Maverick Community is a shared space for physical therapists and performance specialists to run their own thriving businesses. We create an environment that supports like-minded individuals to grow themselves and their careers.
👨👨👦 Team
✨ Strategy
❓ FAQs
👋 Join Us
🔗 Website
〽️ About Maverick
- A high-end home base for the top physical therapists and performance specialists: As a space, Maverick is a pay-per-use, state-of-the-art, trainer-owned gym for independent physical therapists and personal trainers.
- A path to a predictable sustainable future: As a service, Maverick offers the best physical therapists and fitness trainers a path to growth for their health + fitness brand and personal financial future.
- A community that empowers physical therapists and trainers to push beyond their potential: As a whole, Maverick is a partner in pushing clients toward success, focused on creating long-term relationships with physical therapists and trainers by providing them with all the tools they need to take their business to the next level.
- Maverick leases retail or industrial space, ideal size 3k-5k sqft, and provides scientifically advanced fitness equipment and team member help (think of Maverick as a management team).
- Physical therapists and trainers apply to train at Maverick. The ideal trainers are experienced, busy trainers working 20+ hours per week who want to grow. We believe each trainer needs 200 sqft, which means 3k sqft of training space can fit 15 trainers. It is crucial that the facility is private and not crowded.
- Physical therapists and trainers pay for Maverick’s facility space by the hour via prepaid packages and keep 100% of their client’s payment.
- Physical therapists and trainers bring their client base, set their pricing, and decide when, what, and how to teach their sessions.
- The physical therapist and the personal trainer are our members, not the end-user/clients, as we believe that focusing on their success will create the best environment for everyone. As our network of studios and our ecosystem of well-curated trainers increases, we will help drive new clients to the physical therapists and trainers so that they can hire mentees and scale.
- View our trainer guidelines here.
You’d think the top talent in physical therapy and personal training has the resources to take their business to the next level.
That’s far from the case. Today’s best physical therapists and trainers don’t have access to the best state-of-the-art equipment—namely because gyms just don’t have it (or have enough of it). And if therapists or trainers are working independently, they must adapt to clients' home gyms or lug around their own equipment.
Beyond the tangible resources, this elite group may have a business strategy focused on the short term—but often lack a long-term path toward sustainable, predictable growth. And that’s for a few reasons: they’re focused on serving their clients in the present, which means they don’t have the time or resources to dedicate to admin and marketing. And in some cases, they have to split their brand real estate—and earnings— with the clinic or gym they work at.
And in terms of earning independently, they’re locked into an hourly wage model that doesn’t generate growth over time and are burnt out seeing too many clients per day.
There’s a ceiling in place for even the most successful physical therapists and personal trainers—because the next step in building on their current success isn’t clear.
- Make more money while saving time: With zero overhead, physical therapists and trainers start earning more money immediately due to a lower rental cost. Plus, they can scale by bringing in mentees to teach their method and earn on their behalf.
- High-end equipment: Not only do we have the newest, most state-of-the-art equipment—we have the most of it, giving physical therapists and trainers what they care most about: their tools.
- Tools for scalable success: Members will be provided resources to build their business, including admin and marketing support.
- Amplification of their personal brand: Maverick amplifies physical therapists and trainers, and doesn’t require them to be under any brand umbrella. At Maverick, your brand is front and center.
- An exclusive, passionate community: Physical therapists and trainers will network with and learn from the best talent, and allow clients to make connections in this exclusive community as well. Plus, due to the limited number of spots, our members will never be faced with overcrowding.
- A path to earn ownership in Maverick: The physical therapists and trainers that train the most sessions at Maverick have the ability to earn ownership in Maverick Community’s mothership company. Physical therapists and trainers in the top 15% of training sessions at Maverick can become part owners and get to be part of the growth of our brand. As our physical therapist and trainer members grow their businesses, Maverick grows too—so the success of our members leads to Maverick opening more locations, ultimately increasing the value of the company and the member's ownership share.
- Privacy: Because it’s a private gym, you won’t ever be waiting for equipment with your coach
- Exclusivity: You can only come if you are with a Maverick coach
- Community: You’ll be around the best coaches and other motivated individuals who are accomplishing their goals.
- An Elevated Experience: Machines and equipment are all top-end and always changing/adding, so you have the best tech to work out with.
- High-End Products: You and your clients get the best shampoo (UNI), soap, soft towels, etc.
Our mission is to set the most successful physical therapists and personal trainers up for a lifetime of sustainable success.
We empower physical therapists and trainers to push beyond their potential today, so that they can build a backbone for their future.
Through offering a high-end home base, a community of exclusive talent, admin tools, and scalability in their business and brand, we’re creating an environment aimed at helping physical therapists and trainers level up their business so that they can create sustainable growth in the future.
How does Maverick Community set the most successful physical therapists and personal trainers up for a lifetime of sustainable success?
How does Maverick Community help physical therapists and trainers live more free, healthy, and happy lives?
- What is happiness?
- What is healthy living?
- What is freedom?
How does Maverick Community make fitness and wellness more accessible?
Thank you to Warren Berger for the mission question inspiration.
Our standard to build the best experience for coaches is backed by providing top-of-the-line equipment, friendly service and key tools to help coaches grow.
Our success lies in helping the true Mavericks—individuals who are ready to grow and love the challenge of improving every day.
We provide a home base for physical therapists and trainers and clients to do what they love. If it’s not fun, it’s not worth doing.
We take action to make the world a better place. We’re committed to helping people help people.
