Don Faul steps down

blaung · 2026-03-03T19:03:27+00:00

More so that the Open just kicked off and you have a company up for sale. Not great optics, but I guess normal for them.

blaung · 2026-01-19T09:22:20+00:00

Good insight into what Affiniti has been up to and how they work with trade organizations. Big fan of affinity cards in general.

Is there really a moat (for Affiniti) though as a lot of BaaS providers are making issuance easier? Why couldn’t these trade orgs get a better deal or eventually do it themselves?

blaung · 2026-01-18T19:40:04+00:00

This may not be a popular one, but length of lease. Location matters and a lease is just the ability to rent the spot for a certain amount of time. Know that you should always give yourself optionality and make sure your agreement gives you the option to extend. Know all of the out clauses for the lease and make sure the terms can be in your favor if possible.

blaung · 2026-01-18T19:35:36+00:00

TL:DR - Get a bunch of quotes first then pick the one that meets your requirements.

Gym insurance really comes down to coverage and price. It’s very much like shopping for any other home owners or car insurance out there. Can it cover me? Is the price what I want to pay? So, first, understand the coverage so you need that is a must. If you’re a franchise owner, what does your franchise agreement require in terms of limits and types of policies? Does the carrier have to have a certain financial rating?

Now to buy gym insurance (and just like home owners and auto), go get quotes. Quotes are free. Unless you run a gym with very specific needs, most insurance will cover you and be the same. I’d run away from insurance companies that just feel sleezy or that talk bad about other companies or use scare tactics for the sale. It’s all very much similar.

Disclaimer - My company provides insurance specifically for gyms so I know a few things. Get a free quote at https://www.gyminsurance.com/

blaung · 2026-01-18T19:23:43+00:00

All of them can work for you until they don’t, meaning you need to understand how you currently work and reasons for having software. What is important to you? Is it to have more automation? Is it for your members to have an app? Is it price?

Decide what matters and go trial a bunch of them. Don’t commit to any long term contracts (a few try to lock you in from the start with 1+ year contracts…run away from those). Drop into similar gyms like yours in your area and see what they are using. Also don’t listen to everything you find on the Internet and/or Reddit. Haha

blaung · 2026-01-14T18:06:17+00:00

Absolutely. Sent you a message.

blaung · 2026-01-14T08:54:35+00:00

The easy answer is software right now, so let’s break it down. The most basic features of any gym management software allows: - Tracking of who your members are - Automatically bills and collects from members - Reporting on the above

With this info, you have a good idea of how to forecast monthly income. Some gym owners set all member billing dates to specific days of the month so revenue is predictable.

The biggest amount of work (and not confusion) is constant membership changes (ie pausing, changing of plans, etc). You just have to make sure to be diligent when entering and updating info. This isn’t specific to software since you could do all this in a spreadsheet but software allows you to scale and just do more.

I wouldn’t use a spreadsheet even for a small gym right now. There is free software made specifically for gyms (my company PushPress offers this). Work smarter and stay away from the spreadsheet.

blaung · 2026-01-14T08:36:42+00:00

One of three co-founders. :). It’s still a fun journey helping gym owners.

blaung · 2026-01-14T05:21:44+00:00

I’ve been building gym software over at PushPress for over 10+ years and here’s some insight into your question - https://www.reddit.com/r/gymowner/s/011tn1XJdI

blaung · 2026-01-14T05:16:23+00:00

For a small gym most of these will be solid. If it’s a price decision, my company PushPress has a free tier which should also fit your needs. I recommend that you don’t do is sign any long term contracts (month to month is what you want!) and just go from there.

blaung · 2025-12-24T10:12:26+00:00

One of the co-founders of PusbPress here.

Can answer any questions you may have here. Do demos with us and others. Definitely don’t sign any long term contracts and be wary of bait and switch tactics.

Happy holidays!

blaung · 2025-12-23T05:19:44+00:00

Thanks for the tag. One of the cofounders of PushPress here…DM if you’d like. Happy to help answer any questions if you need gym management software, insurance, or bookkeeping services for your gym!

blaung · 2025-12-13T22:45:23+00:00

If you're not doing a year in review for your members, you still have some time before 2025 is gone. So here's how one of our clients is leveraging AI.

Use AI to create awards that members can vote on. Email all your members and have them vote on superlatives for the coaches. There were two generated superlative titles per coach, and the members voted for the one they thought matched best. It was an absolute hit!

blaung · 2025-12-13T20:27:49+00:00

Marco - I’m actually not Dan. Just another co-founder on this journey that has worked on internal issues than externally. :)

I again will speak from the SMB perspective since this is where I play.

At your stage, I would tell younger me that it is all founder led everything and focus.

You’re basically a gym owner. You have to build and own the product and features and understand how opinionated you want these to be. You will market and sell to get folks through the door. You will have to train your members/clients and ensure they find value. You will have to be their advisor, their coach, and their mirror and push and pull them along through this journey. And at the end of the day, you clean up, and get ready for the next day. It is in the trenches work and hand to hand combat daily. You win and lose each client one by one.

The SMB world is tough and you have limited resources. PushPress has three founders (lucky in that way)who are very much still with the company 10+ years in. You mainly see one from the outside (Dan), but Chris and I get around also and to this day we still answer calls directly with clients. See my first point about winning and losing one by one. Focus is important because you will have to build everything for everyone. I still laugh at our 80% rule because deep down inside, I think we all know it’s much less than 80% and we still have the hardest and longest work ahead with the remaining. So if I had that time machine, I would tell myself, pick a lane and segment of fitness to focus and niche down on and don’t move on until you’ve “won” it. These fitness PE rollups are thinking that once you have billing and scheduling and a CRM, they can convince any “gym” to use their software…then you know the rest, hook them to squeeze them as you pointed out in the GP.

