MINDBODY co-founder shares experience of industry technology interfacing with the consumer

Rick Stollmeyer, co-founder and Chief Executive of digital wellness platform MINDBODY, has shared his views on fitness operators expanding their customer base through technology.

Visiting Australia this week, Stollmeyer hosted an industry breakfast with key representatives from industry and consumer media, where he outlined how MINDBODY is growing both businesses and customers in Australia.

Key to this was Stollmeyer sharing his experience of how the cloud-based fitness management software provider is now a “rapidly emerging consumer brand helping people connect to high quality wellness practices.”

Advising that the business he co-founded went from being a small tech start-up in his garage in 2001 to now providing solutions to 64,000 businesses and about 450,000 practitioners – teachers and trainers and therapists - around the world offering 4.8 million classes and sessions per day through its platform, he stated “we became serious about creating our consumer marketplace and brand about four years ago with the Mindbody app.”

With the Mindbody users in Australia booking about 638,000 classes and appointments every month through the app, which increased 34% in the last year, we are going to be accelerating that growth in the year ahead.

“Our app is a channel for these businesses - fitness studios predominantly - to bring new people in their businesses so when you go on the app you see introductory offers which understand that the consumer has never been to that business before and which say ‘you might want to try this’.

“So, for example, (today) you can get seven days of F45 for $7.”

Introducing key members of the local team, including MINDBODY General Manager – Australia/Asia Pacific, Hema Prakash, Stollmeyer added “we see enormous opportunities and many thousands more business that we want to serve across the Asia Pacific region.

“We have support teams in 100 countries while Hema has doubled the size of our team servicing this region over the past year.”

MINDBODY has local partnerships with F45, JETTS Fitness, Blow Dry Bar and KX Pilates.

Earlier this year, Mindbody Inc was acquired by US-based private equity firm Vista Equity Partners in a deal valued at about US$1.9 billion.

Stollmeyer’s visit to Australia precedes Mindbody’s annual Bold Conference, billed as a 'premier event for business owners and professionals' in the wellness, fitness and beauty industries.

The conference takes place over the course of three days, between 13th and 15th August at the Marriott Anaheim in California, USA.

Click here to contact MINDBODY via their entry in the Australasian Leisure Management Supplier Directory.

Image: MINDBODY co-founder and Chief Executive Rick Stollmeyer (right) with MINDBODY General Manager - Asia Pacific, Hema Prakash.