Early investor and Executive Chairman of ClassPass Fritz Lanman will be taking over as CEO of the company, with cofounder and former CEO Payal Kadakia swapping with him for the Executive Chairman role.
ClassPass, for those of you who live under a rock, is a subscription services that are lets users book and access a variety of fitness grades and shop gyms under a single ClassPass membership.
The company has grown since its launching in 2012, after a tumultuous beginning and got a couple of successful pivots. When ClassPass was still only Classtivity, Lanman and his partner Hank Vigil stepped in to join the seed, and eventually led the Series A round on the heels of the re-brand to ClassPass. Since then, Lanman has served as Chairman of the Board( until now, of course ).
Before Lanman, ClassPass was simply a website that let you book and pay for grades online, without adding that monthly subscription framework that pairs so well with the business of fitness.
Lanman is a former Microsofter who has gone on to angel invest in corporations like Wish, Pinterest, and Square. Hes likewise the Chairman of the Board on two of his other portfolio corporations, Verst and Doppler Labs.
Kadakia told TechCrunch that she was the first to approach the idea of her and Lanman switching roles.
I started this company so I could have an impact on “the worlds”, told Kadakia. I want people to go to class, and thats the number one thing that drives me, that get me up in the morning. I crave my day, every day, to be surrounded by that mission, and as a company grows, product and eyesight become less of the day-to-day of a CEO.
On the other hand, Lanman has gotten his hands dirty with ClassPass in 2016, helping oversee a price hike that put the company in a difficult position.
To even margins out across all users of varying usage patterns FWIW, ClassPass operates at an average 20 percent margin on each user ClassPass was forced to raise prices and bundle subscriptions across three tiers. It cost ClassPass 10 percent of its user base, but it purposed up being the right decision, tells Lanman.
ClassPass doubled subscriber growth from 2015 to 2016, and was of the view that Q1 of this year stands be the highest growth quarter ever for the company. For reference, the pricing readjustment happened in Q2 2016.
Given that the cricks is comparatively smoothed out, its worth meditating what ClassPass has in store next. The company acquired FitMob in April of 2015 and has been operating from both seashores, with one agency in SF and the other in NYC.
Its easy to see how ClassPass might eventually expand its subscription bundling of experiences into verticals beyond fitness grades. The service has already incorporated regular age-old gym time into the service, and could very well move beyond fitness solely to help you book artwork classes or fine-dining experiences or even the theater.
But for now, ClassPass is get its executive ducks in a row.
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