- Power to the Trainer
- The premiere homebase for L.A.'s best physical therapists & performance specialists
- Committed to helping people help people
- Maverick definition: An independent-minded person, someone who is not a fan of the status-quo. Someone who does something differently.
- We are creating and fostering a community of Mavericks. Individuals that strive to grow their brands and be in an environment with unlimited potential.
1️⃣ Location #1: West Hollywood, CA
From proof of concept test kitchen in Playa Vista ➡️ 1.0 space in West Hollywood
- We opened our first test kitchen location in Q4 2021 in Playa Vista, CA (Los Angeles). We signed a one-year lease to test our concept and took over a former 7,500 sqft yoga studio, allowing us to rent out 3 group studio rooms and a shared personal training area. During our one-year test, we proved that independent coaches want their own space, as we had over 150+ coaches and trainers training their clients at our facility. While our customers loved our services and brand (77 Net Promoter Score), we quickly learned that the Playa Vista location wasn’t set up correctly to focus on the top one-on-one trainers and physical therapists who were most successful in our space. After ~1 year at Playa Vista, we decided to take all of our learnings and relocate to a space where we could most successfully serve our most profitable customers.
- Read more HERE about our decision to move away from group trainers + digital services and more towards in-person, one-on-one coaches.
- We opened our West Hollywood location on April 1, 2023. We took over a former MMA gym, remodeled the space (bathroom overhaul, new flooring, removed the drop ceiling and a separation wall, and assembled new equipment), and opened 4 weeks after receiving the keys.
- Our West Hollywood location is the first custom facility explicitly built for the most successful independent performance physical therapists and personal trainers, the highest-earning coaches in the fitness space.
- Click HERE to read about our initial traction (or scroll down to Traction + Updates)
👨👨👦 Team
Michael Fishman
- Co-founder, CEO of Pure Cycles - a bicycle company started in college at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and ran for 10 years before being acquired in April 2020.
- BS in Real Estate, University of Wisconsin-Madison
- Forbes 30 Under 30
Links
- 💼 : LinkedIn
- 📧 : michael@bemav.com
Christian Straka
- Mindfulness coach and facilitator - corporate clients such as Adidas, Netflix, Amazon, and Facebook
- Mindsize Co-Creator, CEO
- Adidas Runners Global Mindset Coach, Adidas Runners Mindset Coach LA
- Former professional tennis player and professional coach for players such as Mike Bryan and Victoria Azarenka
Links
Marcellus Wiley
- Inducted into the Columbia University Athletic Hall of Fame
- Played ten seasons in the NFL with the Buffalo Bills, San Diego Chargers, Dallas Cowboys, and Jacksonville Jaguars.
- Known for his community involvement, his team voted him the Walter Payton Man of the Year three times.
- Broadcast media analyst for ESPN and FOX SPORTS
- Founder, “Project Transition,” a charitable organization that provides leadership training to at-risk youth with the goal of creating tomorrow’s thought leaders.
Links
- 🔗 : Website
Steve LePore
- Founded three successful non-profit organizations - My Friend’s Place, The Santa Clarita Valley Youth Project, 1in6
- 30 years of experience as a non-profit Executive Director
- Speaker and storyteller with audiences, including at the Pentagon
Links
- 📧 : steve@bemav.com
💨 Traction + Updates
We send regular updates. Sign up below to be added to the list, and check out the archive below.
These updates and thoughts were initially created by and for the Maverick Community founder team. We decided to make them public as we believe putting these notes into the universe will bring more value to others and the overall mission compared to any potential downsides.
Our goal is to allow for an inside look at our building process to encourage other potential entrepreneurs thinking about starting a business, help build exactly what future wellness professional entrepreneurs are looking for, and spread our message of making wellness and fitness more accessible.
Additionally, this information will be a helpful database for institutional knowledge. We plan to build a remote-first company where our employees can work wherever is best for them, and sharing the beginnings of the company will help us ensure all team members understand the type of culture we are striving to create.
We look forward to your comments and questions.
UPDATE: Further thoughts on this Challenges of Building in Public
Company Updates
Collection of longer form ✍️ "Thoughts" from the updates above:
👾Single-Player to Multi-Player —> creator collabs and cross-promoting to solve top of funnel and distribution challenges
✨ Strategy
We’ve carefully selected the top scientifically advanced equipment to build the dream home for independent physical therapists, athletic trainers, and personal trainers. Christian researched countless hours, and we flew across the country, attending multiple equipment trade shows and other fitness facilities over the past two years. We installed air under our floor to power our main line of machines from Keiser (pneumatic air system instead of traditional plate-loaded weights), and we have multiple pieces of equipment that are the first in Los Angeles. Take a deeper look at the equipment HERE.
- Our physical therapists and trainers renting space from us have told us that their clients feel like professional athletes when they walk through our doors, and they don’t want to train anywhere else (including Olympian and world record holder Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone).
The best way to attract and retain top physical therapist and trainer professionals is by offering tools that allow them to do their jobs better (see above) and by carefully curating who is allowed to train at the facility. Christian has done an incredible job identifying and befriending the right successful people (successful = busy + growth mindset + professionally trained/schooled + pillars of their community). We’re not for the ordinary physical therapist or trainer. We’re going after and attracting the top 1%. The secret sauce to this business is building a network/community of these top professionals, something no one else has done.
