ClassPass designed to fill need for fitness buffs
A fruitless search for an evening New York City ballet class led to Payal Kadakia's entrepreneurial Aha! moment.
In 2010, Kadakia went online to find a ballet class to take after work -- and after hours elapsed without any worthwhile results, she realized there was a gap in services offered for fitness and dance enthusiasts.
An initial step to remedy that lack: launching a website called Classtivity that provided a database of fitness and dance classes in New York City.
Kadakia and co-founder Sanjiv Sanghavi worked with another entrepreneur, Mary Biggins, to massage that idea to create ClassPass, which lets users try out a variety of gyms and dance studios classes in their area for one set monthly fee. The monthly rate varies from city to city, but is typically in the $79 to $125 range. The classes customers can take are in a wide range of areas and include Pilates, cycling, Zumba and strength training.
ClassPass is about “getting people to find a time in their lives and schedule that time to recenter, heal and challenge themselves," Kadakia, who lives in New York and is CEO of the company, told USA TODAY. "To give them a chance to stay active, to stay motivated, to find things in their lives that they are passionate about."
Americans’ love of working out continues to fuel the fitness club business. Club revenues grew 5.3% from 2013 to 2014, according to a report released in October by the International Health, Racquet & Sportsclub Association. Fitness-only clubs’ median membership grew 4.2%, while clubs that are part of a chain saw their membership rise by 9.4%, it said.
ClassPass, which has more than 180 employees, is one of 10 finalists for USA TODAY's Small-Business Innovator of the Year award. More nominee profiles will run in the coming weeks, and a winner will be announced in December.
Kadakia and co-founder Sanghavi, who has since moved on to other endeavors, would meet at Starbucks in the morning and work there all day, she said. Another co-founder, Mary Biggins, also has moved on.
Kadakia, 32, who in 2009 founded a dance outfit focused on the Indian-American tradition called the Sa Dance Company, quit her job as an executive in Warner Music Group's digital strategy and business development group to focus on her fitness-focused endeavor. Kadakia, who has been dancing since she was 3, still dances frequently with the company.
ClassPass has made close to 11 million reservations since its 2013 launch and lists more than 7,000 studio options on its site, the company says. It now serves markets across the U.S. and also has an international presence in areas including London, Toronto and Sydney.
To date, the company has raised $54 million in venture capital. Investors include prominent donors such as David Tisch, an angel investor based in New York, and Owen Van Natta, a tech investor who has held positions at Amazon and Facebook.
In April, ClassPass acquired competitor FitMob for an undisclosed amount.
Kadakia, in a podcast interview on the humorous fashion blog Man Repeller, attributed her success to an intensity that she has had since her younger days. During breaks from MIT at home with her family in New Jersey, she would study daily. The daughter of scientists, she was always attracted to math and science, she said, and would bring such a focus to her studies that her mother would often encourage her to take a break and go shopping. Although she had no Plan B when she left her job at Warner Music to launch her company, friends assured her that her driven nature would help make the project a success, she said in the podcast.
Kadakia tells budding entrepreneurs that an upbeat approach and keeping it real are critical traits for launching a new business.
"Be true to yourself and surround yourself with positive, supportive people," Kadakia said. "When I first started out, there were times I would dress or act in a way because I thought it was expected of me or that people would take me more seriously. But once I started leading in a way that was authentically me, that is when I really started to see success."
"I’ve also always had an incredible support system. You need people to encourage you along the way, both during your success and failures, because there will be both," she said. "Surround yourself with people who only lift you higher.”