Icouldn’t sleep last night as I thought about Juneteenth and what it means to me. Juneteenth and the BLM movement, at its core, is really about a group of forgotten and overlooked people. A people who helped to build this country since the very beginning; a people who served in the front lines to defend freedom that they themselves lacked; and a people who powered the mighty industrial machine that overcame totalitarianism.
People in general, and Black people in particular, are the secret sauce of America.
As a Black woman working as a personal trainer in a commercial gym in San Francisco, I knew I had to work 10 times harder than the other trainers.
When new clients walked in the door, management invariably sent them first to trainers who looked the part: usually white, mostly men, and always with physiques like fitness models. After a few weeks and thousands of dollars, these clients start to realize that they’re not any closer to their fitness goals, whether it be weight loss or muscle gain. This is when I make my move.
You see, I know I can never look the part, so I spent all my time and energy at becoming a better trainer. I was able to get my clients closer to their fitness goals, and I retained clients that the better-looking trainers churned. This is how, as a single mom of two young boys, I was able to keep a roof over our heads and food on the table in one of the most expensive cities on Earth.
I make a living by giving real fitness results to actual people.
When I tell venture capitalists about my startup The Bright App, the most common response I get (besides silence) is: “Fitness is a crowded field, so we’re going to pass.”
True. Fitness is a $100 billion industry, and in the last few years, VCs poured money into a plethora of startups creating new gizmos, on-demand, at-home, or A.I.-powered fitness miracles. Take something like Mirror and its competitors Tonal, Tempo, Forme Life, and Echelon Reflect, which are all variations on the same theme — a connected mirror, on-demand classes, and a dash of computer vision. These companies raised a combined $200 million from VCs and private equity.
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