All our customers have come from referrals from existing customers. We’re finding that all the best physical therapists and trainers know each other, and we’re providing such unique and personalized service to our best customers that they want to help us by spreading the word (example HERE). It’s also interesting that our best new customers that have joined from referrals were not even on our prospect list… the most talented and busy professionals are mostly not promoting themselves heavily online.
- This business will get easier as we open new locations, and we plan to take advantage of our growing network by opening locations close to one another, starting in Southern California, as opposed to opening in large cities such as NYC, Miami, etc. (the local competitive advantage Walmart approach vs. the Target approach).
- NOTE: Organic word-of-mouth referrals are the strongest way to build a sustainable business, and they’ve allowed us to build an authentic brand that attracts the most talented community of professional physical therapists and trainers without advertising and pushy selling.
We are looking to take over existing gym and boutique studio space so that the build-out will be affordable and quick. It is estimated that 1/4 of gyms and boutique studios went out of business in 2021 and 2022.
We believe that, in the short-term and long-term, Maverick Community doesn't need to be on the ground floor on the hottest corner of the best neighborhood. Just as we are seeing with DNVBs (Digitally Native Vertical Brands = e-commerce brands that open their own physicals locations to control the entire consumer experience), brands with direct connections to their customers are not relying on foot traffic as they can drive physical traffic anywhere. We've seen trainers able to get their clients to follow them anywhere.
We have the following initial requirements for our initial locations in addition to our first location in West Hollywood:
- Locations: Santa Monica, Venice, Mar Vista, Culver City, Century City, Brentwood, Beverly Hills, Sherman Oaks, Studio City, Pasadena (again, we are okay with being on the fringe of these cities, and we don't need to be on "main street").
- Parking: convenient, plentiful parking is a must.
- Indoor/Outdoor: outdoor access is a plus (ex: large parking lot, courtyard, rooftop).
- Size: 3k sqft - 4.5k sqft
- Prior Use: Former gym/boutique studio space is a huge plus so we don't have to pay or wait for an extensive build-out (permits, etc.)
- Additional aspects: high-ceilings (15ft+), natural light + windows, open box as opposed to throated hallways, exposed ceiling look (more industrial > plain drywall box)
Once we prove the our model via our initial 2-3 leases, we plan scale locations by franchising and/or negotiating with prominent landlords to sign management agreements instead of long-term leases. Management agreements are a less risky and asset-light way to scale. We believe maverick is a prime candidate for management agreements for the following reasons:
- The amount of empty retail/office/flex space (e-comm, COVID, work from home)
- Landlords love fitness as it brings in the best consumers - good looking people with disposable income to shop and eat pre/post workout (ex: Related acquired Equinox)
- We don't need to be in the best location as the creators can drive traffic to wherever maverick is (similar to DNVB brands, ie Bonobos). We plan to focus on malls and occupy their most undesirable spaces at their property.
Read more about our thoughts on management agreements here.
We plan to develop our network of studios as we believe that the gym/health center solution of the future is not a single location but a network of studios and services that foster a community of like-minded individuals.
The successful landlord of the future focuses on the user's needs (the customer). Gone are the days of landlords relying on scarcity and getting away with building generic space, signing long-term leases, and just collecting checks. As Industrious and other co-working operators have shown, customers (from startups to large public businesses) desire flexible, move-in-ready meaningful space that inspires and allows for community building. Considering this, Maverick Community will provide more than just beautiful physical space. We will also supply the equipment, services, and community building that empowers our members to excel.
Read further thoughts on why we believe Maverick can be successful in all locations here.
Here are the unit economics for our new 3,610 sqft facility in West Hollywood, CA (Los Angeles) that is devoted solely to physical therapists and personal trainers.
- Each trainer pays $25-$35 per hour rented at Maverick
- We only need 16% occupancy in order to break-even (10 trainers averaging 2.5 sessions = 25 sessions per day)
- 27% occupancy results in 30%+ EBITDA (10 trainers averaging 4 sessions = 40 sessions per day)
- Rent + employee expenses are 85% of our expenses as this is a very efficient, low-employee business to run (all we need is 1 employee to clean/location).
Like any B2B business, customer acquisition takes longer, but once we get customers on board, they will not leave. We’re building a strong captive customer business by layering feature after feature to keep our best customers happy. We’re more than just a landlord to our customers. We’re their agent/manager/partner, helping them improve their lives and helping them offer their clients better service. Here is what the ideal Maverick customer journey looks like from first hearing about us to moving their entire book of business to our facility:
- They hear about our facility from one of their physical therapist/trainer colleagues.
- They tour the facility and are immediately impressed with the high-tech equipment that they can’t access in other facilities because independents aren’t allowed to train their own clients at professional sports team facilities.
- They apply to join the community to start training their clients at Maverick. They witness how we screen each potential member and get a feel for the professional nature of the existing community members.
- If accepted and approved by our member committee, they go through a two-hour in-person onboarding where we discuss our trainer guidelines and equipment training.
- They receive a full head-to-toe adidas package, a $2,000 training credit to NeuFit certification, and will get access to other partnership opportunities as they train more sessions at Maverick ➡️
- 10 sessions/week gets them $175/month to Momentous protein + supplements, 20 sessions/weeks gets them access to FOUNT blood testing + custom supplements, and 30 sessions/week gets them access to Sollis Health premium health care service.
- They receive access to free educational workshops to help them improve their skill sets and network with our community.
- Once they fully book their schedule (30+ hours/week), we help set up a mentee/mentor system for them to train + hire employees or independent contractors so that they can scale their business (discussed above with Dr. Lauren Clark).
