HALO Talks

J.Dennis Jean-Jacques is an experienced investor with over 20 years in finance. He is currently the CIO at Ocean Park Investments. His work is based on lessons from renowned figured such as Jeff Ubben, Peter Lynch, and Warren Buffett, and specializes in deep dive, fundamental investing and long-short equity investing. Dennis and HALO Talks host Pete Moore make this a master class! This episode is a "must listen" for anyone in the HALO sector who wants a basic primer on types of investments, deal flow, private equity funds, hedge funds, and more.  J.Dennis was inspired to pursue an investment career after Buffett's visit to his Harvard Business School class. He dedicated the next 20 years of his life to fundamental and long-short equity investments.  He eschews "trends," and . . . by following basic business fundamentals . . . is able to identify great opportunities in the public markets. He learned to find the best investments by understanding the deep reality of the businesses and avoiding fancy strategies f

John Merris is the CEO of Solo Brands, a public company that's making huge inroads in the outdoor space. With strong, in-the-trenches experience in sales and growth (he started as a door to door salesman!) Merris joined the company as its 7th employee and has since helped them acquire 3 other brands that now fall under the Solo Brands umbrella: Solo stove, Oru kayak, Chubbies apparel, and ISLE paddleboards. When he was approached by the founders of Solo stove, a smokeless fire pit company that was actually based in hometown which he hadn't heard of previously, he was very intrigued and, nine days later, ended up joining as the 7th employee! Through his growth mindset and track record of building teams, John was soon asked to become the CEO, successfully acquired the other brands, and helped take the company public. Going public, however, also brings some unexpected emotions and tricky waters you have to navigate as a leader. He quickly realized that by taking care of customers and maintaining a long-term view

Helaine Knapp, a self-professed "tech junkie" with a Big Ten education and a penchant for healthy living, risks it all to launch a boutique fitness empire, only to discover the water is colder and the monsters more fierce than she ever imagined. City Row is over 10 years old and they were one of the first to "make rowing sexy" and bring it to the forefront.  She is now an expert in connected fitness, having built a best-in-class software platform and content production.  Helaine was always a fitness enthusiast, but she had to learn the hard way to take it slow. After college, Helaine was working in tech startups when her love for fitness kicked in again. She was a "Spinning junkie," trying to out-work everyone else, but it led to her herniating three disks in her lower back. After this, she developed a concept for a boutique fitness studio, and recruited her old college friend Annie Mulgrew to help. Together, they built City Row from the ground up, and in the process, created an empire. Despite the challenges

Hassan Shah is an avid gamer and entrepreneur from Pakistan who is passionate about the intersection between connected fitness, sports, and gaming. He's set out to transform the fitness market with an innovative open world game, mixing Peloton and Zwift, which (among many other things) creates an all-encompassing experience with a unique monetization system. His company is called X-Originz and based in the UK. They're currently looking to raise £2.7m to order their first batch of 10,000 bikes and take them to market.  When it comes to starting a new business and the challenges it brings, Shah states, "Life is nothing without struggle. And that's always kind of stuck with me, and hopefully I'll pass that on to my children and we persevere and we keep going."  Hassan took note of the rise and fall of Peloton, some of the shortcomings of Zwift, and set out to create an app that combined the two, providing an engaging gaming experience. With his vision of a centralized data system and a bike costing next to noth

Jim Donnelly is the CEO and founder of Restore Hyper Wellness, a company focused on "making hyper wellness affordable and accessible for more people." He is a serial entrepreneur and a highly experienced leader with a passion for helping others. Six or seven years ago he found himself training for a triathlon and, after a friend suggested cryotherapy, he decided to try it out, but was unhappy with the experience-putting it mildly! He thought he could do it better, and he certainly has! They began adding other medical modalities (they offer 10 currently), have 165 locations open, a corporate office with 200 employees, 700 more stores on a development schedule, and a $140 million dollar investment by General Atlantic partners to top it off!  Part of their success stems from the fact that they've been very selective about their franchisees. They're continuing to aggressively expand with a new store opening every three to four days (as of this recording.) He states, "We've created a national infrastructure. We do

