Gympass is a gym membership service for corporate employees to access gyms, studios and fitness apps. The company offers corporate clients memberships to various fitness places. However, its clients do not include individuals. Instead, the company delivers its services to corporations seeking to provide their employees access to workouts. Although it may sound like a novel idea, Gympass has over 4,000 partners in various markets.
What is Gympass?
Gympass is a gym membership service that operates from New York City, New York. The company started its operations under Cesar Carvalho and Joao Barbosa. Together, these founders contributed to creating the service for various corporate clients. They had some experience from other ventures as well. The founders started Gympass in 2012.
Carvalho was a Brazil native who worked at ACNielsen and McKinsey for the first few years of his career. However, he didn’t stay there long and left two years later. Then, he joined CVC Corp, a well-known travel and tourism group in the Americas. Carvalho joined them as the Head of Business Development. During his tenure at the company, Carvalho also met Joao, who later became the co-founder of Gympass. Joao was working as an analyst at CVC.
While both founders worked there, they did not come up with the idea for Gympass until the next two years. At the time, Carvalho was busy juggling his work activities and also enrolled at Harvard Business School to pursue his MBA. He met various investors based in the US who wanted to invest in Brazil. At the time, Brazil was experiencing an increase in startups, and the market was ripe for profits.
During his summer vacation, Carvalho came up with an idea to start a business. He thought it was his last opportunity to get a share of the growth provided by the economic boost in Brazil. Therefore, in June 2012, he convinced Joao to join him in launching Gympass. The initial idea for the company was to target individuals rather than corporate clients. This idea came from Carvalho’s previous experience at McKinsey, where he had to pay for various gym memberships.
Carvalho thought it would be more intuitive to bundle those memberships into one and sell them to people. The founders presented their idea to various investors. Consequently, they managed to raise funds in seed rounds in that year. Although it sounded like a promising idea, the company did not experience much growth initially. At the time, its sales didn’t grow as expected. However, things soon changed for the company.
At the time, one of Gympass’ customers was an executive who worked at PwC Brazil. They showed love for the idea and brought them an idea to offer services to 5,000 Brazilian employees at PwC. At the time, it was Gympass’ first corporate sale. However, it allowed the company to understand the value of marketing its products to corporate clients. Since then, the company has changed its focus to those clients only.
How does Gympass work?
Gympass offers an ideal solution to connect people to thousands of partners. The company focuses on keeping its users fit and their well-being and lifestyle. As mentioned above, Gympass allows companies to buy various plans for their employees. These plans allow users one check-in per day. This feature gives them access to several facilities. Usually, they include personal or live classes in gyms, studios or personal trainers.
The Gympass plan allows users to access one gym per day and multiple gyms per month. It does not restrict them to a specific location. Overall, the company makes it easier for clients to manage gym plans for their employees. In exchange, those clients pay a single monthly fee. This fee gives them access to the gym plan and several solutions. Essentially, it focuses on keeping users active and healthy.
The Gympass plan gives users access to several solutions. Some of those are as below.
- In-person class at partners’ gyms and studios.
- On-site classes at partner gyms, studios and personal trainers. It allows users to stay active at home while receiving guidance from qualified professionals.
- Partner Apps with on-demand wellness content. This feature comes with therapy sessions, nutritionists and more.
- Wellness Coach, which provides access to experts that help users make big changes. It also ensures high levels of health, focusing on food, exercise and stress levels.
However, Gympass does not offer one plan. Corporate clients can choose between various packages for their employees. Based on that selection, the plan may also come with additional features. However, they also come at varied prices. Joining the network is straightforward, although individuals cannot do it themselves. Instead, they must work at a company that offers Gympass.
What is the Gympass business model?
Gympass uses a membership-based business model. Under this model, the company offers various plans to corporate clients. Those clients can choose the one that meets their needs the best for the given price point. Similarly, they can factor in the needs of their employees before selecting a plan. Once they do so, they must pay Gympass a monthly fee for every employee.
Gympass uses a similar business model that most other gyms and fitness companies offer. However, it focuses on corporate clients only. As mentioned above, this focus came from the company’s experience of getting better results from corporate clients. Gympass has used this experience to its advantage to make more money from its services. However, it can have some disadvantages as well.
Gympass also uses a hybrid fitness business model. Under this model, the company does not rely on in-person training or fitness products. While it is available offline, Gympass services are also available through its digital platform. Consequently, the company can offer its services to online and offline users. In the ongoing pandemic, this feature allows the company to make profits.
Overall, Gympass utilizes various business models to stay active and profitable. Although the company may have suffered due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, it has adapted its services. The company serves online and offline users and makes staying fit and healthy more enjoyable. However, Gympass does not focus on individuals. Its clients primarily include corporations.
How does Gympass make money?
Gympass makes money from its membership service. This service allows corporate employees to access gyms, studios and wellness apps. As mentioned above, the company offers various membership plans. Each comes with a different set of features and offers. Gympass works with corporate clients who provide their employees access to workouts.
Gympass membership provides users one check-in per day to access personal or live classes. Its products include gyms, studios and personal trainers. Similarly, it offers over 50,000 locations for its users. On top of that, customers can also consist of dependents who can train together. However, this feature comes with additional costs. These costs also contribute to the money Gympass makes.
On top of that, Gympass also makes money from its partners. The company indulges with companies, such as McDonald’s, Kraft Heinz, SAP, Red Bull, Heineken, etc. On top of that, Gympass also works with over 50 booking and club management systems. These allow gyms and studios to integrate with the Gympass service. Gympass also makes money from these integrations.
Gympass is a private company and does not disclose its earnings or income. Nonetheless, by analyzing its business patterns, it is possible to understand how it makes money. Overall, Gympass uses various sources to generate revenues. However, its primary income source remains its service in the form of memberships. Other sources constitute secondary income for the company.
Conclusion
Gympass is a membership service for corporate employees through their corporations. This service offers them access to gyms, studios, and well-being apps. In exchange, the company makes money from its membership fees. Gympass works with various partners to provide more services to clients. Consequently, the company also makes more money.