- They will earn equity in Maverick’s mothership company if they are in the top 15% of the community training with the greatest number of sessions (at their specific location). Learn more HERE.
Risk is reduced as there is an abundance of physical therapists and trainers (growing at 39%+/year), and there is an increasing demand for fitness, health, and wellness. Additionally, I've spoken with the CEOs/founders of multiple salon suite businesses that have an identical situation, and they've stressed that they've been extremely successful with a weekly pay collection model.
Long term, once we prove our concept, we have a goal of replacing leases with management agreements or purchasing property. Read more about this strategy here.
Risk is reduced as there are many vacant gyms/boutique studios to move into and many affordable retail/office spaces due to e-commerce success and COVID-19. Additionally, landlords are offering high tenant improvement allowances to entice new tenants.
Long term, once we prove our concept, we have a goal of replacing leases with management agreements, which will put much of the build-out cost on the landlord. Read more about this strategy here.
Risk is reduced by focusing on the physical therapists and personal trainers who are already entrepreneurs running their own businesses! We learned from our initial test location that these are the most desirable customers and there are plenty of them in the world.
Additionally, like the first bullet point above, I've spoken with the CEOs/founders of multiple salon suite businesses that have successfully transitioned stylists at hair salons into thriving entrepreneurs.
On the physical therapy side of things —> Clients are conditioned to go into a physical space to get treatment because of the sophisticated equipment necessary to treat the body.
On the personal training side of things —> While COVID-19 forced gyms to close, it fueled a massive boom to the at-home workout trend, and individual wellness professionals and companies, such as Peloton, Tonal, Mirror, etc., capitalized on it.
Working out at home is not a new trend; remember Jane Fonda in the 80s and P90X most recently, but this time things are different as technology has enabled better equipment and more engaging and personal content.
We believe that working out at home will allow more people to work out more often but that the majority of workouts will still happen in person at gyms or wellness centers. Especially workouts that are private, one-on-one focused.
Humans are social animals, and the gym gives us a place to engage and create community. A recent IHRSA study showed that the only thing gym-goers miss more than going to the gym is visiting loved ones - ahead of going to concerts, sporting events, restaurants, and movie theaters.
A relevant comparison to the at-home gym disruption is the restaurant industry with Postmates, DoorDash, and UberEats. These services make eating more convenient for users, but people still prefer going to restaurants (recent survey shows ~2/3 of people prefer eating at restaurants versus ordering food).
Lastly, read more thoughts on this topic here which compares the fitness industry with the music industry to show how creators make more money in person.
- The physical therapy industry is large and booming in the US, and focusing on the top therapists and trainers will result in a big business opportunity.
- $50B industry and forecasted to grow to $73B by 2029.
- Physical therapist median pay: $95K
- 122K physical therapy businesses with 504K physical therapists employed.
- Maverick is going after the top-performance physical therapists, and there are enough of them to build a big business. Quick numbers:
- 500K therapists ➡️ top 1% = 5,000 therapists. Each Maverick location requires 3-5 busy therapists ➡️ room for > 1,000 locations (and… this doesn’t consider the 1M trainers in the US).
- Population trends will lead to more physical therapy visits: 1) Baby boomers are aging and have the highest net worth, and 2) Younger generations are focusing on living a healthier life, longer, which means spending time and money on preventative health efforts so they can be active into their 80s. These people require performance physical therapists combining the gym and the table.
- There is a rise in performance-based physical therapists focused on treating active and informed clients who have longevity and preventative measures on their minds (think Peter Attia medicine 3.0).
- The demand for coaching is on the rise, and personal trainers are forecasted to grow 39% by 2031.
- Service-based workers want to work for themselves, not for corporations
- The annual turnover rate for personal trainers runs between 80-90% on average
- Passion/creator economy (Substack, Etsy, YouTube, TikTok, Teachable, Podcasting, etc.) allows individuals to become successful entrepreneurs doing what they love. COVID has accelerated this line of thinking for wellness professionals as they do not want to go back to working for their corporate gyms or boutique studios.
- The increase in the number of people starting their own businesses in the US has surged to a 13-year high. Entrepreneurship rates are at a 24% increase from the year before.
- The business model for gyms is changing. Large gyms can no longer rely on empty memberships where clients pay without use, and boutique studios can’t afford to pay their wellness professionals enough to retain them (the average trainer makes <$50K / year). One-fourth of gyms closed in 2022, and two-thirds of fitness studios are sitting unused for more than half of the week.
- Real estate and office vacancies and oversupply caused by e-commerce success and work-at-home.
- Customers are more likely to buy products, enjoy services, and champion purpose-driven companies.
- COVID has accelerated awareness of the importance of total holistic health. People are starting to realize total wellness comes from a combination of fitness, nutrition, mental health, and not just one thing. The US self-improvement market (aka "high-performing lifestyle" / "self-master" / "biohacking") is valued at $13.2B and is growing quickly.
- Disconnect between the booming fitness/wellness industry and our nation’s 42% obesity rate disproportionately impacts lower-income communities. Additionally, the wealth gap in the US continues to widen.
Maverick Community becomes more essential to our members as our network of studios grows for two reasons.
- The more facilities we launch, the more our network of physical therapists and trainers grows.
- The more our network grows, the more our brand awareness grows, and the more physical therapists and trainers will be attracted to us (as well as our awareness to end clients as Maverick will become known as a place with the top physical therapists and trainers).
