🚀 Exciting Insights from the Boutique Fitness Studio 2025 Report! 🚀

On the latest HALO Talks Fast Break Julian Barnes peels back the curtain on (some) of their findings in report that took 9 months to put together—and the data reveals some eye-opening strategies for boutique fitness studio success.

Here are 3 key takeaways every studio owner or industry investor should know:

🔑 Referrals Power Growth:
44% of new client leads in profitable studios come from referrals. Word-of-mouth remains the most effective—and cost-efficient—lead generation tactic. Deliver an exceptional member experience, and your clients will do your marketing for you!

🔑 Profitability is Rising—But Operational Excellence is Key:
Studios running at a 20% profit margin nearly doubled since 2022—but only when fundamentals are executed rigorously. That means consistently finding (50+ leads/month), enrolling (30% conversion), and retaining (less than 5% churn) your members.

🔑 Invest in Management for Sustainable Growth:
There’s a direct correlation between having a full-time manager and higher studio revenue and profit margins. Owners: Empower talented managers to focus on client acquisition, experience, and retention—it’s a proven path to scaling success.

📊 Want deeper data and actionable benchmarks? Download the full BFS 2025 Report at BFSReport.com

You can also register for their free webinar on May 13th at 3pm EST where they go into a ton more details:

https://main.bfsnetwork.com/bfs-upcoming-events

A LOT has happened since Crunch's early days!

• Humble Beginnings & Early Growth: Crunch started in 1989 with Doug Levine, Roger Harvey (Crunch's first COO), and a powerhouse team, quickly making waves in the highly competitive NYC fitness scene.
  
  
• Big Deals & Bumpy Roads: Bally Total Fitness bought Crunch in 2001 for $90 million, but soon faced challenges. A few years later, Angelo Gordon (with Pete Moore himself on the deal side) acquired the company for half that price—$45 million.
  
  
• Growing Pains: Membership dropped from 92,000 to 72,000, forcing Crunch into bankruptcy in 2009. This time was all about resetting, restructuring, and prepping for the future.
  
  
• A Decade of Determination: Crunch worked hard to dial in their business model, launching a successful franchise program and slowly but steadily building momentum.
  
  
• Skyrocketing Success: By 2019, TPG Growth snagged Crunch to accelerate its franchising efforts, which paid off. Fast-forward to today: Leonard Green has acquired Crunch for a stunning $1.5 billion. The company now boasts 500 locations and 3 million members!

One solid takeaway? Spotting potential in a struggling business—and having the patience, grit, and right partners to see it through—can lead to incredible success. Crunch isn’t just surviving, they’re thriving.

With blue-chip private equity backing and a proven growth strategy, the future looks bright.

RESOURCES:

• Crunch Fitness: https://www.crunchfitness.com
• Sale of Crunch to TPG: https://www.tpg.com/news-and-insights/tpg-backed-crunch-fitness-announces-strategic-investment-from-leonard-green-partners
• Doug Levine's Live HALO Talks in NYC: https://youtu.be/h-qDEAS5LsM?si=kh0GclOgGmwXMxhS

Every Wednesday we release our all new “HALO Academy: 2 Minute Financial Drill" by Integrity Square Founder & HALO Talks host, Pete Moore on everything you need to know for financial literacy, unit economics, legal documents used for M&A and capital raises, capital sources you can access, understanding how financings are structured, valuation metrics and parameters, and what you need to know about your own business before engaging in cap raises and/or a potential sale.

If you missed our email about this, you can re-read it here: https://mailchi.mp/9567da51c0ce/2025programschedule
======================================================
RESOURCES

• https://www.integritysq.com
  
  
• https://www.halotalks.com
  
  
• https://www.thehaloacademy.com ===================================================

ABOUT YOUR INSTRUCTOR

Pete is the Founder, Managing Partner and Chief Dream Architect at Integrity Square ("ISQ"), a leading boutique financial advisory firm focused on the $4.7T Health, Active Lifestyle, Outdoor ("HALO") sector. Since founding ISQ in 2010, the firm has played an active advisory role in 100+ mergers & acquisitions, private placements and advisory assignments across North America.

Pete Moore and his team have also invested in passionate entrepreneurs at HigherDOSE, XTEND, and Promotion Vault. ISQ's media and "live education" properties include HALO Talks, the leading B2B podcast in the sector, Time To Win Again, and the HALO Academy, an Executive Education Bootcamp Series.