When Donald Kelly, Founder of the Sales Evangelist, attempts to teach a group of businesses how to infuse sales back into their culture, he discovered that the key to success is building genuine relationships with clients (especially during discovery) and establishing a bridge between the value of your solution and their problem. He states, "The most effective organizations . . . they all have the pedigree that everyone is in sales. Even if it's a brick and mortar with a cashier at the front, all the way down to a senior executive, if you can have that sales mentality . . . it's going to be a very successful company. Here's one of the reasons why passion is critical: If you have people on your team who don't believe in what you're doing, then why are they even on your team?" Donald grew up in Jamaica and shares his experiences around how everyone had to find ways to survive. It was tough going for sure. He went on to develop his skills through years of in-the-trenches experience in business-to-consumer sales

When Jason Moore, an entrepreneur with a background in data, software, and fitness decided to apply his expertise to the body, he quickly discovers a powerful, but ironic truth: The most valuable piece of equipment in the world is his own. He has developed a technology platform called Spren which uses device agnostic and camera sensing technology to deliver science-backed insights about the body. He states, "You have this high dollar, incredibly expensive equipment where if it fails, it can literally kill people or waste millions or billions of dollars. Imagine how much effort gets put into preventive and predictive care of that equipment! Eventually, I came to realize the most valuable piece of equipment in the whole world is my own body. So why am I not spending the same level of preventive and predictive care on myself?" Spren provides guidance and feedback on things like nutrition, inflammation, stress, exercise and recovery. They have been able to collect over 4 billion data points from 700,000 users, an

In his second appearance on HALO Talks and as the now newly installed President of Stronger U (part of the Self Esteem umbrella), Adam Zeitsiff discusses their Mission of helping people achieve their nutrition goals and build meaningful human relationships with RD's and certified nutrition coaches, challenging the 95% diet failure rate and revolutionizing the way we think about nutrition. Stronger U has now been in business for 7 years and has an incredibly supportive community of 50,000+ strong!  "There's no shortage of apps and tools out there that use technology and help drive people to understand [nutrition] education. I think what we've been really successful at doing is humanizing the approach . . . We're unapologetically about the human-to-human relationship, because what's more intimate than what you put in your body? There's not a lot of things that are more intimate than that. And you need another human to help guide you through it and understand not just the specifics about what you're eating, but

Join Randi Eisenshtat, a long-time industry veteran as she shares her story of initially starting out teaching everything from cardio funk and hip hop to getting involved with the fundraising world helping secure hundreds of thousands of dollars for non-profits like St. Jude, Cycle for Survival, the Sunrise Assocation, and others. She has over 17 years of experience having worked for Lifetime and Equinox, still teaches, and runs a financial planning practice as well. She's recently done a great deal of work with the incredible Sunrise Association, a now international organization that provides a full service summer camp for children with cancer and their siblings. She continues to work tirelessly . . . combining her love of fitness and fundraising. The second annual RISE UP for Sunrise was held September 2022 and raised nearly $14,000!  She's seen a lot of change in the HALO sector, and when it comes to the 'big box versus boutique' question she states, "I find that these big box gyms, because they are provid

With the noble goal of creating a calisthenics online brand to help others--especially those just starting out--Hampton Liu remains determined to maintain his freedom and authenticity while attempting to balance the challenges of growing his brand month over month. He is a certified personal trainer, passionate fitness enthusiast, and the founder of Hybrid Calisthenics, an online brand and community dedicated to helping others achieve their fitness goals.With just over 3 million subscribers on his YouTube channel alone, Hampton has made incredibly impressive strides in a very short time period. He states, "I haven't redefined what success looks like. For me, it's just doing what I like and being happy and helping others be free and happy. That's so cliche. But I can't give another answer because it is true, which is why I've repeatedly chosen freedom, which is one of the parts of the brand sponsorship things over money and people having leverage over me. Another thing that early entrepreneurs have issues with