- The more facilities we launch, the quicker we can get to breakeven while keeping our outreach to pure organic word of mouth and local partnerships.
- Additionally, the more locations we have, the more helpful we can be to our members, as they can attack different customers in additional zip codes to grow their businesses.
- Food Service: CloudKitchens
- Office: WeWork, Industrious
- Events: Convene
- Co-Living: Common
- Warehousing: Saltbox
- Salon Services: SolaSalon, Salon Republic
- Hospitality: Sonder
- Studio space for musicians, podcasters, DJs, and dancers: Pirate
- Medical: Lina
- Social Media: Clubhouse
- Retail: B8ta
- Department Stores: Neighborhood Goods
- Food Halls (farmers market concepts): Urbanspace
- Real Estate Brokerage: Compass, Radius
The value chain is being disrupted, and it is now the individual physical therapist and trainer, the ones who are generating the demand, that can capture the most value from customers. The biggest aspect holding them back from scaling to their potential is the physical space to train clients in person and a management team to help with admin work and business development, which is why we’re focused on these items first (instead of tech like everyone else!).
As our success grows, we will build and use technology to capture physical therapists and personal trainers as much value as possible while only focusing on what they do best, train. We will allow our members to focus on their craft by using tech to help with all of the things they don't enjoy or excel at (scaling by way of junior trainers, content production/editing, marketing, prospecting, scheduling, website/app building, etc.).
Maverick Community is much more than Space as a Service. We are providing Space as a Service WITH a Service.
Brand partnership opportunities include adidas (free clothing), Momentous ($175/mo in free supplements), FOUNT (blood testing + custom supplements), Sollis Health (24/7 concierge healthcare provider), and NeuFit (free $2k certification).
We developed a mentor-based certification program to help our fully booked customers scale their in-person businesses. Over the last 6-weeks, we helped Dr. Lauren Clark hire two mentee Physical Therapists that she will train and pass down clients to when they’re ready. Lauren benefits by scaling her business, Maverick benefits from the increase in sessions, and the mentees benefit from intimate access and employment from a top physical therapist in their desired field. Read more about the program HERE.
We are automating check-in and client sign-up so that no employees, outside of cleaning and maintenance staff, are required to operate the studio. Additionally, we've installed an app access front door (ex: OpenPath) where our members can enjoy 24/7 access to the facility. And, we can remotely control the cameras, AC, and music.
Similar studio business concepts, such as Pirate and Sola Salon, are using tech and smart business practices to achieve success with very little in-person staff.
The members that train the most sessions at Maverick have the ability to earn ownership in Maverick Community. Trainers in the top 15% of earners at Maverick can become part owners and get to be part of the growth of our brand. As trainers grow their businesses, Maverick grows too—so the success of our trainers leads to Maverick opening more locations, ultimately increasing the value of the company and the trainer's ownership share.
We plan to build an app that helps our members build community with fellow members and run their businesses more effectively. Beyond the ability to schedule and charge clients, our members will use the app to connect with other members, be alerted of events and workshops happening at their location or city, and get advice and training from our team of experts. The app will also be a tool for our members to interact with their clients via messaging and track and monitor their clients' movements, nutrition habits, etc.
- Think, Future but for in-person training and physical therapy.
- Our plan is to white-label software from companies such as intro.co, who we’re already in discussion with.
- Power to the trainer
- The premiere homebase for L.A.'s best physical therapists & performance specialists
- Shaping the next era of physical therapy
- Best-In-Class Personal Training / Best-In-Class Physical Therapy
- Where Trainers Level Up / Where Physical Therapists Level Up
- Building a Future for Trainers / Building a Future for Physical Therapists
- Studios that Go Above and Beyond
- The Ultimate Home for Trainers / The Ultimate Home for Physical Therapists
- The Future of Personal Training / The Future of Physical Therapists
- Flexible, on-demand space for personal trainers / Flexible, on-demand space for physical therapists
- Train today. Prepare for tomorrow.
- A community that’s invested in you.
- Freedom, independence, and control for personal trainers / physical therapists
- Be a Maverick
- Committed to helping people help people
- Work at maverick, not for maverick
- Work for yourself, not by yourself
- You don't work for maverick, we work for you
- Personal training/physical therapy, fitness + wellness tied with these words/phrases: increasing access, equity, and inclusivity
- Core customers:
- Independent performance physical therapists with the following attributes:
- Training is your full-time job, and you’re busy (20+ hours/week)
- You run your own business
- You want to grow and have a growth mindset
- You want to do good
- You’re a pillar of your community
- You’re professionally trained/schooled
- We know we are keeping our promises (Kept Promise Indicators) by measuring our Net Promoter Scores, which we conduct annually (goal is >70)
- Maverick Community promises to always do what is best for the physical therapist and trainer.
- Focus on the physical therapist and trainer
- Physical therapists and trainers make more money while saving time
- With zero overhead, our members start earning more money immediately due to a lower rental cost and only having to pay if they use the facility. Plus, trainers will scale by bringing in mentees to teach their method and earn on their behalf.
- High-end equipment
- Not only do we have the newest, most state-of-the-art equipment that is science-backed—we have the most of it, giving members what they care most about: their tools.
- Tools for scalable success
- Members will be provided resources to build their businesses, including admin and marketing support.
- Amplification of their own personal brand
- Maverick amplifies independent physical therapists and trainers and doesn’t require them to be under any brand umbrella. At Maverick, your brand is front-and-center, and you are the member, not your end client.