Prior to ISQ, Pete was Head of the Active Lifestyle & Wellness Group at Sagent Advisors (2003-2010.) Prior to 2003, Pete was co-founder of FitnessInsite, a SasS sales management platform with 1500+ clients (based in AZ.) At FitnessInsite, Pete invested his personal capital, leveraged his credit cards and learned what it takes to manage a startup.

Pete built his business and financial acumen on top of the foundation laid at three critical positions early in his career: Senior Associate at Brockway Moran & Partners, the private equity owner of Gold’s Gym International, Inc; worked as an Associate at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette; and an Analyst at Chase Securities. (Now JP Morgan.)

ISQ saw a need for a deeper & more useful level of education in the HALO sector. In response, we launched the HALO Talks podcast, with 500+ completed interviews and over 120,000 downloads. HALO Talks has become a “must listen” for anyone working or investing in the sector.

Pete graduated from Emory University (BBA, 1994) and received his MBA from Harvard Business School (1999.) While at HBS, he co-founded IRON PLANET, the leading B2B auction site for used heavy equipment, which was sold to Ritchie Bros for $758 million. His hobbies include: Football, basketball, tennis, podcasting, amateur ventriloquism, pro bono DJ and fitness enthusiast.

On this episode of HALO Talks, host Pete Moore sits down with Gabriel Cian, a serial entrepreneur from France with a passion for longevity and health innovation. Gabriel shares his journey from building and successfully exiting two tech startups to founding the 2060 Foundation, an organization dedicated to advancing longevity through investment and policy change. The conversation dives further into the intricacies of selling a company, the booming field of longevity science, and the crucial roles of healthspan, lifespan, and mental health in extending quality of life.

Gabriel and Pete also discuss the challenges and opportunities facing entrepreneurs in this space, the global landscape of longevity policy, and how his foundation is helping drive change through investment and advocacy. Whether you’re a startup founder, investor, or simply curious about the future of human health and well-being, this episode is packed with insights and inspiration from one of the leading voices in the field.

When it comes to the aging process, Cian states, "We are trying to slow it down, stop it, or even, let's be crazy, reverse it! And this is more science fiction-like. It's more futuristic, and it's certainly riskier as a business model."

Key themes discussed

• Serial entrepreneurship and successful tech company exits.
• Structuring and achieving earn-outs during company acquisitions.
• Transition from tech to longevity and health span focus.
• The mission and activities of the 2060 Foundation.
• Importance of mental health and social connections in aging.

A few key takeaways:

1. Career Pivot to Longevity: Gabriel built and successfully exited two tech startups (including getemail.io), primarily in AI, big data, and marketing automation. After his last exit in 2021, he shifted his focus entirely to the field of longevity, dedicating the next chapter of his life to helping people live longer, healthier lives.

2. Longevity Ecosystem: Healthspan vs. Lifespan
Gabriel outlined two "ecosystems" within longevity:

Healthspan: Practical, current interventions like physical activity, nutrition, sleep, stress management, and proven supplements.
Lifespan: The science-driven, experimental side aiming to understand and potentially slow or even reverse aging at the biological level—an area that's more risky but with potentially greater breakthroughs.

3. The 2060 Foundation’s Unique Model: His 2060 Foundation is structured to bridge short-term and long-term solutions. In the short-term, they're building startups focused on healthspan (which investors and VCs more easily understand.) The profits and expertise from those support longer-term, riskier projects—like advocating for legal and regulatory changes and funding true lifespan-extending science.

4. Investment Club Approach: A core project of the 2060 Foundation is an investment group made up of entrepreneurs passionate about longevity. Their aim is to funnel more capital and mentor talent into both healthspan startups and true longevity biotech, without seeking profit for the foundation itself.

5. Policy, Prevention, and Advocacy
Gabriel emphasized two roadblocks to progress in longevity: Governments’ reluctance to fund true "preventative" healthcare versus reactive "sick care", and the fact that aging isn’t classified as a disease on a global medical level, which limits research funding.

