Fitt Insider

Today I'm joined by Saeju Jeong, the co-founder and CEO of Noom — a psychology-based digital health platform.

In this episode, we discuss Noom's 14-year history. Saeju shares his journey, from South Korea to founding and scaling a digital health startup. We explore the product's many iterations, including fitness, healthcare, and weight management. And Saeju explains why he is so passionate about helping people live healthier lives.

More from Saeju

Born in South Korea to a family of doctors, Saeju has always had an intense desire to help people. From an early age, he knew his life's work would be dedicated to improving the wellbeing of as many people as possible. It was after the death of his father at a young age that Saeju became more motivated than ever to truly change lives for the better and use his entrepreneurial spirit (Saeju founded South Korea's first-ever heavy metal record label) to make an impact. After dropping out of college and moving to the US, Saeju met his co-founder Artem Petakov who shared his vision of helping people live healthier lives and convinced him to leave Google to develop Noom. As CEO, Saeju is responsible for setting the strategic vision for Noom and has led the company through several years of tremendous growth, helping millions of people improve their lifestyles and health. In 2020, Saeju was named EY Entrepreneur of the Year.

More from Fitt Insider

Fitt Insider is a newsletter and podcast on the business of fitness and wellness.

Join industry-leading operators and investors by subscribing: http://insider.fitt.co

Today I'm joined by Jason Karp, Founder and CEO of HumanCo — a holding company of health and wellness brands.

In this episode, we talk about Jason's experience starting Hu, a healthy snack brand, and selling the company to Mondelez. Jason shares his vision for HumanCo, which includes investing in, incubating, and acquiring brands. And we discuss HumanCo Acquisition Corp, a $250M SPAC led by Jason and CAVU Venture Partners.

More from Jason

Jason H. Karp is Founder and CEO of HumanCo – a mission-driven holding company that invests in and builds brands focused on healthier living and sustainability. Recently, Jason also co-founded HumanCo Acquisition Corp. – a $300m SPAC focused on Health & Wellness where he serves as Executive Chairman. In addition to HumanCo, Jason is also Chairman and Co-Founder of Hu (as in Human), one of the fastest-growing snacking companies in the U.S. Hu was recently sold to Mondelez International in January 2021. Prior to HumanCo, Jason spent over 20 years in the hedge fund industry. He was the Founder, CEO and CIO of Tourbillon Capital Partners, an investment fund that managed over $4 billion, and prior to that, worked at 3 multi-billion dollar funds at the partner level. Jason has a B.S. in Economics, summa cum laude, from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania where he also was an Academic All-American and All-Ivy in Varsity Squash.

More from Fitt Insider

Fitt Insider is a newsletter and podcast on the business of fitness and wellness.

Join industry-leading operators and investors by subscribing: http://insider.fitt.co

Today I'm joined Jacob Rothman, co-founder and CEO of Perch.

Perch is a velocity-based training system that uses 3D cameras to quantify and improve performance.

In this episode, we talk about using technology to improve strength training. The idea of trickle-down health — where a company initially targets elite athletes before broadening its customer base. And how Jacob thinks about the role of content, community, competition, and data in the future of strength training.

More from Jacob

Jacob is the Co-founder and CEO of Perch. Originally from Charlotte, NC, Jacob attended MIT where he studied Mechanical Engineering and played baseball. After graduating in 2016, he attended grad school at MIT for one year before dropping out to work on Perch full time. Perch uses small and mobile cameras to monitor and manage athlete performance and activity in the weight room. Perch currently helps elite athletic organizations, such as the LSU Tigers and the NY Giants, get the most out of their work in the weight room, while working towards enabling a safer, more efficient, and more connected fitness experience for everyone.

Jacob has previous work experience at Apple, Oculus VR, and various MIT labs. He currently resides in Boston, MA.

More from Fitt Insider

Fitt Insider is a newsletter and podcast on the business of fitness and wellness.