- An exclusive, passionate community
- Physical therapists and trainers will network with and learn from the best talent, and allow clients to make connections in this exclusive community as well. Plus, due to the limited number of spots, our members will never be faced with overcrowding.
- Give-back model via Maverick Forward.
- An underlying advantage over our competition: we give the power back to the real rockstars, the men and women who solely determine if a client session is good or not... the individual physical therapist or trainer. While most clinics and fitness facilities worry about massive therapist and trainer turnover, we empower our members by giving them freedom and enabling them to make more income, which in turn creates a much better training environment for the end customer.
- "Like filmmakers on YouTube, writers on Substack, and independent podcasters everywhere, fitness professionals are waking up to the fact that they hold a disproportionate share of the value. Now, as consumer habits shift, and new digital tools emerge, the rise of the fitness creator could be more disruptive to the industry than Peloton." -Fitt Insider
- Additionally, a traditional clinic hiring physical therapists as employees would never be able to afford the top talent that works out of a Maverick, which will always give our facility an unfair advantage.
- Most crucial economic drivers: Net Promoter Score, # of sessions per week, and Member Retention
- BHAG: 250 locations by 2030
- We are competing to be unique, and, sadly, giving independent performance physical therapists the power and allowing them to scale their brand is a novel idea. While no company is executing our exact model, here is the competitive landscape across the fitness and wellness industry. SMTF (Self-Made Training Facility) is closest to what we’re doing in the US (but they’re only focused on personal trainers), and they have ~30 locations (mostly via franchises).
- $4.2T wellness economy, growing ~7% over the past two years.
- $50B physical therapy industry (6% growth from the previous year and expected to grow to $73B by 2029) + $32B fitness industry (increased 450% since the 1980s)
- Since the 1980s, health club locations and memberships have tripled to 36K and 57M (1/4 of Americans), respectively.
- Physical Therapists:
- 122K physical therapy businesses with 504K physical therapists employed.
- 22% job outlook growth rate from now until 2028.
- Median income: $95K
- Maverick is going after the top-performance physical therapists, and there are enough of them to build a big business. Quick numbers:
- 500K therapists ➡️ top 1% = 5,000 therapists. Each Maverick location requires 3-5 busy therapists ➡️ room for > 1,000 locations (and… this doesn’t consider the 1M trainers in the US).
- A “fitness desert” is a city or neighborhood that has inadequate access to both:
- Fitness facilities & equipment
- Fitness and health guidance & education (physical therapists and trainers)
- “It’s time for companies that affect our health to focus on the lower-income market. Seen as a moral obligation to many, it also represents an economic opportunity.” -Forbes
- In addition to building gyms in affluent neighborhoods, Maverick Community will build inspiring gyms in fitness deserts, underserved communities with little to no access to quality fitness and health options.
- By supporting the 80% of the population with no gym memberships, there is a huge opportunity to generate outsized returns.
- Read more via our “fitness desert” deck here
We believe Maverick can scale using a corporate-owned model or the franchise model. We need more time to figure out what is the correct path forward, but here are some reasons why franchising could be a viable option:
- Great cash flow from day one (high margins)
- Low build-out costs
- Little management for franchisor (limited number of employees)
- Franchisee can still train and earn (10-15 hours / week) while running the location
- Franchising allows us to grow fast without constantly raising capital
- There are network effects and economies of scale with adding gyms, and the faster we can scale, the more we can help the trainers while quickly increasing the value of the business.
- Successful franchise companies are selling for over 10x multiples
- It would take 67 locations to achieve a $100M (assuming $150K EBITDA, 29% margin per location).
- Voice and Tone
- Independent-minded
- High-end
- Inclusive
- Friendly
- Fun
- Authentic
- Rebellious
- Empowering
- Motivating
- Action-oriented
- Exclusionary
- Focused on the short term
- Boring
- Rigid
- Soulless
- Motivated by hype / influencer culture
- Elitist
- Overly verbose
- Harsh
- Independence
- Freedom
- Entrepreneur, Entrepreneurship, Entrepreneurship
- Ownership, Owner
- Flexible, on-demand space for trainers
- Train like the pros
- Community
- Fueling the future
- Performance physical therapists
- Key messaging
Goodbye, costly overhead expenses and wasting time commuting to individual client locations. With no application fees, the only thing you pay us is hourly rent—which is lower than our competition in the area. That means you’re saving on overhead, saving time by having everything in one location, and earning more with every session.
You don’t have to give up your brand when you work at Maverick, and you’re not beholden to our name either—think of us as a partner who does all the stuff you don’t want to do, so you can focus on your clients. Plus, have mentees work at our studio on your behalf using your training method and earn as they work.
We want to make fitness and health accessible to everyone, everywhere, and we do this by allowing you to rent at a lower cost. Work with us, and you’re joining in our mission to spread fitness to everyone, from your long-term clients to people in underserved communities.
At Maverick, you’ll keep doing what you’re doing—only now you can build for tomorrow with the work you put in today. Leverage our marketing team to grow your brand, and create a strategy for scaling. We’re in it for the long-run with you, so that you can set yourself up success down the road.
Featuring the newest, most innovative state-of-the-art equipment in a beautiful space, Maverick studios are spaces that both you and your clients will be bragging about.
No more running around the city for sessions. Just have one core location with top-of-the-line equipment.
Book sessions when you want, and know that a clean, state-of-the-art studio is at your disposal
Charge customers what you want and get to work, and only pay us when you use the space.
