Big Technology Podcast - Peloton Instructor Emma Lovewell on At-Home Fitness and Stadium-Sized Rides

Episode Date: December 16, 2020

With the pandemic forcing people to stay home for nearly 10 months now, many have turned to interactive fitness companies, such as Peloton, to stay active and perhaps fill a social void. Peloton has more than 3 million users, members are averaging 24 workouts per month, and this past September, the company announced its first profitable quarter. This week, it became more valuable than Ford Motor Company. Emma Lovewell, a full-time fitness instructor for Peloton, joins the Big Technology Podcast to discuss her experience working with the company, its explosive rise, and, yes, that Peloton ad.

Hello and welcome to the big technology podcast, a show for cool-headed, nuanced conversation of the tech world and beyond. Today we go inside the at-home fitness craze taking over the nation with Peloton instructor Emma Lovewell. Emma, welcome to the show. Thanks, Alex. Excited to be here. Yeah, great to have you on. It must have been a very busy couple of months, so I appreciate you making some time in your schedule.

Yeah, of course. Okay, so it's been an interesting few months for Peloton. Obviously, in the pandemic, Peloton now has more than a million people using it through the connected bikes up 113% over last year. Members are averaging an amazing 24 workouts a month, which is wild. And the company is finally profitable, making more than $89 million last quarter. So, Emma, this must be amazing for you, given the amount of increased visibility and people taking your classes. Can you describe what it's like for us?

Are people starting to, like, see you and recognize you on the street? Yeah, it's been incredible. You know, we have 3.6 million members. And what is so exciting is just seeing the leaderboard, what I'm teaching, you know, the difference from a year. ago till now and just seeing how many more people are experiencing these rides live. And, you know, it's interesting because because of the pandemic, I'm not going out a lot. So it's not like I'm out at restaurants getting recognized. But there are some occasions that are pretty fun where people do a double take and they're like,

oh my God, I just took your class this morning. So that is definitely happening more and more for sure. More frequently. Is that something that would happen before the pandemic, or are you starting to just now see it more often? It would happen before the pandemic, but it was mostly in airports, and now it's kind of anywhere. Wow, that's wild. Yeah, even in the city and New York City, I think, you know, maybe our audience is just growing in general, but even more so in cities, I think. you know maybe our audience is just growing in general but even more so in cities I think

just walking down the street in Manhattan I think I get that a little bit more now and so you mentioned the leaderboard that that is all the people that are taking the class as you teach it on the bike what did it look like before the pandemic and what has it started to look like recently yeah I mean I don't know the percentage for sure, but I just know, you know, it's incredible to see the members kind of rally behind things where, you know, for example, when we started teaching live from home classes during the pandemic, we had to pivot really quickly and we managed to do it in a great way where some of the instructors were teaching from home. And Robin, our head instructor,

she taught a together we ride class and we had like 25,000 people on the leaderboard that day it was incredible that was like the most

members that we've had on the leaderboard live and then this past Thanksgiving she taught a turkey bird ride which is a signature ride that she teaches every year on Thanksgiving and I believe we have 50,000 people

riding live on that ride which just set another record. So we just keep, you know, setting these new standards and setting these new records. And it's kind of just incredible to see how the whole community can come together and connect on just one specific class together. Wow. So 50,000 people taking the class at once? Yeah. Yeah.

And that's just live. So then a week later, you know, there's another 100,000 people taking it. So it's insane. It's really cool. Crazy. And like in a traditional soul cycle room, like what can you fit, like 40, 50 people? people, maybe 100? Yeah, I think, you know, a traditional fitness class could be anywhere from 40 to 70 people in a room, for sure. So just a few more. Just a little bit. I like to think

about it as like Madison Square Garden or think of some big arena and I'm teaching and there's, you know, 30,000 people, you know, in the audience. I was a professional dancer in my previous life and And one of the biggest stadiums I performed in, I got to dance with the Rolling Stones. And we had 20,000 people in the audience. And that was huge. And now the fact that I am teaching classes to people, to an audience that's bigger than that, kind of blows my mind. Yeah. Now you beat that probably on a weekly basis or something like that.

Yep. Yep. So I'm actually kind of curious, you were pretty early on this Pelotan thing. You had been a cell cycle instructor and you had done some fitness stuff. But you get in early. And I'm just kind of curious, like, from your perspective, like what joining was like because the pitch must have been kind of strange to hear. And this is obviously the way that I imagine it.