Resources:

• Gabriel Cian: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gabriel-cian-807b39156/?originalSubdomain=fr
• Ikare.ai: https://www.ikare.ai
• 2060 Life Foundation: https://2060.life
• Prospect Wizard: http://www.theprospectwizard.com
• Promotion Vault: http://www.promotionvault.com
• HigherDose: http://www.higherdose.com

Every Wednesday we release our all new “HALO Academy: 2 Minute Financial Drill" by Integrity Square Founder & HALO Talks host, Pete Moore on everything you need to know for financial literacy, unit economics, legal documents used for M&A and capital raises, capital sources you can access, understanding how financings are structured, valuation metrics and parameters, and what you need to know about your own business before engaging in cap raises and/or a potential sale.

If you missed our email about this, you can re-read it here: https://mailchi.mp/9567da51c0ce/2025programschedule
======================================================
RESOURCES

• https://www.integritysq.com
  
  
• https://www.halotalks.com
  
  
• https://www.thehaloacademy.com ===================================================

ABOUT YOUR INSTRUCTOR

Pete is the Founder, Managing Partner and Chief Dream Architect at Integrity Square ("ISQ"), a leading boutique financial advisory firm focused on the $4.7T Health, Active Lifestyle, Outdoor ("HALO") sector. Since founding ISQ in 2010, the firm has played an active advisory role in 100+ mergers & acquisitions, private placements and advisory assignments across North America.

Pete Moore and his team have also invested in passionate entrepreneurs at HigherDOSE, XTEND, and Promotion Vault. ISQ's media and "live education" properties include HALO Talks, the leading B2B podcast in the sector, Time To Win Again, and the HALO Academy, an Executive Education Bootcamp Series.

Prior to ISQ, Pete was Head of the Active Lifestyle & Wellness Group at Sagent Advisors (2003-2010.) Prior to 2003, Pete was co-founder of FitnessInsite, a SasS sales management platform with 1500+ clients (based in AZ.) At FitnessInsite, Pete invested his personal capital, leveraged his credit cards and learned what it takes to manage a startup.

Pete built his business and financial acumen on top of the foundation laid at three critical positions early in his career: Senior Associate at Brockway Moran & Partners, the private equity owner of Gold’s Gym International, Inc; worked as an Associate at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette; and an Analyst at Chase Securities. (Now JP Morgan.)

ISQ saw a need for a deeper & more useful level of education in the HALO sector. In response, we launched the HALO Talks podcast, with 500+ completed interviews and over 120,000 downloads. HALO Talks has become a “must listen” for anyone working or investing in the sector.

Pete graduated from Emory University (BBA, 1994) and received his MBA from Harvard Business School (1999.) While at HBS, he co-founded IRON PLANET, the leading B2B auction site for used heavy equipment, which was sold to Ritchie Bros for $758 million. His hobbies include: Football, basketball, tennis, podcasting, amateur ventriloquism, pro bono DJ and fitness enthusiast.

1. Slamming Is a Serious Threat for Facilities
Slamming is a deceptive practice where unauthorized third parties trick business staff into signing up for expensive electricity supply contracts, often by posing as utility representatives. This can result in facilities unknowingly paying much higher rates.

2. Financial Impact Can Be Huge
Justin shares real-world examples where facilities ended up paying outrageous rates—like 30¢ per kWh (kilowatt hour) instead of the standard 10¢—sometimes adding up to thousands of dollars each month. One client’s bill was reduced from $15,000 to $5,000 per month after the issue was detected and resolved.

3. Most People Don’t Check Utility Bills Thoroughly
Business owners and their staff rarely scrutinize line items on utility bills, making it easy for slamming and mistakes like being placed in the wrong “rate class” to go undetected for years. One example saved a company $120,000 in refunds.

4. David Energy Offers Ongoing Bill Monitoring as a Free Value-Add
David Energy provides free bill “health checks” and ongoing monitoring to spot slamming and correct rate errors. This service is meant to protect clients from these costly mistakes and ensure they aren’t overpaying, with no obligation to switch providers.

5. Education and Proactive Partnering are Critical
Know the difference between utilities, suppliers, and brokers. David Energy acts as a direct supplier—not a broker—and works directly with Con Edison. Partnering with a provider who proactively reviews bills adds substantial value and financial protection for facility owners.

If you want to take advantage of their free bill review, reach out to Justin and the David Energy team with your most recent utility bill for a no-strings-attached analysis.

RESOURCES:

• David Energy: http://www.davidenergy.com
• Justin Rumack: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-rumack-75287b4/
• Contact: justin@davidenergy.com
• James McGinniss HALO Talks Webinar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYmyaiQ9Vi8