Dragging yourself to the gym a few days out of the week doesn’t have to be a struggle. Baltimore native Nathan Forster and his partner Michael Alfaro have teamed up to change how people are experiencing their workouts.
NEO U got its start in 2016 and is designed for fitness instructors and brands to shoot content, which customers can subscribe to for $35 per month.
“We found that fitness and technology were connecting and there were so many cool things going on,” Forster said. “We thought that the next phase of that evolution was a marketplace to find great content.”
Headquartered in Manhattan, the platform provides live-streams of fitness concepts and classes. Subscribers get unlimited access to content.
“They can follow all these concepts and trainers 24/7,” Forster said. “They have access to all this great content.”
Although his roots are in Baltimore, Forster said choosing New York over the D.C. area was a necessary choice.
“I consider New York the fitness capital of the world. It’s where things start happening,” he said. “We thought that if we were going to build a brand that’s going to be a hub of content and is going to get a lot of influencers, trainers and concepts in one place, New York City would be the best place to start.”
NEO U’s brick-and-mortar location is equipped with three studios for a wide range of content including boxing, meditation, yoga and spin classes. Pricing for studio shoots varies.
With more than $20 million in funding locked in, the company is looking for new ways to captivate and motivate customers. Two of the angel investors are Jason Ackerman, chief executive and founder of FreshDirect, and Gregory Lee, former president of Nokia and former CEO of Samsung.
“We want to make people better,” said Forster. “We want to help people find fitness and find wellness.”
NEO U’s platform launches in September on iOS and Android, with the company planning pop-ups in Los Angeles and other locations.
