Moment 74 - Business Struggles That No One Tells You: Payal Kadakia
In this moment, Classpass founder Payal Kadakia takes us inside the mental dilemmas and burdens of running a billion dollar business. Because when you’ve built a global company from nothing, no matter how big it gets you always remember when it was small, vulnerable, and struggling. You’ll always see the tiny company it used to be, not the behemoth it’s become. Payal freely admits to paying a heavy price of being too wary of this fear. She missed birthdays, lost friends, and severely effected her mental health. It took a lot of maturing and growing for Payal to achieve balance, balance between her work life and her home life, but also balance between what she wanted, and what she knew she needed. Full Episode - https://g2ul0.app.link/rpvHmKToatb Payal: https://twitter.com/payalkadakia https://www.instagram.com/payal
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HIBT Lab! ClassPass: Payal Kadakia
When Payal Kadakia first appeared on How I Built This in June of 2020, the future of ClassPass, a subscription service for in-person exercise classes, seemed very uncertain. The pandemic had shuttered gyms and fitness studios across the world, and ClassPass was relying on virtual events and wellness offerings in order to stay afloat.
This week on How I Built This Lab, Payal returns to talk with Guy about leading ClassPass through the worst of the pandemic and eventually selling the company to Mindbody in October 2021. Plus, Payal discusses her unique method of goal setting and her new book, LifePass: Drop Your Limits, Rise to Your Potential.
Listen to Payal's original How I Built This episode: https://art19.com/shows/831bd173-0992-41b7-b1eb-112db904d947/episodes/255b6c6c-98cf-48d5-be94-2bb9a81269fd/embed
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Classpass Founder: Quitting My 9-5 Led To A $1 Billion Business: Payal Kadakia
Payal is the founder of Classpass, the app that’s helped millions of users find their passion. Her own love of dancing encouraged her to start a business which enabled anyone, anywhere to find something they loved to do.
When Payal’s parents moved to America with no money and no connections, they had to completely start their life from scratch. Payal grew up in a home where her mother often wasn’t home, working late-night shifts to keep her family going.
How far Payal has come. Today she shares exactly how she got there. The sheer determination with which she ruthlessly sets her goals and priorities, and then systematically chases after them with everything she’s got, was hugely inspiring to me, and I’m sure it will be to you too.
Follow Payal:
Twitter - https://twitter.com/payalkadakia
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/payal
Payal's book: https://www.amazon.co.uk/LifePass-Groundbreaking-Approach-Goal-Setting/dp/1399706756
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https://beacons.ai/diaryofaceo
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Live From HIBT Summit: Payal Kadakia, Tristan Walker, and Perry Chen on Innovation
Our second episode from the 2021 How I Built This Virtual Summit is from our innovation panel with Payal Kadakia of ClassPass, Tristan Walker of Walker and Company, and Perry Chen of Kickstarter. In this live conversation with Guy, the panel talks about how innovation doesn't require newness, but rather, authenticity. We'll be releasing more episodes from the Summit, so keep checking your podcast feed.
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How to price your product to scale, w/ClassPass's Payal Kadakia
The price that bleeds your business could also save it. We're revisiting a classic episode with ClassPass' Payal Kadakia to focus something every entrepreneur struggles with: pricing. When you invent something innovative, you can’t know how to price it on Day One. But you need to get people in the door — a LOT of people — even if you have to price your product fatally low at first. In this episode, ClassPass founder and chair Payal Kadakia shares the winding path to the right price — and how the journey revealed what was most valuable about their service.
Read a transcript of this episode at https://mastersofscale.com
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ClassPass: Payal Kadakia
In the late 2000s, Payal Kadakia was working a corporate job and running an Indian dance company on the side. When a search for a ballet class yielded a confusing jumble of computer tabs, she had an idea: create the Open Table of the fitness industry – a search engine where users could sign up for classes in one streamlined place. When that idea failed, Payal pivoted multiple times, eventually landing on the subscription service ClassPass. Today, ClassPass connects users to hundreds of thousands of fitness classes around the world. It was valued at $1 billion earlier this year, but when the pandemic hit, it flattened the fitness industry, forcing Classpass to pivot yet again.
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20VC: ClassPass CEO Fritz Lanman on Betting His Career Facebook Would Be A $10Bn Company, Lessons From Travis and Uber on Scaling A Global Marketplace & Whether Growth and Capital Efficiency Are Mutually Exclusive
Fritz Lanman is the CEO @ ClassPass, the startup that provides the most flexible fitness membership ever. To date, they have raised over $154m in VC funding from the likes of Thrive, GV, CRV, Fifth Wall and Temasek just to name a few. As for Fritz, prior to ClassPass he was the Founder & CEO @ Livestar, a mobile recommendations startup that was acquired by Pinterest. Before that, he was a Senior Director in the Corporate Strategy Group @ Microsoft where he led several multi-billion dollar M&A evaluations and strategy projects including the Facebook investment and Yahoo deal. If that was not enough, Fritz is also a tremendously successful angel with a portfolio including the likes of Square, Pinterest, Wish, Flexport, Everlane and 75 or so more companies.
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Fritz made his way into the world of startups with Microsoft? How that led to angel investments in Wish, Flexport, Square and more? How he came to be CEO @ ClassPass?
2.) How did the $250m Microsoft investment in Facebook come about? What made Fritz so confident he told Steve Ballmer he was willing to bet his career it would be a $10Bn company? What was the decision-making process internally around that deal?
3.) How does Fritz assess his own asset allocation strategy? Why does Fritz not agree with thesis-driven angel investing? When starting angel investing, how did he approach portfolio construction? Why does Fritz believe it is immensely synergistic to be both an operator and angel? As a result, how does Fritz approach placing investors in a quadrant between helpfulness and high maintenance?
4.) Why does Fritz believe that your investor cannot be your recruiter? What have been Fritz biggest learnings on continuously attracting the best talent? Why does Fritz believe that it is BS that one should not celebrate fundraising? Ultimately, what does Fritz elieve fundraising signifies?
5.) ClassPass has expanded to 34 markets over the last few years, how does Fritz determine when is the right time to pour fuel on the fire? What are the 2 fundamental questions one must ask before you do? Does Fritz believe that aggressive growth and capital efficiency are mutually exclusive? How does Fritz think about capital efficiency with ClassPass today?
Items Mentioned In Today's Show:
Fritz's Fave Book: Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage to the Antarctic
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How to price your product to scale, w/ClassPass' Payal Kadakia
The price that bleeds your business could also save it. When you invent something innovative, you can’t know how to price it on day one. First, get people in the door — get a LOT of people in the door — even if you have to price your product fatally low at first. In this episode, ClassPass founder and chair Payal Kadakia shares their winding path to pricing and how it revealed what was invaluable about their service.
Read a transcript of this interview at: https://mastersofscale.com/payal-kadakia-how-to-price-your-product-to-scale/
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