deployable. Listen now to learn more about this incredible, new advancement in movement science.  

Mark began in the HALO sector in 1990 as a Personal Trainer and has worked with Merritt for 19 years. "You do the right thing, you take care of people, and the business takes care of itself," he states. With 9 locations plus 4 corporate, Merritt positions themselves in the upper middle market tier. Listen now to learn more about why they, "...decided to try and stop competing with everyone else in the industry," and how they continue to distinguish themselves in an extremely competitive part of the country.

Robert began his career in the HALO sector as a trainer in the Bay Area. He later dove in and learned sales with the teams at 24 Hour Fitness. After opening up his two current clubs and waiting (for years!) for a company to solve his data frustrations, he decided to do it himself. Fitness BI is an extremely comprehensive analytics platform that--in 3 short years years--counts ~1,400 clubs as customers. Listen to learn more about how (and why) they scaled so quickly and where they're going next!