So I'd love to hear what it was like for you. But like someone come up to you and say, yeah, it's like, you know, cycling classes, but on the internet. And how did you eventually say, yeah, this is something I want to do? Great question. I have a pretty interesting and unique introduction to Peloton, I think. In 2012, I was a fitness instructor and a fitness model. So that means I was on ads, you know, for Under Armour, Nike, Adidas, you know, magazines, all these things. And I got a job as a model for Peloton for their Kickstarter campaign.

And I had never heard of the brand. You know, my agent called me. My agent called me and he said, you know, there's a cycling brand, Peloton. They want you to do this commercial. You know, will you do it? And I said, sure, I was teaching Saitland at the time. So I knew how to ride a bike. And so I went in for the commercial.

It was a one-day shoot, super fun. I got to meet John Foley, Jill Foley, the whole team, which was probably like 15 people at the time. And I remember John was like, you're going to love this bike. It's like riding on a cloud. It is so smooth. You've never ridden a bike like this before. And I remember getting on it and be like, you know what? You're right. This is a really smooth bike. It's quiet. This is very cool. And the day I remember just being like, wow, these are really awesome people. I had just good vibes from everybody on set. And I left and, you know, we exchanged, you know, Facebooks and emails and whatever. And it's just kind of like, awesome working with you guys. Best of luck. You know, good luck on your new company and went off and, you know, started teaching cycling at another studio for years. But me and

while I was kind of just keeping in touch with them through Facebook and seeing the Wall Street Journal press they were getting and the Forbes Press and all of these like exciting articles coming out. And I was like, wow, you know, because at the time, in studio boutique experience was like all the range. Like that is what everybody wanted in major cities. And so I ended up leaving the studio that I had been teaching in for three years. And I just continued to watch Peloton grow and grow.

And I was like, you know what? I'm just going to reach out to John Foley. I had his email from three years prior. And I was like, hey, John, you know, hope you're doing well, but watching your progress. It's incredible. I'd love to see if there are any opportunities there for me. And, you know, he wrote back in 20 minutes and he was like, yes, let's get you in for

an audition. You know, we'd love to have you audition with us. And he introduced me to Robin and then it kind of just snowballed from there. I came, you know, came to the studio to audition, had a second audition and an interview, and then it all just happened from there. And since then, it's been like being strapped to a rocket ship. We've just grown exponentially. It's been so excited. I do feel like I got in at this, you know, very interesting and perfect time and everything is about timing.

I mean, for me and my life, this is like something that I really needed. and for Peloton this was like kind of just a launching pad right you know I started with another instructor Dennis Morton the two of us started at the same time and you know right after we joined soon after we launched the tread and started hiring more and more instructors and so everything just kind of expanded and exploded and it's been quite a ride not to be cheesy no it's a good pun I'll take it Yeah. So you mentioned it was, so what in your life did you need, you mentioned you needed it in your life? What was going on? Yeah. Okay. So I was teaching at another cycling studio in the city and it was springtime. And, you know, my mom had just been diagnosed with cancer. And she lives on Martha Senior and she owns a gardening business. And so this was like a big, you know,

So many people are affected by cancer, so I know a lot of people can identify with hearing this kind of news. It's just very traumatic for the whole family. And so what we decided was my mom needed to go to Boston for treatment for the summer to get radiation and then chemotherapy. And so I decided to quit my job and I moved home to the vineyard to take over her gardening business. So my boyfriend at the time, he got a job in Texas. So he moved to Texas for the summer. I moved to the vineyard. And I was running my mom's garden in business.

I had always been into gardening. And she taught me everything I knew. So I was kind of just doing the best that I could. We told all of her clients, like, you know, I'm going to do my best. I'm not Teresa. I'm not my mom. But I'll do my best. And my mom went to Boston, she did treatment.

And, you know, I'm so happy to say that she's healthy and she's doing well now. But after that summer, I decided to go meet up with my boyfriend in Texas. We ended up driving up to California. We lived in California for about eight months. I actually, I know you do a lot of reporting on Facebook, but I was a personal trainer at Facebook for like a few months. And I was doing personal training. I was teaching Pilates. I was teaching group fitness.

But I was sort of like, you know what? I missed the energy of the city. I had been in New York for 10 years. I was sort of lost. I was kind of like, you know, my brother lived in California. He's in Santa Cruz. I was just sort of trying to like find my footing. And so that is when I reached out to Palaton.

So the fact that that worked out, my boyfriend ended up getting a job back in the city as well. So we were like, well, I guess this is a sign. Let's drive back to New York. And everything just sort of fell into place. And it was so, so needed. You know, my mom has been healthy ever since. And she's so happy for me, obviously. And it really was just like a blessing that this all happened in the way that didn't.

