Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer and Tim
Speaker 1: Stenebek on Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 2: Well, the fitness market a few stats to throw out
Speaker 2: at you from various research groups. Virtual the virtual fitness
Speaker 2: market to be worth about one hundred and six point
Speaker 2: four billion by twenty thirty and then you got Gym membership.
Speaker 2: That market to reach over seventy billion globally by twenty
Speaker 2: thirty two. People work at you love working out?
Speaker 1: I do, yeah, when I can certainly find the time.
Speaker 1: It's good for us. We have to do it as people.
Speaker 1: I mean, this is like a central stuff. In general.
Speaker 1: The fitness sector roared back after being devastated by the pandemic.
Speaker 1: It also changed a lot during the pandemically the virtual
Speaker 1: stuff people working out at home. It continues to provide
Speaker 1: different offerings as a way to work out. Enter Forward
Speaker 1: Space Carol about five years ago. That was back in
Speaker 1: twenty eighteen, and.
Speaker 2: Great to have with us on zoom in New York.
Speaker 2: Kristin Sadeikas she's found her CEO and creative director of
Speaker 2: Forward Space. Kristin, so great to have you here on
Speaker 2: Bloomberg Business Week. First of all, how are you? And
Speaker 2: tell us about your world and forward space and how
Speaker 2: it all came to be.
Speaker 3: Thank you for having me, how did it come to be?
Speaker 4: Human connection? Very much in the business of human connection
Speaker 4: by way of movement and music. So I've been doing
Speaker 4: that as a choreographer and artistic director for a lot
Speaker 4: of my life and started to really notice a high
Speaker 4: demand and high just request of me personally. Where can
Speaker 4: I just go move, go dance, connect myself? And there
Speaker 4: just wasn't quite a space that merged the serious side
Speaker 4: of dance, technical side of dance, the social side of
Speaker 4: dance that's so essential to human connection and to what
Speaker 4: we're needing as social beings, you know, to be in
Speaker 4: a room together, the resurgence of how potent that is
Speaker 4: that people want to be in a room with other
Speaker 4: people working out and not just at home. And then
Speaker 4: the sweat side, which is the cardio workout side. I
Speaker 4: have a sport space bridges free.
Speaker 2: Oh I'm sorry, no, no, go ahead, please? Oh I
Speaker 2: think we lost hopefully that I'm.
Speaker 3: Here, I'm here, okay, good.
Speaker 4: It bridges the three yes, sorry, Carol. So it bridges
Speaker 4: the three together, the serious side of dance, or this
Speaker 4: technical side that a lot of people really want the
Speaker 4: training of how can I be better at dancing, but
Speaker 4: in an accessible, non intimidating way. The social side, which is,
Speaker 4: you know people are probably out doing somewhere right now.
Speaker 4: And then the sweat side, where people could get a
Speaker 4: workout and not just for their bodies, but for their
Speaker 4: minds and their emotional health and their energetic health.
Speaker 2: I have to say, and we apologize for it's zooms
Speaker 2: zoom always can get a little wacky. What's interesting And
Speaker 2: we talked over the summer. You know, I am from
Speaker 2: a large family. We love to dance, whether it's a
Speaker 2: wedding whatever. It's like, it's such a great workout, but
Speaker 2: you know, throw some music on and we're like all
Speaker 2: over the place.
Speaker 1: I want to go to one of these.
Speaker 2: But it sounds like that's what you know, you've really
Speaker 2: kind of you know, tapped into something of you know,
Speaker 2: you throw in some great music, you post your playlist,
Speaker 2: you curate them, and then you combine it with a workout.
Speaker 2: It's just I can I can get it?
Speaker 4: Yes, yes, And the human connection part of it all,
Speaker 4: you know, I mean that's really the genesis of it,
Speaker 4: is creating a space where people could connect, not just
Speaker 4: to others, first to themselves, then to those around them.
Speaker 4: Be it at a wedding, that same feeling where you know,
Speaker 4: you meet people on the dance floor, but then also
Speaker 4: the greater world around us in that order, again and
Speaker 4: again and again. In a dark room, I should I should,
Speaker 4: you know, share that part because we keep the lights
Speaker 4: very low because many people are very very nervous coming in.
Speaker 4: They have wanted a space to try to dance or
Speaker 4: use some have. There's one class that's a fire class,
Speaker 4: so there's free weights and a lot of sculpting exercises
Speaker 4: with little mini dance breaks in between. And that's for
Speaker 4: people that are all the way backed up, you know,
Speaker 4: while flower style.
Speaker 1: Yes, so you guys have an actual physical space in
Speaker 1: soho here at New York, but you can also do
Speaker 1: this virtually. How do you create, recreate, virtually create in
Speaker 1: the space and so how do you actually do that?
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, great question. It's similar to what we're doing
Speaker 4: right here right now. While we're not in the same room.
Speaker 4: It feels different, yet I can feel connected to you all.
Speaker 4: It to create a precise, precise portal going through the
Speaker 4: camera so that people receive the information in their homes.
Speaker 4: I think there's something really special about the fact that
Speaker 4: we have now expanded into the virtual and the many
Speaker 4: people that are doing it that also have a physical space,
Speaker 4: those of us that have the boats, and because people
Speaker 4: either come to our home if you will, and soho,
Speaker 4: and then we also have the opportunity to be in
Speaker 4: people's homes, you know, And that that's a key element
Speaker 4: I talk about when we're getting ready to film and
Speaker 4: things like that.
Speaker 3: It's to just take a moment and know that we're
Speaker 3: entering their space now and so, but how do you
Speaker 3: do it.
