U
D

Conversation

the

05/01/12 | Uncategorized

Be The Change You Want To See In The World

Improving on the gym model with technology in New York City.
By Danielle Tousignant (Co-Founder, Workout Spots)

Working out came into my life very recently, and I found it to be a personal time for me.

I joined a gym in May 2011 and went to my first class not long after. I would show up for a 10am class at 9:45am and there would be a line wrapping around the treadmills and out the door. By the time I would reach the class it was already filled. The instructor advised me to make a phone reservation and sent me on my way.

The next week I called, and the week after I called, and the week after that I called again… and no matter how early I called or how many times I tried the class would always fill up. It seemed so antiquated to me that this gym did not take online reservations, and resulted to phone calls and printed out schedules.

I shared my frustration in March 2012 with Mike Stefanello, software developer and entrepreneur, and amazingly within a month Workout Spots was born. The idea came to fruition pretty seamlessly.

We started with a “pre-launch” on April 10, 2012 at which time we recruited gyms, yoga/pilates studios, personal trainers, and boot camps. It was during this time that we received an immense amount of feedback from the fitness organizations and began tailoring the site to fit their needs.

I have worked in Account Management and Sales for 5 years and I know the importance of listening and responding to the needs of the businesses. We are different from other sites claiming to be the “Open Table for Fitness” because we do not just aggregate schedules from other software providers.

Workout Spots offers its own class registration platform for free, and provides end-users with their own profile/calendar to sync up with friends who are working out as well. Our aim is to be the go to tool for the membership gyms, personal trainers, and boutique workout “spots” to manage their classes with existing and new clients, but most of all we want to be a “one stop shop” for the users to find great places to work out and connect with friends to work out with.

We publicly launched on April 24, 2012, and since then we have been receiving pretty good traction. I think that we expected that “launch” day to be something spectacular, but everyday has been resulting in growth across 24 states which is really all we can ask for.

“There is no substitute for hard work, 23 or 24 hours a day. And there is no substitute for patience and acceptance” – Jean de la Bruyere

It has been exciting and I can’t wait to see where the journey takes us. If you have an idea then act on it and “be the change you want to see in the world”, as Ghandi said.

We invite all of you to sign up with Workout Spots for free and look forward to you becoming a part of our community!

Editor’s note: Got a question for our guest blogger? Leave a message in the comments below.
About the guest blogger: Danielle Tousignant is the Co-Founder of Workout Spots, a NYC web startup whose mission is to streamline the way people search and register for fitness classes in their area. A spit fire with over 5 years of sales experience in the NYC fashion industry, Danielle has now left it all behind to ride the Workout Spots wave.

Editor

Editor

The Switch Editorial Team.

Straight to your inbox.

The best content on the future faces of tech and startups.

"*" indicates required fields

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

SHARE THIS STORY

NEW COHORT STARTS JANUARY 2024

Join the Angel Sessions

Develop strategic relationships, build skills, and increase your deal flow through our global angel group and investing course.

RELATED ARTICLES
[yarpp]