Wow. That's an amazing story. And I'm glad your mother is doing well. I wasn't going to go this direction. But since you brought it up, I can't help ask a Facebook question. What was it like working for that company? What would they strike you as a normal company? when you were there?

So when was this? This was in 2016, I think. Interesting. You know, yeah. Well, you know what? I worked there for such a short amount of time. I probably don't have anything interesting to tell you. But, you know, what, it was very cool just to be on that campus, to be honest.

You know, just there's bikes everywhere that, like, commuter bikes, everybody can use. and all the employees were able to train at our gym. And so I was basically training employees. And so a lot, I was training a lot of people who were sitting in front of a desk and the computer all day long. So there was a lot of like the same kinds of injuries. And, you know, we'd call it tech neck where like your head just like falls forward and your shoulders fall forward and like, you know, everyone needed to work on their posture.

and so it was fun though the trainers there were awesome I made some good friends there but I was there for like two months it was a very very short stint but it was very fun and very cool to just have that experience yeah it's an interesting company to look on the inside of where you were at the campus that kind of feels like a Disney World exhibit out in Menlo Park yes yeah there was like a rock climbing wall there's a soccer field there was lots of like fun activities yeah it's a very interesting place i spent a couple of days there uh doing a training actually not physical training this was a feedback training uh for my book um i got to sit in on it so it was interesting to see the place and actually about two months there yeah quite a window

into the place um okay enough facebook uh so you're you're used to teaching uh you know i think it was sol cycle you haven't brought their name up but i'm going to say it i think soul cycle classes And in person, and then you, what was it like teaching your first Peloton class seeing the fact that like you were basically teaching? I mean, it must have been some people in studio, but far more, you know, online. What did that feel like for you? Yeah, it's very surreal because you see these names on the leaderboard. And so, and then you see, you know, the 50 people or so that are in front of you in the room. and it's sort of hard to translate that all those names are actually humans in their own homes,

you know, working out with you. So I think the first few weeks that I was teaching, it didn't totally sink in. I, you know, I've talked a lot about these milestones and setting the bar higher and higher. When I first taught my first class at Peloton, I think it 23,000 people joined in life, which was a record at the time. And so I like blacked out. I don't even remember the leaderboard. Like, It was so crazy. That was your first class? Yes. Wow.

Sorry. Sorry. No, no, no. Hold on. I misspoke. And maybe the more on this call can know. Okay. Let me think about that actually because now that I say that, I'm like, that is wild.

I think when I, no, no, no, this is what happened. Sorry. Take out a zero. There was 2,300 people and maybe we can double check on this. When I taught, it was a record, though. Whatever the number was, I think it was. 2,300 people. It was the record of the time.

And I just remember, like, blacking out because I couldn't keep track of all the names on the leaderboard. This was four years ago. So it would have had to have been, like, way less than that. Yeah. And so I imagine as doing this in person, you are, you know, feeding off of the room, getting feedback from folks in real time. Now they're just kind of names scrolling by on a screen.

So how do you basically tell, hey, is this? going well or is this not going well and you know see how people uh see how your class is resonating with folks at home yeah so um thankfully social media really keeps us all connected and um you know i think we have an incredible facebook community um the peloton community on facebook um they we have all these subgroups to you know a peloton mom group peloton dad group physicians group and everybody talks everybody chats with each other and so I get tagged in a lot of things I get direct messages from people I get the feedback from people even on the platform itself the pellets on the platform itself there's you know a rating of difficulty and a rating

of the class so you get a lot of feedback we have lots of data we have producers, a whole team, you know, tuning in and watching all this stuff. So it's great. You know, you kind of get some instant feedback. You kind of get some feedback over time to and you start kind of developing your audience, your brand. You start, you know, the people who vibe with you end up taking your classes maybe more than others and you kind of find your lane and you find your people.