Speaker 4: Where it still feels electric? And it's in the delivery,
Speaker 4: it's in the professionalism, it's.
Speaker 3: In the training of it all. It's and making it
Speaker 3: look effortless, and the music.
Speaker 2: You know, it's really kind of interesting. I love the
Speaker 2: workout space and we've covered a lot here at Bloomberg
Speaker 2: and certainly at Bloomberg Business Week, and it really has
Speaker 2: taken off in so many different iterations. How do you
Speaker 2: think about differentiating yourself? I mean, you've laid it out,
Speaker 2: but it's a competitive field. I'm just curious if that's
Speaker 2: the top of mind that understand that you're competing for
Speaker 2: people's time, how they want to work out. I get
Speaker 2: the social component, but how do you think about that,
Speaker 2: because you do think about growing your business and throwing
Speaker 2: some business metrics because we are curious about how much
Speaker 2: the business has grown in the past five years.
Speaker 4: Sure, twenty twenty three alone in our one flagship space,
Speaker 4: we've seen twenty three hundred new clients. Wow, okay, and
Speaker 4: we have very minimal I'm just giving it kind of
Speaker 4: makes my chest still drop a bit because it's just
Speaker 4: affirming the demand that I saw traveling in the country
Speaker 4: and outside of the country creating dance concepts.
Speaker 3: But that's just in.
Speaker 4: Our SOHO space, in the physical space, and absolutely to
Speaker 4: the expansion.
Speaker 3: And do I worry about the competition apps?
Speaker 4: I mean no, uh, you know, absolutely no, because this
Speaker 4: is the grace of being a working dancer and choreographer
Speaker 4: first and foremost, you know, professionally starting to teach when
Speaker 4: I was thirteen, I was given the opportunity to do so.
Speaker 4: In even moving to New York from Kansas City, people
Speaker 4: would say, You're worried about the competition, you know, in
Speaker 4: the arts and things, and no, I was driven by
Speaker 4: the connection and how it shifts people's worlds individually and collectively.
Speaker 4: So the competition, like you know, kind of fires me up.
Speaker 4: I'm good to go with all that.
Speaker 2: As you know, we are Bloomberg. So I am curious
Speaker 2: about you know, are you profitable, what's the plan? Like
Speaker 2: do you want to how do you want to grow
Speaker 2: the business? Do you want to stay private? I'm just
Speaker 2: curious because you do have investors, you know AVC, You've
Speaker 2: got able partners, You've got G nine Ventures, You've got
Speaker 2: a bunch of people who've definitely ponied up money to
Speaker 2: back you.
Speaker 3: They did, they did, and brilliant people.
Speaker 4: And we are very intentional with who said yes to
Speaker 4: being a part of this with Ford Space. How do
Speaker 4: we plan to expand? Soho's our flagship space will continue
Speaker 4: to do activations. We've done them in London and out
Speaker 4: east in the Hamptons for five six weeks. We've got
Speaker 4: our eyes on the Upper east Side West Hollywood, LA.
Speaker 4: So these are the other physical spaces that will open.
Speaker 4: Chicago's in the mix, and then partnerships. Brand Partnerships has
Speaker 4: been one of the large lanes.
Speaker 3: You know, if you think of Ford Space.
Speaker 4: Obviously in the center here we've got our virtual our
Speaker 4: flagship Space are varying spaces that will open around ten
Speaker 4: or twelve the next five years.
Speaker 3: And then the brand partnerships.
Speaker 4: We've done things with a number of notable brands, large brands,
Speaker 4: and so building those relationships out further six K relationships,
Speaker 4: you know.
Speaker 1: Six What about potentially franchising like Orange theory is done.
Speaker 3: Right, I don't think we'll go that route.
Speaker 4: And that was early on when we were first building
Speaker 4: out the plan and doing I was doing the first
Speaker 4: round of investment a non convertible, non convertible note, convertible
Speaker 4: note forgive me for good convertible note, and I'm thinking
Speaker 4: about a noncompete that I was just on an email
Speaker 4: about there this week. As you know, they all merged together,
Speaker 4: so in the convertible note. That was a large conversation
Speaker 4: I had in a few of our key investors. We
Speaker 4: had some really strong meetings about knowing this flode will
Speaker 4: explode in all the ways, wanting to be intentional with
Speaker 4: it and to not Some of them had taken the
Speaker 4: franchise route and learned, and we don't think.
Speaker 3: That would be the route for Ford Space. It's not
Speaker 3: an absolute note, but it's likely not.
Speaker 2: Kristen really quickly thirty seconds, your brother is Jason Sudeikis, So,
Speaker 2: did you ever give him advice on Ted Lasso? Does
Speaker 2: he ever give you advice on a playlist?
Speaker 3: And just quickly, oh gosh.
Speaker 4: I mean we're passing music back all the time and
Speaker 4: talking life and talking all the things. But I mean,
Speaker 4: I know, never gave him advice on his body of work.
Speaker 4: His show I called the work that's been exhaled.
Speaker 3: That's brought such joy and talk about connection, human connection.
Speaker 4: But I mean, he's an amazing big he's an older brother,
Speaker 4: you know, my only brother, very close and feel very
Speaker 4: lucky to talk music and playlists and life and all
Speaker 4: these things.
Speaker 2: It's a yes, Well, listen so much fun. Next time,
Speaker 2: come join us. We'd love to have you in studio.
Speaker 2: Come back. We'll talk a little bit more about the
Speaker 2: business too. Yeah, I do some dancing. Christ And Zadaikas
Speaker 2: she's found her CEO and creative director of Forward Space.