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.
For nearly 40 years, Silicon Valley Bank has helped many leading innovators get their start.
Learn more about how SVB can help your business reach the next stage.
Subscribe via: RSS, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts
The BetaKit Podcast is hosted by Douglas Soltys & Rob Kenedi. Edited by Kattie Laur.
Sponsored by Silicon Valley Bank and CLOUDSEC 2021.