Yeah. And so you start to learn while you, you're teaching this thing, okay, I have a feeling for these thousands of people, even though they're not in front of you, there are ways in which you can sense their presence. Yeah. And I always, I always kind of thought, you know, even when I filmed that first Kickstarter campaign and I was teaching live cycling classes and Pilates classes, you know, in my head, I had some hesitation. I had some doubt. I was thinking like, how are they really going to connect to these people? How are they going to feel that sense of community and that connection?

connection. And clearly, like, it's possible because look at our community and look at the closeness and the connection and the progress that people are making. And so, you know, when I joined, I got to experience that firsthand. I got to experience all these people like coming in together, showing up for each other, not just virtually, but then, you know, would people would come to the studio all together to meet up for the first time. Like they've been messaging each other back and forth on Facebook for months and they decided to all come to the studio or the mothership, as they call it. And they'd come and meet up and have like a great weekend of taking Peloton classes

and meeting like-minded people. So it's just just a testament that even though we're not seeing each other face to face right now, we can really still create closeness and connection through technology. Yeah. so that's interesting so people are on social media and then they turn that into real life things even though it's yeah virtual fitness which is fascinating just shows you what uh online community can end up leading to no matter what the subject so you mentioned you mentioned social media let's talk about that for a minute uh did you when you join peloton uh did you realize that you are

like on your way to not only being like a fitness instructor but there was going to be like a social media influencer aspect of this as well you know for lack of a better term? Yeah, I think I knew that a little bit. I think that sort of was happening already in the fitness world with a lot of fitness trainers. We're promoting themselves through Instagram and Facebook. And so that was something I was already sort of doing.

I guess I didn't really know to what extent, how big it would grow and we're still growing. So there's, I'm not saying that there's this, you know, end that's happening right now, but it's, it's like just crazy to see how much it has grown. And I know that we're not, we haven't stopped. We haven't slowed down. And when you say, we, is it Peloton or is it your personal social media community? I think it's both. I think what's great is that Peloton really.

fosters the growth of the instructors as well, individually and within the brand. I think sometimes that's very difficult for big companies to do. You know, I want Peloton to grow and I want my own personal brand to grow along with it. And I believe that Peloton wants the same for me as well. And so I think- So no conflict there. Yeah, it's, you know, rising tide lifts all boats. That's the idea. And I think, you know, whereas at other studios, maybe you have, you know, 300 instructors company-wide or 500 instructors company-wide, you know, at Peloton right now we have 33 instructors. So it's quite different. It's a quite different experience. We're not all competing against each other. You know, we all kind of have a place, whether that's our music style, our teaching style,

or our social media presence. We all are very unique. Yeah, and that's wild. 33 instructors for more than a million people, which is just not something would ever be possible before our current digital age. So on that topic, I want to ask a little bit about, you know, a topic that I've enjoyed discussing

with people on the show, which is sort of like who gets the benefits from the tech economy. So we recently have, had Emil Michael, who was the chief business officer at Uber for a long time on the show. And, you know, I spoke with him about, like, who's going to actually get the proceeds from our tech economy? So, for instance, Uber built this platforms that lets people get around, you know, more efficiently.

All the money ended up going to Uber and the drivers are struggling to get by. And, you know, I guess one of the things we see with tech is it tends to scale human labor and, you know, a lot of the proceeds end up going to the companies themselves. So I'm curious, I mean, we talk about, like, the fact that there's, you know, 30-something instructors and a million members, you know, where that usually would have been distributed across many more instructors. And do you think that the instructors who teach for Peloton are seeing, you know, the real value of their labor, even though, like, I'm sure, you know, it's probably better than, you know,

a typical studio job. But, like, just given the value you're delivering to so many people, I'm curious how you think about that. Yeah, I also think, I can say I do, I feel very valued. I think that as opposed to, you know, a brick and mortar where you're opening lots of different stores and gyms, but maybe you're not also creating hardware and software and logistics and, you know, all of the things that we do. We are completely vertically integrated. And so it's not just 33 instructors and then, you know, 50 other employees. It's like thousands of people that all work at Peloton internationally.

We have offices in Taiwan. We have offices in Texas. And we have a studio in London, right? We just keep growing and keep expanding. So even though the instructor pool is very small, the company is quite large. Do you have ever have like or do do other instructors have beefs with Peloton instructors? Because I mean, we're right now in the pandemic and we're going to talk about them in the second half. But like do you know, do you think that there's some tension there because, you know, this could potentially hurt like in-person studio business?

Or maybe it makes, you know, spinning, cycling, soul cycle, all that stuff more popular and needs to demand in person. I'm curious what you think about that. Yeah. I mean, what I've been seeing personally is a lot of fitness trainers. And I have a ton of friends who are in the fitness industry that don't work at Peloton. And what a lot of them have been able to do is pivot to pivot to pivot to do is pivoted to pivoted to creating their own app or joining another. where they can teach their own type of fitness on somebody else's app. And a lot of people are pivoting, which has been incredible to see.

