Mobile fitness marketplace runs off with $3m seed

New York City-based Playbook, a mobile fitness marketplace, has raised $3 million in seed funding. The investors included Uphonest Capital, Giphy founder Alex Chung, EventBrite co-founder Renaud Visage and Seventh Generation founder John Replogle.

PRESS RELEASE

New York, NY — June 17, 2020 — Playbook, a mobile marketplace enabling top instructors in fitness and athletics to turn their iPhone content into a subscription income, announces that it has raised $3M in seed funding from investors including Giphy Founder Alex Chung, StyleSeat Founder Melody McCloskey, EventBrite Co-Founder Renaud Visage, Seventh Generation Founder John Replogle, Ed Baker, former Head of Growth at Uber, Daniel Graf, former Head of Product at Uber, and Brendan O’Driscoll, Head of Growth at Bird, Ryan Hoover, Founder of Product Hunt, and Uphonest Capital.

Co-founded in 2017 by Jeff Krahel, Michael Wojcieszek, and Kasper Odegaard, the Playbook app now features over 150 fitness instructors who have published a total of more than 40,000 workouts on the platform. Top instructors include Magnus Lydgback, trainer to Gal Gadot and Ben Affleck, Don Saladino, trainer to Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively, Boss Everline, trainer to Kevin Hart, Hannah Bower, trainer and well known fit-mom, and yoga and meditation influencer Morgan Tyler. The platform is continually adding new instructors and programs.

Playbook CEO and co-founder Jeff Krahel says the company has put instructors first in its product design and business model.

“We make all of our business and product decisions by asking ourselves what’s best for the instructors,” said Krahel. “By doing that, we believe we will ultimately create the best consumer experience. Every fitness app out there puts the instructor in a box, trying to control them via cringeworthy contracts. Other apps want to own the instructor’s margin, content and data for life. Worse-off, the instructor is highly limited with the content they can create which reduces their ability to grow their income. We’re focused on supporting the instructors to build the best business possible on their terms.”

To date, Playbook has helped its fitness instructors generate significant income on their own terms; in some cases, instructors have earned in excess of $1M per year. The company has also struck content and partnership deals with Marvel Studios, with more exciting partnerships currently in the pipeline.

About Playbook
Playbook is a mobile marketplace where the industry’s top instructors in health, fitness and athletics turn their phone content into a subscription income – all on their own terms. Playbook enables fitness instructors to create and distribute their content, build up a subscriber base, and generate significant revenue. Co-founded in 2017 by Jeff Krahel, Michael Wojcieszek and Kasper Odegaard, Playbook currently has more than 150 of the world’s top fitness influencers on the platform, and more than 40,000 fitness workouts available. Playbook is headquartered in New York City.