Why does a bootstrapped business decide to become venture-backed?
Today we talk to Kyle Gibson, CEO and co-founder of Wheelhouse, which found itself in a ‘unique situation’ last year: running a real, profitable business, running into COVID-19, to end up raising capital now as a tech company.
“I like to think that Peloton is the equivalent to Facebook.”
This isn’t a Black Swan episode, but Wheelhouse’s story does match some of the themes of our COVID-focused series: a sudden blow to traditional business processes, leading to a pivot, and an interesting tension between brick and mortar, digital, and whatever weird hybrid world we live in now.
On today’s episode, Gibson will explain how Wheelhouse went from running a suite of cycling studios to betting heavily on Instagram, in-home rentals, and VimoOTT. Gibson also discusses how a small company like Wheelhouse can compete in a sector saturated with Peloton’s and SoulCycle’s, and how much brand and community matter in the fitness space.
Let’s break a sweat and dig in.
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The BetaKit Podcast is hosted by Douglas Soltys & Rob Kenedi. Edited by Kattie Laur.
Sponsored by Silicon Valley Bank and CLOUDSEC 2021.