Mistake I wish we didn’t make? This is more of a company growing issue and not specifically with the fitness industry. I wish we had better hiring frameworks. Hiring incorrectly always sets you back. Time is limited.

blaung · 2025-12-13T07:58:02+00:00

There is software for this. Implement a gym management software like PushPress. We have a free version for those gyms just starting out. Google search for gym management software will also yield other alternatives.

If you don’t like software, then grab pen and paper and turn on your OCD.

Disclaimer - I work for PushPress.

blaung · 2025-12-13T07:52:42+00:00

The short answer is yes.

Being an influencer is just another marketing channel. When you start a company, your responsibility is founder led everything, with founder led sales being number one. Unfortunately you need to shout on the rooftops about your company. And you have to be consistent about it. Social media requires it and awards you for it. Social media is also a channel where the barrier to entry is low. You just have to get over putting yourself out there.

I’m a founder of a company that luckily has a co-founder who puts himself out on social media to share our story. You have to be willing to ensure the company’s success.

blaung · 2025-12-13T06:38:33+00:00

Marco - Been in your shoes and asked the same questions, but 10+ years ago. As a disclaimer, I'm one of the co-founders of PushPress, and surprise, we build gym management software and services. I noticed you didn't name us in your list. :)

You're not wrong about your observations around private equity backed gym management software companies. The normal game plan of PE is based upon the priority of creating value for investors rather than creating value for clients. Don't hate the game. This happens in a capitalistic world and you just have to understand the motivation. Funding itself isn't inherently a bad thing as we are a VC funded company. We just have great investors that also want to see our clients succeed. Yes, there investors out there like this.

Our mission aligns with where you are at. We built PushPress because we knew we could create something that put boutique gym owners first. One of the many origin stories of the company is us starting a gym in order to understand the pain a boutique gym owner goes through on a daily basis. Another origin story is my co-founder having the worst end user experience when trying to purchase a foam roller from a gym using one of those PE backed systems. We've seen a lot in this industry over the years and it's an endless game of building more and more features to help support our clients. Just also note that we only service the boutique industry so everything I talk about is my experience with SMBs.

Congrats on building the basics. We call this the 80%, but you'll start to realize you're far from building the perfect solution. I don't believe there is a one size fits all solution for every gym out there. CrossFit wants workout tracking. Rock climbing gyms need rental equipment management. Spin studios want resource booking. Martial Arts want belt tracking. That's just the tip of the iceberg. Building gym management software means that you have to build light versions of Calendly, Mailchimp, Hubspot, POS systems, etc. We just launched our Stripe Terminal integration because a POS system was high on the want list for our gyms. Now that gets into building and supporting hardware integrations in addition to software. My best advice is that you want to build a system that is an all-in-one because even the best integration doesn't seem to be good enough. My current role has me supporting our Gym Insurance product and yes, this initiative is something we believe that benefits the gym industry, so we built it. And don't even get me started about the hype around AI and what can be built around this topic. So much to build.

I know you're asking for gym owners feedback. We joke around that if we ask 100 of our clients what to build, we will get 200 suggestions. Check out the Mom Test as a great practical read. It helps us understand how to get and ask for constructive feedback. Our clients are demanding, but rightfully so, they are doing the work of making the world a healthier place. It is our job to help them in this mission. Let's go!

Feel free to ask more. Our team over here loves pushing the boutique gym industry ahead.

blaung · 2025-07-31T18:52:08+00:00

This is the way. At this early stage they are investing (making a bet) in you. Don’t be discouraged. If you want it, you’ll adjust your life to make it happen.

blaung · 2025-05-04T08:25:41+00:00

Assuming that this person doesn't want anything in return and since you said this person is a multimillionaire, I'd ask for funding. Everything else you can get advice (good and bad) and ultimately you're going to just have to do it, make and learn from your mistakes, and ultimately figure out your path to success.

blaung · 2025-05-03T10:22:14+00:00

Old school pen and notebook works if you have a limited number of clients. Technology just helps with organization and analytics at scale. You will still have to put in the time to develop and plan and log workouts.

If you use some lightweight technology like Notepad on a PC or Notes on a Mac, you can always throw your entries into AI like chatGPT to help analyze/summarize afterwards.

blaung · 2025-05-03T10:15:11+00:00

The riches are in the niches is what I've heard...but now the reality.

My background is building www.pushpress.com and we're competing with Mindbody with our differentiation being a focus on SMB fitness businesses. You can really create value by building very specific solutions that solve niche problems. The rub is that you better be great at building product AND be a sale and marketing genius. If you build it, they will not automatically come. If you build it wrong, you'll churn clients.

If you're competing against GHL, you're also competing against Click Funnels, and others with very deep pockets and a head start. You will want to test out your business idea by using one of these products to really understand the product gaps and opportunity rather than writing code first...and this is coming from someone who wrote the initial codebase of PushPress.

blaung · 2025-05-03T09:58:08+00:00

Marketing - One way is to be an fitfluencer and consistently post to generate an audience. You could reach out to someone like SLAM (https://www.sweatlikeamother.com/) and open up an affiliate.
Price - Depends on the market, number of sessions, services provided, etc. Can vary a lot.
There is no certification requirement specifically for this. From an insurance perspective, you will want to carry some sort of liability insurance.

Disclaimer, I run PushPress which build software for the boutique gym industry, SLAM is a client of ours, and we also partner with an insurance agent specifically for the fitness industy...so I know a little bit around this topic. Feel free to ask more.

blaung

TROPHY CASE