And I think that Peloton being one of the first innovators to show that at-home workouts is valuable and important, has kind of led the way for other instructors to create their own at-home content as well. So I think it's kind of open a lot of people's eyes and then open doors for other instructors to learn how to teach from home. And, you know, I've gotten some of my friends ask me. They're like, oh, I'm going to start teaching, you know, my classes on this app or, you know, through Instagram, through social media. Like, how do you stay, you know, like, they're wondering, they're like, how do you do it?

How do you stay engaged? How do you train, you know, an Olympic athlete and also, you know, a woman in her 70s in the middle of Montana who's never taken a fitness class ever before? Like, how do you give one class that can speak to so many different people? And it's amazing because at Peloton, we all have that knowledge. We all have that experience that we've kind of just fostered and created over this time that we've been. You know, I've been at Peloton for four years, but it was started in 2012. So I think it's just an exciting time for fitness in general. If you're able to pivot, everybody is doing at-home workouts now, like, you're good.

I think that when you're not able to pivot, maybe as quickly, that's where you'll find some issues. So no beef, and it really does set this category where you have to start with a place where people are going to be paying for something like paying for news online. It used to be a thing that no one would do. And now people are, you know, getting accustomed to it after a few big. big companies went in and said, you know, this is valuable. Why don't you do it? And maybe that's something that extends to the whole fitness industry. Yeah, that's how I feel for short.

That's fascinating. Okay, so last question of this first segment. You join Peloton, your teaching classes virtually to folks. All across the world, thousands of people are joining. You must have gone in with a feeling like, okay, this is still kind of experimental. I'm number one, like my primary way that I do this is teaching. watching, you know, in a physical studio. How quickly did it take you to realize that this was going to be a thing?

I kind of, when I joined, I was all in. I was like, this is through my two months of training, through watching the process of meeting all of the instructors and meeting the whole team. I mean, if you've ever spoken to John Foley, our CEO, like he's like, he's the best motivator. Like he gets everybody in the room to rally behind him. And like after an all hands meeting, we're all just like, let's do this. Like we're going to, you know, we're going to crush this. Like we're going to, you know, make as many bikes. We're going to teach as many classes.

We're going to inspire as many people as we possibly can. And it's really excited to be in that kind of environment where we're all on the same page and we're all excited about the same thing. so I'd say like pretty early on joining in and after teaching that first live class of 2,200 people I was I was like convince you quick yes totally I was like this is so different than any other thing I've ever experienced and you know and also getting the member feedback like chatting with members after classes and hearing their real life stories and people send me people send me emails that are so personal and heartfelt and honest and raw and I am incredibly moved every time I talk to a member who tells me how Peloton has helped them through a difficult

situation. I'm just like, this is incredible. If more people can have this experience, I truly believe the world would be a better place. More people can get their energy out and be told that they are strong and capable and have the ability to change the world. If everybody had that messaging in their lives every day, like, why wouldn't it be a better place? So, you know, I drank the Kool-Aid early on. Right from the start. Okay, great. Well, this has been a great first half. I want to talk to you a little bit about what happened when the pandemic hit. So let's take a short break and then we'll come right back after this with Emma Lovewell here on the Big Technology podcast. Hey, everyone. Let me tell you about the Hustle Daily show, a podcast filled with

business, tech news, and original stories to keep you in the loop on what's trending. More than 2 million professionals read The Hustle's daily email for its irreverent and informative takes on business and tech news. Now, they have a daily podcast called The Hustle Daily Show, where their team of writers break down the biggest business headlines in 15 minutes or less and explain why you should care about them. So, search for The Hustle Daily Show and your favorite podcast app, like the one you're using right now.

And we're back for the second half of the big technology podcast. here with Emma Lovewell, Peloton instructor, who has graciously agreed to talk to us a little bit about what it's like being on the other side of the bike. Emma, welcome back for the second half. I'm curious what it was like for you personally when the coronavirus pandemic hit. What sort of, you know, we all went through our own cycle of emotions. What was it like for you? Sure.