We only have a select group using our facility—that means you’re in the company of the best of the best, and you’ll never have to wait for equipment or space.
Long waitlist, but not enough time? Make money by letting us train junior trainers on your method—and the more your mentees train under you, the more revenue you earn.
⏩ Maverick Forward
We do not take our success and privilege for granted. Maverick Forward was founded after we recognized that levels of entrepreneurship are lower in underserved communities not for lack of interest or ability, but lack of opportunities and resources.
Maverick Community is the engine that helps drive Maverick Forward, our 501(c)3 nonprofit initiative that promotes entrepreneurship in underserved communities by providing no-cost mentorship, training, and certifications for aspiring wellness professionals, enabling more individuals to pursue their dreams, gain financial security, and proliferate fitness practices.
Have you ever had someone in front of you in line purchase your food for you and, as a result, you decided to “pay it forward” to the person behind you? Paying it forward is a noble gesture, but we believe in taking the pay it forward model and making it more impactful, more sustainable. We believe in “partnering forward.”
Maverick Forward will partner with community members interested in becoming wellness professionals and support them on their path to entrepreneurship. In turn, we will ask these individuals to “pay it forward” once they become a licensed trainer by providing 1-3 hours a week of voluntary fitness instruction in their communities to individuals who might otherwise not be able to afford it, increasing access to fitness and wellness in these areas.
We aim to remove the barriers to becoming an entrepreneur by providing no-cost mentorship, training, and certifications to interested individuals, funding all necessary activities required to become a licensed fitness trainer. Individuals will also receive mentorship and education on business planning, branding, and management; low and more flexible rent through Maverick Community; and a scholarship fund to allow for low or free client fees.
Maverick Community and Maverick Forward are social enterprises that will combine the heart of a nonprofit with the scalability and innovation of a for profit. Please join us! Donate HERE
❓ FAQs
- Co-working is our core business. We offer flexible, on-demand space only to physical therapists and trainers as opposed to just offering this service as an additional revenue stream in addition to having end-client memberships.
- Better equipment. Our scientifically advanced equipment can’t be compared to what you can find at neighborhood gyms but more with equipment at professional sports facilities. Learn more about our equipment brands HERE. Our members can use our facility to train everyone from pro athletes to older people who need physical therapy work, and can always expect to find the newest tech at Maverick first.
- A curated community of the most successful physical therapists and trainers. We build high-end facilities and limit the number of members so that the space is private, exclusive, and filled with like-minded professionals. In addition to offering space and equipment, we will have team members to help with set-up and cleaning so that our members can focus on what he/she does best, train!
- Partnership. We’re more than just a landlord to our customers - we’re their agent/manager/partner. We help our customers improve their lives, offer better services to their clients, and scale their businesses by providing brand partnerships and setting up a system to scale their in-person businesses.
- Brand partnership opportunities include adidas (free clothing), Momentous ($175/mo in free supplements), FOUNT (blood testing + custom supplements), Sollis Health (24/7 concierge healthcare provider), and NeuFit (free $2k certification).
- We developed a mentor-based certification program to help our fully booked customers scale their in-person businesses. Over the last 6-weeks, we helped Dr. Lauren Clark hire two mentee Physical Therapists that she will train and pass down clients to when they’re ready. Lauren benefits by scaling her business, Maverick benefits from the increase in sessions, and the mentees benefit from intimate access and employment from a top physical therapist in their desired field. Read more about the program HERE.
- Network effect. We plan to build hundreds of studios, and the business will get stronger as we grow as our wellness professional members can utilize all of the studios no matter where their clients reside. Additionally, the network effect will give us the largest community of high-end physical therapists and trainers, all working for themselves but not by themselves, which will help all members attract more clients and grow as individuals.
- Maverick Forward. Our culture of service and our diverse team will be a huge differentiator. We are building a purpose-driven company that is not only creating an equitable workforce model by making entrepreneurship more accessible, but we are on a mission to make health and fitness available to everyone!
Traditionally, the route for a physical therapist graduating and receiving their doctorate is to go immediately into a clinic or hospital setting so they can start earning money immediately to pay off their student loans. These clinics take insurance and make money by seeing as many clients per day as possible (because insurance companies pay so little per customer). These clinics are fed mass quantities of clients by doctors and hospitals, and there is a never-ending need for more physical therapists. Physical therapists working at these clinics stay extremely busy but are overworked and have a ceiling on their earnings potential (a bad combination!).
We built Maverick because we believe that there is a better way! As outsiders of the industry, we are not beholden to things the way they’ve always been done and are instead refreshingly looking at things only through the eyes of the physical therapist. What is best for the physical therapist? We believe that if we give the most helpful infrastructure to independent physical therapists, then they will, in turn, give the best treatment to their clients. We’re reversing the power dynamic and building upon two very important trends in the health space. (1) performance physical therapists combining the gym and the table and treating clients who want to stay healthy and fit for longer. (2) physical therapists who no longer take insurance (cash only) and give extremely personal care and service to fewer people.
We’re pioneering a new industry by providing space for independent cash-taking performance physical therapists. This business model successfully exists for businesses across many different industries: hair stylists (Sola Salon with 600+ locations), warehousing services (Saltbox), real estate brokerage (Radius, Compass), office space (Industrious), etc. We believe in this model as the top professionals want to work for themselves and make more money without taking on the additional risks involved with starting your own business (~$200-500K risk to open your own physical therapy practice + the headache of hiring and managing employees). Our Maverick model not only attracts top professionals but also retains them, which has traditionally been the toughest part of physical therapy clinics and gyms. Additionally, a traditional clinic hiring physical therapists as employees would never be able to afford the top talent that works out of a Maverick, which will always give our facility an unfair advantage.
