When Allie Reitz moved to Denver in December, in-person yoga classes were in full swing and her company was busy, supporting instructors looking to take their business to the next-level.
Then, Covid-19 hit and Good Elephant was forced to pivot.
In March, the application, which is primarily developed for supporting in-person classes, made a quick transition to offering virtual yoga instruction.
Reitz, a former audio engineer turned yoga instructor, said the virtual transition has been a positive experiment for Good Elephant. The app has engaged instructors and interested attendees from around the globe.
Good Elephant’s desktop and mobile application makes it simple for yoga and other health and wellness teachers to take their businesses online – from driving signups, securing class waivers and processing payments to handling direct payouts, providing livestreaming software and offering real-time technical support.
While many instructors have tried offering classes on Facebook Live or Instagram TV, Reitz said there are a host of drawbacks to those methods. In addition to not requiring payment, one-way streaming services remove the personal element of attending a yoga class.
“With one-way streaming they lose that connection you feel when you go to a class,” Reitz said.
With Good Elephant, users can access classes via Zoom and are able to pay what they can, even if that’s nothing.
To ensure that instructors are still earning what they should for putting on classes, Good Elephant has launched a donation fund within its app.
The Elephant Fund enables pay-what-you-can members to add a small donation to their transaction when they sign up for a class or event on the Good Elephant app. When a member opts to join an event for free, money from the Elephant Fund is then used to compensate the teacher.
“This is just an extension of our original mission to make these classes more inclusive and affordable for everyone to try,” Reitz said.
Currently, about one-third of Good Elephant’s users are opting to take classes for free. The company has already opened the donation side of its fund and will launch the redeeming side in the coming weeks.
In addition, Good Elephant is providing Denver-area yoga instructors, as well as local meditation, art and cooking instructors, with a 60-day fee-free opportunity to take their classes online and in front of the company’s hundreds of local and nationwide users.
Good Elephant is currently raising a seed round and has plans to expand its offerings even further in the coming months, primarily focusing on the ability to offer classes where interest is high.
Reitz said the company has plans to launch a feature that leverages data, like location, availability and interests, to offer classes that reach the most members.
Think, local instructors are alerted that 20 people in Capitol Hill have expressed interest in a Wednesday night yoga class in Cheesman Park. From there, the teachers can offer that class knowing that interest is high.
“This creates classes and events based on what the community actually wants and provides those classes as opportunities for our teachers,” she said.