I was living in Brooklyn at the time with my boyfriend. And in February, we got in. notice from our landlord that we had to move out in three months because they wanted to renovate the building. And this is when I first had started hearing about coronavirus, but it hadn't really, you know, hit the U.S. yet. And my boyfriend and I were like, okay, what are we going to do? Once March came around and we started realizing, you know, this is for real. We decided to cut our lease a little bit early and just get out of the city. So we ended up moving. out of the city and finding a little cottage rental next to a lake and um we always talked about

no not that at all i thought i you know i went i was kicking and screaming a little bit because i was like this this is nothing like i love the city i want to be in brooklyn i love my neighborhood and my boyfriend and i are both like very outdoorsy people um he a little bit more than i i guess i could say so he's always like let's get out of the city let's get out of the city from like the first day we started dating so you know i was like okay sure like let's let's get this temporary place just for a month or two it was a little Airbnb and you know we could pay month to month and uh let's just say it's been eight months and we've still been living in this little cottage outside of the city so for me personally that was a huge shift um and we actually just decided to stay out of

the city and um we bought a home outside of the city so now i'm committed to stay out of the city and I've been commuting into Manhattan a few times a week to teach classes. But yeah, work-wise, you know, I was, we moved out of the city. We had stopped teaching classes at the studio for a few weeks. Some of our instructors started teaching from home. I had really bad internet at this tiny cottage on the lake, so I was not able to teach from home. But then, you know, once we started, you know, safely opening up the studio so that we could teach, you know, we have a very structured pod system so that we are all as safe as possible. And yeah, it's been, it's been quite a change, but I'm really trying to find the silver lining in all this. And I really think that I have been able to.

I would have never left the city if it wasn't for the pandemic. I would have never given it a chance. And it's actually been quite literally a breath of fresh air to just spend more time outdoors, hiking more, gardening more, just like having my hands in the dirt is very therapeutic. And I kind of, sort of, you know, obviously the pandemic is horrible and it's challenging for so many people.

But I've been really trying to find these little, Jim. Yeah, you know, because we have to. You have to find the positives. You got to make the lemonade other than the lemons, you know, as best as you can. And then just from a Peloton perspective, it must have been like an even weirder cycle of emotions because like you go from, oh, man, I can't even get into the studio to teach to all of a sudden. This company is booming and I'm seeing way more people in my classes than I was beforehand. So what was that like?

I mean, it's just very exciting that I'm able to do what I do and I'm able to inspire that many more people and to know that kind of, you know, globally, we are all going through it. We're all going through a difficult time. And you know, you hear the saying a lot during this time is you're not alone. We are not alone. And that is a sentiment that I say a lot too. We all need to say because whatever hardship you're going through, like your neighbor is going through that hardship too. It's not the exact same one, but it's similar. You know, we are all going through our own struggles.

And knowing that Peloton classes are actually helping people cope with these huge issues going on is amazing. And I am very lucky that I get to do what I do. And so I do find it to be very healing to take these classes, but also to teach them. So for me, it's great that I can kind of like get out of my head. into my body and just like sweat out whatever feelings I'm feeling, you know, rock out to some of my favorite music to just create that release. So I need it as much as, you know, any of the members needed. Yeah. And then what was it like to have that realization that there was just going to be so many more people joining the platform? I mean, you must have seen it. What have

you seen it? I mean, talking about 50,000 people on Thanksgiving. Like, it's wild. And, you know, I'm not suggesting that like it's something. that you should be overjoyed that the pandemic has happened. But there's a human reaction, I think, to just seeing, you know, the amount of people taking these classes just boom. Like, what was that like to experience? I mean, our growth was, is apparent, you know, while working at this company. But the pandemic sort of, I think, expedited everything a little bit.

And that, you know, since I worked at the company. company, like every, every few months, I'm noticing that the leaderboard is growing. Like, the last three, uh, thanksgivings, you know, I, the leaderboard has increased every single year. So it's not that it's like, whoa, I've never seen it increase. It's like, we've been increasing this whole time. I think that that sort of number, though, of 50,000, you're just like, yeah, this is incredible.

This is, this is an amazing opportunity that we have. And like I said, it is sort of hard to take it all in because you're looking at these names on the leaderboard and you're watching this number grow, but it's like it takes a little bit for it to sink in to realize like these are all people in their homes around the world, you know, sweating here with you. And, you know, for a moment, it doesn't really register because you're just like on your own bike, just doing your thing, you know, teaching a class. and swimming it out to your favorite songs. So, I mean, it's, it's an incredible experience. It's an amazing thing to just, just watch it grow as much as it has. Yeah. How many people are taking your class live now?

It really depends on a type of class. It depends on the time of day. But, you know, I taught. Yeah, just ballpark. Yeah, I taught last night. I taught my listening party ride. and there was probably 3,000 people taking live. But a lot of people take on demand,

which is, you know, one of the best features of Peloton is you don't have to take it live. You can take the class tomorrow or in a week from now and a month from now. So, you know, 3,000 people taking it live. In a week from now, I'll look back at that class and there might be 50,000, 100,000, 200,000. You just don't know. And it's quite exciting to see, you know, which classes people respond to the most and see how long they can live. Because I have some class, you know, I taught a cold playwright a couple of years ago that people have really just loved. And I constantly see people retaking that.