Adam Molda is a former college tennis player-turned-fitness entrepreneur from York, Main. He's the founder of Spark Fitness & Tennis Club and has a passion for creating communities and fostering relationships through the sport of tennis. Since COVID, America has seen 5 million new players come to the game and the opportunity to promote the sport is bigger than ever. He talks about transforming a big box facility into something with a more "boutique feel" with the overarching mission of building a heavily focused, tennis-based community. On the operations side he states, "All our tennis is based around being social, being competitive, and just getting better. Our most popular tennis program is our own type of cadio tennis. I'm not a big fan of the 'traditional' cardio tennis, so we've created our own, and it's our most popular program. Starting Sunday morning for example, we have four courts and 32 people coming to do our version--Sparks version of cardio tennis. And then the next hour and a half, we have

Arnab Raychaudhuri is an engineer, tech entrepreneur, and former field organizer for the Obama campaign. He is passionate about fitness and is currently working to revolutionize the virtual fitness industry with his company, ZOMO Fit. Arnab was an engineer living in New York City when the pandemic hit. He noticed local gyms quickly took to running live Zoom classes to help keep things alive while they were shut down. This gave him the initial idea to create a platform--specific to the fitness industry--using his tech background. He created Zomo Fit, a platform which, among many other things, now gives customers access to every single instructor at SoulCycle for $34 classes. He believes that virtual fitness is an $8 billion opportunity that is projected to increase to $60 billion in the next couple of years. Prior to jumping into entrepreneurship though, an opportunity with his friends came up to work for a then, relatively unknown Senator Obama. He later hustled hard to later land a job in his administration

When Sam Miller, an industry outsider, took up the "minor" challenge of attempting to revolutionize strength testing and training, he ended up manufacturing a device unlike anything else currently available--something which helps unlocks previously inaccessible insights into physical strength--and launching him into a head-to-head battle for content against existing equipment makers. Sam is the CEO and Founder of Proteus Motion, a revolutionary strength testing and training device that provides full body assessments in three minutes and unlocks new insights into physical strength and human performance. He got into the HALO sector after enduring years of physical therapy as a young kid. He took a mechanical concept his Dad initially invented at MIT and redesigned it, creating a revolutionary strength testing device that produces two times more muscle activation than a free weight or a cable machine. Proteus is quickly becoming a standard for human performance, providing trainers with the data they need to diag

Joseph C. Maroon, M.D., is a Neurosurgeon and Vice Chairman and Professor of the Department of Neurological Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. He's regarded as a premiere specialist in the surgical treatment of injuries and diseases of the brain and spine and considered an authority in sports medicine and concussion management. He's been the team Neurosurgeon for the Pittsburgh Steelers and Medical Director of World Wrestling Association, as well as authored over 300 peer-reviewed scientific articles and numerous books. His most recent is Square One: A Simple Guide to a Balanced Life. "After asking for objective data from coach Chuck Knoll, I went to neuropsychological colleague Mark Lovell, and we designed the Impact Test: Immediate Post Athletic Cognitive Testing, which eventually became computer based and has now become the standard of care in the NFL and all major contact sports. And we've evaluated over 20 million tests in kids and various levels subsequently," states Maroon. Dr. Mar

Nearly 30 years ago, Fit Bodies came up with the unique idea of meeting high end resort's staffing needs by matching them with highly experienced and credentialed fitness professionals who were willing to teach a few classes while they were on vacation. It's a business model that has served the Founder, Suzelle Snoden, quite well over the years. She has over 30 years of experience in the fitness industry, and her company has placed instructors in some of the most prestigious resorts in the world with a network of approximately 50,000 instructors across the globe representing all all specialty areas. (Pilates, yoga, cycling, etc.)  "So what we're doing for our clients, our hotel partners, is we're providing that programming for their fitness with qualified educated professionals that they wouldn't know how to resource. Those people actually having their own vacation, the instructors, and while they're on the property, they teach classes to the resort guests. They're actually inspiring people to be healthy and