- We plan to compete to be unique instead of competing to be the best. We will always focus on our top customer, the busy performance physical therapist and trainer, instead of worrying about competition. These are the main reasons our customers will love Maverick Community:
- Culture + Brand. We’re building a team (from members to employees to investors) that is transparent, fun, and purpose-driven. We are going to make a difference in this world beyond delivering profits for our shareholders. We are questioning and taking on the complex issues of creating an equitable workforce model and making fitness, health, and entrepreneurship accessible to everyone.
- Real estate. It takes a considerable amount of money, knowledge, and connections to lease/buy, buildout, and operate + manage a network of locations.
- Team. We have an excellent founding team with experience in all of the categories that matter most to our business. From real estate, to entrepreneurship, to mindfulness, to wellness professional success, to professional athlete success, to non-profit experience & success.
- Community of the most successful physical therapists and trainers. Like any B2B business, customer acquisition takes longer, but once we get customers on board, they will not leave. We’re building a strong captive customer business by layering feature after feature to keep our best customers happy. We’re more than just a landlord to our customers. We’re their agent/manager/partner, helping them improve their lives and helping them offer their clients better service. Here is what the ideal Maverick customer journey looks like from first hearing about us to moving their entire book of business to our facility:
- They hear about our facility from one of their physical therapist/trainer colleagues.
- They tour the facility and are immediately impressed with the high-tech equipment that they can’t access in other facilities because independents aren’t allowed to train their own clients at professional sports team facilities.
- They apply to join the community to start training their clients at Maverick. They witness how we screen each potential member and get a feel for the professional nature of the existing community members.
- If accepted and approved by our member committee, they go through a two-hour in-person onboarding where we discuss our trainer guidelines and equipment training.
- They receive a full head-to-toe adidas package, a $2,000 training credit to NeuFit certification, and will get access to other partnership opportunities as they train more sessions at Maverick ➡️
- 10 sessions/week gets them $175/month to Momentous protein + supplements, 20 sessions/weeks gets them access to FOUNT blood testing + custom supplements, and 30 sessions/week gets them access to Sollis Health premium health care service.
- They receive access to free educational workshops to help them improve their skill sets and network with our community.
- Once they fully book their schedule (30+ hours/week), we help set up a mentee/mentor system for them to train + hire employees or independent contractors so that they can scale their business (discussed above with Dr. Lauren Clark).
- They will earn equity in Maverick’s mothership company if they are in the top 15% of the community training with the greatest number of sessions (at their specific location). Learn more HERE.
Our co-founder team has a service-first mentality, and we don’t want to follow the mold of waiting to do good until we’ve earned success. It is possible to help others while building up from the beginning, and we believe the Maverick Community brand is much stronger with Maverick Forward being a part of the business from the start. No wellness and fitness brands are attempting to tackle making fitness and wellness more accessible, and we believe we have the right skill sets to be the ones to make a dent. Additional points and clarifications below:
- We want to have the non-profit side, Maverick Forward, learn from the early successes and failures of the for-profit business, and ideally, hire an Executive Director for the non-profit from the very beginning.
- Testing the NPO sector the way we are testing the for-profit sector allows us to learn before a significant rollout. We are big believers in testing before doing, and proving the model on a small scale will significantly impact our ability to raise future substantial support.
- One of our co-founders, Steve LePore, is a three-time non-profit founder and executive director and will be instrumental in setting up and building Maverick Forward.
- We want the Maverick brand to be known for service from the very beginning. We want our customers to understand what we stand for, and we believe customers are yearning for products and services that are purpose-driven. Why work out at Equinox when you could work out at Maverick Community and feel like you are a part of doing better for the world?
- NOW is the time for Maverick Forward. There is genuine interest in the concept, and it will be a tremendous and dynamic addition to Maverick Community.
The two organizations are different entities and will run separately. We plan to hire an Executive Director for Maverick Forward by Q1 2024, and in combination with co-founder Steve LePore, Maverick Forward will be run on its own. The other co-founders may sit on the Maverick Forward board, but they will have little say in the operations beyond high-level strategy discussions.
On the company side, Maverick Community will benefit Maverick Forward by way of expertise in real estate and fitness, and, hopefully, by way of investment via operations and investors. Additionally, our physical therapists and trainers have shown a tremendous amount of interest in giving back and are searching for a platform to do so. We look forward to involving them in teacher training and other volunteer opportunities.
QuickBooks Online, Arketa, Pipedrive, Loom, Notion, Super.so, Slack, OpenPhone, DocSend, Dropbox, HelloSign, 1Password, Canva, Sketch, InDesign, Grammarly, Superhuman, Adobe, Openpath, Nest, SONOS, Spotify
👋 Join Us
Maverick Community and Maverick Forward are based in Los Angeles, CA. We are a diverse group of people interested in fitness, health and wellness, giving back, mindfulness, reading, baseball, basketball, tennis, cycling, golf, hiking, running, real estate, dogs, and the ocean.
Interested in joining us? Email: hireme@bemav.com
Lastly, please feel free to forward these updates to anyone else you think would benefit from following along with our building process.
Thanks for your support. Please reach out if you'd like to learn more or talk further.
Michael@bemav.co
323.417.9300 (text/call)