Join industry-leading operators and investors by subscribing: http://insider.fitt.co

Today I'm joined by Greg Caplan. Greg is the co-founder and CEO of Spot Meetings — a platform for walking meetings.

In this episode, Greg explains how his personal experience with remote work led him to start the company. We look at what goes into designing a meeting platform for walking. We discuss the health and productivity benefits of simply walking more. And Greg talks about launching Spot's beta and amassing a waitlist of 5K people.

A quick disclosure, we are excited to be investors in Spot — supporting the company on its mission to help people escape Zoom fatigue and be more physically active.

More from Greg

Greg Caplan is the co-founder of Spot Meetings, a platform for walking meetings. Previously, he co-founded Remote Year, the original remote work and travel community.

Visit: www.meetwithspot.com

More from Fitt Insider

Fitt Insider is a newsletter and podcast on the business of fitness and wellness.

Join industry-leading operators and investors by subscribing: http://insider.fitt.co

Today I'm joined by Jeff Morin — CEO of Liteboxer, an interactive at-home boxing experience.

In this episode, we talk about Jeff's background in building hardware products, why Liteboxer was four years in the making, how the company's gaming-inspired platform makes people want to work out, and the potential for mixed reality to disrupt the fitness industry.

More from Jeff

Jeff Morin is an MIT-educated engineer and certified personal trainer with an eye for both physical and technological performance. Prior to founding Liteboxer, Jeff operated as Manufacturing Lead at Formlabs then DEKA, overseeing manufacturing management, supply chain, and procurement for next-gen product development.

More from Fitt Insider

Fitt Insider is a newsletter and podcast dedicated to the business of fitness and wellness.

Join industry-leading operators and investors by subscribing: http://insider.fitt.co

Let's talk about the business of wellness…

My guest today is Dr Elina Berglund, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Natural Cycles, a contraceptive app that is used by over 2 million women across the world. Starting her career as a physicist, and having worked on Nobel Prize winning research discoveries, Elina left a successful career to spend a full year working from home, building the algorithms to offer a hormone-free alternative to birth control.

In this episode, Elina takes us back to the beginning of her career as a physicist, and where the original idea for the business came from. We hear how investors laughed at Elina as she shared her idea for Natural Cycles in a room of 1000 people. And…  why the brand is partnering with activity and sleep tracker, Oura Ring to offer a more seamless user experience. 

If you want to understand the dynamics of building a truly disruptive brand, and the resilience required to do so... then this episode is for you. 

Thank you to our sponsors:

- The go-to legal firm supporting the wellness industry Bird & Bird

- The software booking experts serving gyms, spas and salons worldwide, Mindbody

Find out what trends are driving the growth of the wellness industry in our 2021 Consumer Wellness Trends Report. 

To find out how Welltodo can help you grow your business and support your career objectives, head to welltodoglobal.com today.

Today I'm joined by Robin Thurston, CEO of Outside.

Outside, or Pocket Outdoor Media, as it was formerly known, is a platform for active lifestyle content and experiences.

In this episode, we talk about the acquisitions, rebrand, and $150M funding round that helped turn Pocket into Outside. Robin shares his vision for a recurring revenue bundle across all aspects of an active lifestyle. And we discuss the challenges and opportunities brought on by the coronavirus pandemic.

More from Robin

Robin Thurston is the CEO of Outside, the world's leading creator of active lifestyle content and experiences. Formerly known as Pocket Outdoor Media, Robin acquired Outside along with other companies such as OutsideTV, Gaia GPS, AthleteReg and Peloton Magazine in February of 2021. Across web, print, podcast, social, video, and TV, the brand engages with over 70 million of the most active and influential consumers in the world every month. Under his leadership, Outside is reinventing how athletes consume content, participate and engage, increase knowledge, find gear, and ultimately perform in their sport.

