Long before launching his fitness company, Athlo founder Matthew Mansell was an avid exercise enthusiast – so when he saw an opportunity to level up the world of workouts, he jumped at the chance. The result? Athlo, a platform that leverages the sharing economy, allowing brink-and-mortar gyms, their members, and other enthusiasts to come together and lower the cost of entry to the world of physical fitness.
Born of personal passion, and following a model similar to that of the wildly successful Airbnb, Athlo is now poised to be the next fitness unicorn.
Fitness and Finance: A New Union
After a childhood spent in club sports, Mansell says, “I was really fortunate. I was offered a contract in France to go and play rugby out there for a club called Auch, which was an incredible experience.” After some time on the team, the Athlo founder realized he wasn’t destined to have a long-term career in professional sports. As such, he pivoted, returning to London to start a career in finance.
During which time, he invested in “a gym membership, a tennis membership, and multiple boutique packages in London. Financially, I couldn’t justify that” once his work no longer brought him to the city on a daily basis.
While canceling his bevy of enrollments, Mansell realized: There were plenty of people in the same position. In fact, he recalls, “I was seeing these tennis courts I used to be a member of and they were absolutely deserted during off-peak times. That got me thinking.”
From Thoughts to Action
Recognizing that his tennis facility wasn’t alone in the issue, Mansell connected with friends in the industry who owned London-based gyms or boutique studios. They confirmed Mansell’s observation: Across the board, club members were underutilizing locations. And this helped him realize that the entire industry would benefit from customers getting more use from any given fitness membership.
Mansell says, “I was looking at the research and doing my own due diligence, looking at the utility, the usage, how often people are using their memberships and the trends associated with churn and certain disrupters within the sector, and looking at the recent success of companies like Turo and Airbnb. I wanted to tap into that sharing economy trend.”
And he did just that with Athlo, a platform that allows members of app-partnered facilities to rent out their unused days or classes, recouping some of their initial financial investment. Currently, Athlo’s partners are all London-based fitness facilities; most are boutique studios. However, the platform has plans to scale, bringing on larger chains and international facilities as Athlo partners.
And this growth shouldn’t be a stretch since, as Mansell says, “What we believe we have done is solved the conundrum of creating a product in the fitness industry where every stakeholder wins. The gyms benefit ? via higher retention numbers. The [app users] benefit ? as they are able to experience a variety of different fitness facilities without incurring full membership costs or subscription fees, and our members benefit in that they can recoup some of their sunk costs on memberships they have already paid for. Everyone wins.”
Entering Unicorn Territory
With a founder deeply invested in his product and a model that lifts the entire community, the buzz around Athlo is that it’s the next fitness unicorn. Furthering that likelihood? Athlo launched at a time when the global economy is uncertain, making everyone more careful with their money. Plus, the workforce is following an increasingly hybrid model, meaning many fitness members can only access their city gyms for half the week (or less) due to hybrid work from home schedules. Now more than ever, they need to see gym memberships as smart investments. And Athlo can help them do this, which is why Mansell is grateful for the timing of his launch.
He notes, “Airbnb ? launched during a recession. That may have been its defining factor: timing. People were looking to make money on assets they were sitting on, trying to monetize things. This certainly won’t be true for every sharing app, but I do think if you can monetize something and everyone benefits economically, there is certainly opportunity there for a business. And that is what we saw with Athlo.”
Does that mean Athlo’s value will dwindle when the economy improves? Unlikely, says Matthew Mansell: “We have enough going for us in our offering.” As such, he believes that Athlo will follow the Airbnb model and continue to grow as the economy improves. After all, he says, “We are your passport for fitness.” And, for fitness enthusiasts everywhere, that drive to stay active is a constant worth banking on.