In this episode, Derek Flanzraich discusses his journey as an entrepreneur and how he is using his new company, Ness, to democratize access to health, in part by using credit cards to incentivize healthy behaviors.  Derek Flanzraich initially started as the CEO and Founder of Greatist, a company that later became the the leading health and wellness media company for Millennials. He is currently the CEO and Founder of Ness, a credit card company that rewards people for making healthy choices. When he started digging deeper into (some of the many problem with health care in this country!) he states, "There's just no denying that no matter how friendly you make health and wellness, it still is very expensive and hard to afford for most people. And I was hit sort of smack in the face with this about a year and a half ago, which was about a year and a half after I sold my last company . . . Why is it that health insurance, which seems like it should care about your long term health, actually doesn't?" Derek talks

"People are more likely to trust a business that has been recommended by a friend or family member, or that has positive reviews online. Nielsen did a survey with 30,000 people and found that approximately 92% of decisions regarding which businesses to patronize are based on other people's opinions, recommendations, and reviews," states Andre Cvijovic - Founder and CEO of Referrizer, an extremely robust marketing automation platform that helps businesses grow by generating leads and increasing sales. Referrizer's "sweet spot" are fitness facilites that hover near or above the $100 per month price point.  Prices for their system vary and range from $200 up. Interestingly, they also provide a (virtually unheard of!) complete, "done for you" system where they will keep working for you until they get you the results they promise. Referrizer actually integrates with many CRM's (for example MindBody) so you can track exactly how much revenue their efforts are generating.  In this episode, you will learn: 1. How Re

When John Klein, a HALO sector veteran with 20+ years of experience, launches a unique workout recovery franchise, he finds himself confronting the challenges of balancing "art and science" to ensure success while bringing a luxurious, experiential offering to market in highly competitive geographic areas. John's held positions at Town Sports International and Equinox, and is currently the Co-Founder of Pause Studio, a health and wellness franchise with six different service modalities and a team of experienced professionals. Three unites are currently open in Los Angeles with two more coming.  This episode of HALO Talks talks a lot about franchise business strategies, real estate selection, and bringing a high-end concept into competitive markets. John, a 17+ year friend of host Pete Moore, discusses his experience in the health club space and the critical importance of real estate when it comes to franchise businesses. John and his team developed a playbook for selecting the best trade area and real estate

Sue Hitzmann is an exercise physiologist and neurofascial science and research educator with 25 years of experience in the fitness industry. She is a founding member of the Fascia Research Society and the creator of the MELT Method, a system of self-massage and movement to help alleviate chronic pain. She started in the industry in 1988 as a fitness professional and an exercise physiologist. When she realized that what she learned in fitness was not able to aleviate her own chronic pain, she dove into neurofascial science and research. She developed the MELT Method in 2004 as a way to help people alleviate chronic pain, and has since then taught it in group exercise, conducted teacher trainings, and written multiple books, one of which became a NY Times best seller. Over the years she's learned quite a bit about growing and scaling a business, but one of the most important aspects is learning to being ok with charging what you're worth for services that can literally change someone's life! She emphasizes the

Dan Rubenstein is the CEO of Pups Pet Club, a pet care company with five locations in Chicago and Brooklyn. He has over 20 years of experience in the space, and is passionate about providing the best possible care for dogs.  Dan took an interest when he had to find care for his dog while he was working. He eventually found a service that took his dog to a park to run around, but they didn't listen to him when he said not to take his St. Bernard out in hot weather and--very sadly--his dog Sidney ended up in the hospital and passed away. :( This motivated Dan to start his own, best-in-class, pet care business for many reasons, not the least of which was to make sure something like this never will happen to anyone else. Today, Pups Pet Club (which officially started in 2015), is a highly successful venture with five locations and many more planned. He attributes their success to their focus on taking care of dogs, their people, and their technology. He believes that the pet industry has potential for much more g