Before joining Outside, he ran a consumer genetics company called Helix in Silicon Valley before returning to his home state of Colorado. Prior to Helix, Robin co-founded and built MapMyFitness into one of the world's largest open fitness tracking platforms. Following the acquisition of MapMyFitness by Under Armour, he joined the innovative sports apparel organization and served as Chief Digital Officer, where he led the overall strategic direction of the company's Connected Fitness and eCommerce business.

Robin spent the first ten years of his career building a mutual fund classification and ratings platform at Lipper (a Thomson Reuters Company), as well as a risk and compensation platform at both American Century Investments and Wellington Management. He graduated with a MS in Finance from University of Colorado at Denver and lives with his wife and three children in Boulder, Co. He is a lifelong cyclist who started riding and racing in the early 1980's.

Let's talk about the business of wellness…

My guest today is Shai Eisenman, Founder and CEO of affordable skincare brand, Bubble. Launched in 2019, with the support of an impressive advisory board including Alexia Brue, Co-Founder of Well+Good, and Alexandra Wilkis Wilson, Founder of Glamsquad and Gilt, it’s no wonder Bubble has become a favourite amongst thousands of teenagers. 

In this episode, Shai shares her journey to launching the DTC skincare brand at just 29 years old. We talk about why you shouldn’t assume you know a market before doing your research, and how Bubble has taken to hiring teens to support the brands marketing efforts. We also explore the rise of Tik Tok and the strategy behind Bubble’s influencer marketing campaign.

Thank you to our sponsors:

- The go-to legal firm supporting the wellness industry Bird & Bird

- The software booking experts serving gyms, spas and salons worldwide, Mindbody

Find out what trends are driving the growth of the wellness industry in our 2021 Consumer Wellness Trends Report. 

To find out how Welltodo can help you grow your business and support your career objectives, head to welltodoglobal.com today.

Today I'm joined by Alexa Meyer.

Alexa is the co-founder and CEO of Coa — a mental health and emotional fitness company offering therapist-led classes.

In this episode, we talk about Coa's mission to become the Nike of mental health. Why we should treat mental fitness like going to the gym. How in-person, community-focused classes help to destigmatize the idea of going to therapy. And why professional basketball player Kevin Love invested in the company.

More from Alexa

Alexa is the Co-Founder & CEO of Coa. After trying to take care of her own mental wellbeing, she was frustrated with the lack of options and asked: "Why isn't there a gym for mental health?" This sent her on a mission to make emotional fitness as inviting and community-based as physical fitness. She started the first "Mental Health Pop-Up" and helped hundreds of people across the country try therapy. She continues this mission at Coa where she uses her background in start-ups, product, and branding to change how the world thinks about emotional wellbeing. Prior to Coa, Alexa was a VP at a fast-paced tech startup, worked at the world's largest brand strategy firm, Interbrand, and studied psychology and consumer behavior in Canada (her home country!).

More from Fitt Insider

Fitt Insider is a newsletter and podcast dedicated to the business of fitness and wellness.

Join industry-leading operators and investors by subscribing: http://insider.fitt.co

Let's talk about the business of wellness…

My guest today is Nick Green, Co-Founder & CEO of Thrive Market, a members-only online market that makes healthy living easy and accessible for families across the US. Since launching in 2014, the DTC business has raised over $300 million, attracted over a million paying members, and provided a million free memberships to low-income individuals, teachers, veterans, and more recently, health care workers and first responders.

In this episode, Nick shares his journey of building a mission-driven business that has social impact at its heart. We hear what it’s like not to be taken seriously by investors, and how this changed with the rise of the conscious consumer. Nick also talks about building resilience as an entrepreneur and why you need to connect to your vision and accept failures as part of your journey to success. 

Thank you to our sponsors:

- The go-to legal firm supporting the wellness industry Bird & Bird

- The software booking experts serving gyms, spas and salons worldwide, Mindbody

Find out what trends are driving the growth of the wellness industry in our 2021 Consumer Wellness Trends Report. 

To find out how Welltodo can help you grow your business and support your career objectives, head to welltodoglobal.com today.