And it's a few years old, you know. So it's really incredible that we have that opportunity. Yeah, that's growth is totally incredible. 200,000 people on a single classes. It's pretty wild. There's not just one stadium. It's a couple of stadiums. Yeah, yeah, totally.

Do you think we go back after the pandemic? I mean, we're going to be able to eventually, it looks like given the vaccine news, we'll be able to eventually go back into gyms without much worry. Do you think that something like the surge that we're seeing ends up, you know, peeling off or even reversing? Or do you think that people are sort of realizing the value of doing this stuff, the fitness stuff on demand and are just,

or even at home, and are just going to stick with that? I think maybe a little bit of both. I think people will really appreciate the convenience and the value of being able to work out at home, no doubt. You know, you can just shower in your own shower. You don't have to pack extra clothes. You know, there's so many conveniences that we can talk about.

But, yeah, I don't think that people are going to stop getting together on a Sunday afternoon to go take a fitness class together after brunch. Like I don't think that that's going to, you know, hopefully that is when things go, you know, quote quote back to normal. I think that those are things that people do really value. And I hope for that too. But Peloton was never just to replace any other type of workout. It was to supplement it and make sure that you had no excuses, that you had the convenience in your home. And so if having a Peloton bike means that you are working out, you know, three more times a week than you would normally. If you were only taking studio classes or only going to the gym, then like, that's great.

You know, that's what we want to encourage is just more movement and more activity. Okay. Last few questions for you here. There's often like a disconnect between like what the public conversation is and then what's actually happening in the world. And I'm sure you saw the controversy over that Peloton ad right before the pandemic hit. Was that like seeing on your end? It was like just for listeners, it was like a woman got a pandemic, got a Peloton as like a holiday gift or something like that. you know, people screen shouted her facial expressions and, you know, it seemed like she was like a prisoner in her own home, but it wasn't being intense. So, but yeah. Yeah, it was one of those moments where when you're, when you're a part of the Pelot

community, that commercial means something very different, I think, than maybe if you've never taken a Peloton class. I think, I loved, I mean, I love the commercial. I was like, this is great. This is totally like, he's being supportive. But you know what, it really spoke to like a larger question. There was like all these people with these like gender, uh, um, norms that they're or like thinking that, oh, the husband must have thought this about his wife. And he told her to work out and people assuming that exercise is only to lose weight, which I'm like, okay, clearly there's an outdated perception that people have of what exercises.

And so that was just sort of, it was sort of funny to me in that way where I was like, okay, I guess not everybody knows that exercise is also good for your mental health. But so clearly we have some more educating to do. Clearly, you know, people, more people need to exercise. Yeah, I mean, it could have been at those critics by, you know, being so vocally anti, we're sort of exposing themselves in their own way, which is what often happens on the internet, I suppose. You know, there's been an interesting thing that's happened. I think there was people, people used to be shy or even a little bit embarrassed about, you know, using Peloton or having one of the bikes. you know, maybe because of the price point or I don't know what it was or it could have been the marketing too. Won't roll that out.

But I think especially over the course of the past few months, you know, with everybody stuck at home, I feel like, you know, among people not in the chattering class, there's been a real appreciation for it, not just the bikes, but like you can get a cheap bike and then take the classes with the app. And I think that the reputation has definitely done a bit of a. 180 during the pandemic and during these past few months. I'm curious if you... I'm so happy to hear that.

Yeah, well, I won't even ask you. I know what you'll say. Well, actually, no, that's stupid. What do you think about that? No, well, I'm glad to hear that from you. You know, sometimes when you work within a company, it's hard to, you know, of course, my friends and family are so biased. It's like they all take my class.

They all, you know, tell me how. how great I am. So it's nice to just hear just that opinion that that sort of shifted because the goal is accessibility. You know, I understand not everybody has the ability to purchase an at-home fitness equipment. But, you know, for example, one of the ways we pivoted during the quarantine was we offered a 90-day free trial because we're like, you know what, if this is going to help

people like let's give it up for free we want people to experience this type of content um and that was super beneficial and i think that that's a large part of like the numbers growing and people really just being like oh i can do this that i already have a smartphone i can just do this at home on my phone like that's great you know we offer all these types of strength classes yoga classes that you don't need any equipment so um and and we will constantly keep creating that type of content because we want it to be accessible to all people. So, yeah, I mean, I'm just glad that that people are appreciating it. People are spreading it and sharing it with other people and getting other people on board.

