Payal Kadakia Pujji, ClassPass Founder, Dancer, Fitness Extraordinaire

The address on the mail says that your office is in Manhattan.

In terms of success, that says so much.

When you can paint the interior of your office pink; that shows you can do pretty much whatever you want.

Payal Kadakia Pujji has been bringing people what they want in mass numbers so her bottom line is looking fantastic.

We would love to visit her office and look at her accolades on the wall.

At payalkadakia.com they share, “Payal is the Executive Chairman & Founder of ClassPass and the Artistic Director of The Sa Dance Company.

Payal has been a “dancetrepreneur” since the age of 3 when she started training in Indian classical and folk styles of dance. It was her passion for dance, entrepreneurship, and making the world a more active, happy place that led to the founding of Classpass. ClassPass is a membership program for fitness classes across multiple gyms and studios, making working out more engaging, accessible, and affordable.

With over 25 years of dance experience, Payal also founded The Sa Dance Company, a contemporary Indian dance company. She has led the company to achieve tremendous community support, sold out performances, celebrity endorsements, and positive reviews in The New York Times, MTV, and prominent South Asian publications. Payal has been quoted as “the dancer possessing not only the stand-out talent, but the undying passion, congenial disposition and sharp business savvy to be truly a force to be reckoned with” as the South Asian culture continues its inevitable integration into America.

Prior to founding ClassPass, Payal worked as a consultant at Bain & Company and in Warner Music Group’s Digital Strategy and Business Development Group. Payal also has a degree from MIT in Operations Research and Economics.”

This is one very impressive entrepreneur and given her impact in the fitness industry, others are taking notice.

fciwomenswrestling.com, femcompetitor.com article, payalkadakia.com photo

The informative team at cio.com announces, “Payal Kadakia Pujji turned her passion for fitness and exercise into ClassPass, an exercise program that has quickly spread across the country. With the help of a convenient app, users can quickly book from a selection of thousands of workouts. Group and video workouts allow those working on their fitness to become part of a larger community, building support and enthusiasm for reaching exercise goals.”

At forbes.com, the financial media giant that has their pulse on the who’s who in the entrepreneurial world, they expand on Payal’s accomplishments. “Kadakia is the inventor of the hugely popular monthly membership service that gives subscribers access to a wide range of fitness classes. For a monthly fee, her customers can sign up for an unlimited number of classes in everything from Pilates, spin classes, boxing and boot camps to aerial yoga, pole dancing and underwater spinning. She founded the business in 2010 and it’s now valued at an estimated $400 million; Forbes figures Kadakia’s net worth is at least $50 million, enough for Forbes to include her among eight women entrepreneurs on the rise.”

How do these brilliant women do it?

There are some early clues.

Do you remember what you were doing at three years old?

Payal started her classical Indian training in a friends’ basement.

She is the younger daughter of two chemists who emigrated from western India.

Our star loved the spotlight at a young age as she served as a cheerleader for her New Jersey public school’s football team and danced on the weekends.

In college where she majored in economics and operations research, she started an Indian dance troop.

So much of that seems to speak to passion. She continues to inspire others.

In some ways frustration led to her inspiration.

After wasting hours searching online for the right New York City dance class and constantly not finding one that suited her needs, she realized that she had the perfect idea for a startup.

A powerful growing business needs a team of talented people to help it grow.

ClassPass Inc., based in New York City, provides access to yoga, strength training, barre, martial arts, Pilates, boxing, and indoor cycling classes, as well as use of health clubs via its flat-rate monthly .

Led by CEO and major investor Fritz Lanman since March 2017, ClassPass is the world’s largest health club aggregator and has partnerships with 8,500 health clubs in 49 cities worldwide. The company receives a discounted cost from health clubs in exchange for providing the clubs with increased usage.

By June 2017, the company had booked 35 million reservations. In August 2017, the company announced expansion to New Orleans, Pittsburgh, San Antonio, Cincinnati, Calgary, Honolulu, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, Riverside, California, and Salt Lake City.

By December 2017, the company had booked 45 million reservations.

The news continues to get better.

In March 2018, ClassPass launched live-streamed fitness classes for $15 per month. In 2017, the company was ranked #2 on the Deloitte Fast 500 North America list.

We understand what keeps her customers coming back. Pink and turquois office walls aside, Payal has a sensational sense of style, even when it comes to business presentations.

They were there and lived to smile about it.

At businessinsider.com they announce, “When ClassPass CEO Payal Kadakia took the stage at Dreamforce, she didn’t act like a normal startup founder.

Instead, she danced, arm outstretched, her fingers contorted into a Bollywood pose.

A quick costume change and 15 minutes later, Kadakia returned to address the crowd about ClassPass, the fitness subscription service she claims is valued at $400 million. The company raised $40 million in new funding in January and expanded to 36 cities and 3 countries, landing Kadakia at spot number 32 in the SAI 100, our annual list of the biggest movers and shakers in New York tech.”

We wish we were there too, don’t you?

Though it was dancing that inspired Payal to start ClassPass, her vision for the company is moving beyond the fitness search engine that started it.

Word has it that she hopes to connect with what clients love and allow them to try new experiences.

Well said. When a visionary speaks, we listen.

As to the future her goals will be in keeping with her personal philosophy. In an interview with nextshark.com she reveals, “The greatest lesson I’ve learned is to trust yourself and take risks. You cannot fear failure, because it provides the best opportunity to learn.”

Now that is wisdom that you can dance to.

~ ~ ~