Yeah, for real. So I don't think I ever would have even known who you are until this lockdown happened. And once I saw we were going to be stuck at home for a while, went on Amazon, got like one of the cheapest. you know, cycling bikes out there and then signed up for that 90-day free trial. And yeah, super cost-effective, but sort of, you know, talk about how exercise is good for mental health. I mean, getting through the past few months and using something like this was definitely a boon for mine.

So I appreciate it. That's awesome. Yeah. So how you still take classes online and how many classes a week do you take? I'm probably, well, look, I'll be honest. I go through like running and cycling. No pressure. So I mean, well, let's see.

Actually, I can take a look at the calculations. So I think I've done like 65 classes so far. Nice. And what is that over the course of like five months? So I think I'm averaging like two and a half a week, if that makes sense. That's amazing. So yeah. It's pretty good stuff.

And what were you doing before you had that? I was actually, I had just signed up for class pass. It's kind of this weird thing. where I started, I never would do a cycling class. I just felt they were too intense. And then someone introduced it to me because they had a peloton in their apartment building. And I was like, oh, this is kind of fun. But I could never afford something like that.

So I signed up for class class and started taking in-person cycling classes to start the year. And then, of course, you know, that all came to an end. And this was like a pretty good middle ground to be able to keep it up. but also yeah you know not break the bank yeah let's i'm glad you're still uh you know keeping up with it what's your favorite type of class to take you don't have to say my class no oh god this is what always happens i give the podcast over now i got to be on the hot scene uh where is a type of music you like to ride to the most is it rock no no i'm happy we could go into it listen listeners don't judge me too much but uh yeah anything

thing EDM, I think, is pretty good. Okay. So your class and Ben Aldis, who's another instructor that I like to take. I feel like those are what get me. He was a DJ too. He's London-based, great taste of music. Yeah. I mean, both you guys are DJ.

I personally don't spend much time in the club in my life, but I can kind of get an understanding of what you're talking about. But yeah, I just think that one of the things that struck me was just seeing the way this thing works and looking at how many people gravitate towards it and sort of the difference between that. And what a lot of the popular discussion has been was surprising to me. And I feel like it's always important to share, you know, these surprising stories with with people listening here. And also, you know, I just think it's a fascinating business story too. I mean, we talk about these, you know, Corona stocks or pandemic stocks. But the question is like, you know, like Pelton and Zoom.

but the question is, is there going to be staying power? And we haven't done a podcast on Zoom because I kind of think that software is terrible. But I think Peloton, you know, has some real staying power. And of course, like I do think there's, you know, we'll be talking for a while about the issue of like, you know, whether instructors are getting compensated properly and sort of whether that consolidates the labor pool into a much smaller one than there was before, which I appreciate you answering the questions. on. But I don't think this thing's going away. I think it's going to just keep getting more interesting and grow as a company. And yeah, I just appreciate your time today. Yeah. Well, I'm glad that you are a Peloton member and that you are using it to the best of your ability and you're taking all that we have to offer. So thanks. Thanks for writing.

Of course. You put me on the hot seat, but I hope I survive that. one and you roll out the questions pretty well. So I appreciate that. Thank you for not getting mad at me even among some of the tougher ones. Thanks so much. All right, Emma, where can people find you? And I mean, they could obviously take your class on the Peloton app, but social media wise, where else do you want people to find your stuff? Yeah, on Instagram, you can find me at Emma Lovewell. I'm also on Twitter. I also have a blog if you're interested in following some of my lifestyle recipe stuff, it's live, learn, lovewell.com. And then, yeah, you can always find me on the Peloton.

I love teaching my 90s rock rides, listening party. You can crush your core in my four-week core program on the Peloton app, no equipment necessary. I have to plug that in there. So that's where you can find me. Okay, terrific. Well, thanks everybody for listening. If you're new to the show, we do these every Wednesday.

You can subscribe on your app of choice, and we'll be back with a new show. next week, even through the holidays, we're going to pre-record a couple, so we'll have stuff that will take you through Christmas and New Year's. If you're a long-time listener, a rating would be great. Feel free to rate us on your podcast app of choice. That is going to wrap us for this week here on the Big Technology podcast. We will see you next Wednesday. And thanks again, as always, to Emma Lovewell, along with our audio editor, Nick Guatney and the folks at Red Circle for hosting and selling ads. We will see you next week. Thank you.