- 2 years ago
FORME is a digital fitness service that combines award-winning smart home gyms with 1:1 personal training from real people to deliver an immersive experience and better outcomes for both consumers and trainers.
The company has recently inked some important deals including the acquisition of CLMBR which it says will “accelerate its commercialization path”.
The company has recently inked some important deals including the acquisition of CLMBR which it says will “accelerate its commercialization path”.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00 (upbeat music)
00:02 Trent, thank you so much for joining us, man.
00:06 - Hey, good morning, Dane.
00:07 Great to be here.
00:08 - Thank you so much.
00:09 And we've got so much to talk about.
00:11 Absolutely love the industry that you're a part of
00:13 and the equipment.
00:14 I got a chance to check it out.
00:15 My cousin in Houston uses it,
00:16 so that's some fun stuff there.
00:17 But I know about the company,
00:19 the folks at home may not.
00:20 So if you could explain it to us like I'm five,
00:21 what is it that your company does?
00:24 - We make smart home gym.
00:25 So digital weight machine for the home
00:27 and live one-to-one personal training.
00:29 So the guy or girl you paid 150 bucks for in the gym
00:34 is in your home for 75 bucks anytime you want.
00:38 - Yeah, I love that.
00:39 That's the one thing that I wanted to get to is that
00:41 it's not just, hey, you can do the workout at home yourself,
00:43 but you can also go ahead and have someone there
00:46 train with you, you know,
00:48 do the different methods I'll have, which we'll get into.
00:49 But what are the different type of capabilities
00:52 that your hardware has, right?
00:53 There's so many different workouts.
00:54 There's so many different cardio things,
00:56 all that are the good stuff.
00:57 What all do y'all do?
00:59 - So we have a weight machine,
01:02 basically a dual arm cable machine.
01:04 So the strength training, most popular exercise out there,
01:06 the most important thing you can do, frankly,
01:09 especially as you get older, you know,
01:10 and older for me is 40 plus.
01:13 - Yes, okay, thank God.
01:15 - We're not talking super.
01:16 (laughing)
01:17 But no, it's, look, being strong is important for everyone.
01:22 It's the way you stay healthy.
01:23 The other aspect is, you know,
01:26 the unsexy part about exercise,
01:29 it's consistency, you know,
01:30 it's not the really hard workout you did and you feel great.
01:32 It's really like, are you doing on a consistent basis?
01:36 Having something at home,
01:38 you don't have that excuse, oh, there's traffic,
01:40 or I gotta get there, you know.
01:41 Gym, it's going downstairs, go upstairs,
01:44 you know, do a quick workout, go back to work.
01:47 So I think, you know, for us at home is important.
01:50 Strength training is important.
01:50 The other aspect really is coaching, you know.
01:53 We all do better with coaches.
01:55 Expert guidance, motivation, accountability, you know,
01:58 not getting injured, having someone look out for you.
02:01 I think those are, you know, keys here.
02:03 And we're really trying to make that more accessible.
02:06 - That consistency is absolutely true.
02:07 So, you know, just before we hopped on,
02:09 I talked about, you know, my work, my e-sports gigs.
02:11 So whenever I travel, my consistency goes away.
02:14 That's it, right?
02:14 Your food, you know, your eating schedule goes away,
02:17 your workout schedule goes away.
02:18 When you come back, you're like,
02:20 eh, I'll pick it up next week.
02:21 And then you just fall into that slump.
02:23 So I completely agree with you on that one.
02:26 Sometimes they say though that, hey,
02:27 when you work out in a group, it's beneficial.
02:29 But what do you think in terms of, hey,
02:31 having that one-on-one personal training
02:33 can be more beneficial?
02:35 - You know, look, I think if people are moving,
02:37 it's a good thing, right?
02:38 You know, I've played a lot of team sports in my life.
02:41 It's fun to go and work out with other people.
02:45 - Yeah.
02:46 - For me, I'm busy.
02:49 I got a lot of stuff going on.
02:51 To sync my schedule with a bunch of other people
02:53 and to hit a class is hard.
02:55 And my goals are better suited or better addressed
03:00 with a coach who's programming for me.
03:03 You know, personalization is obviously a trend
03:05 that we've seen in technology and everything,
03:06 but it's true, right?
03:07 I wanna be doing the workout
03:09 that's helping me reach my goals necessarily.
03:11 I don't think it's either or though, right?
03:14 I think these things, it's super important
03:16 to do it together.
03:17 You know, I have a relationship with my coach, right?
03:21 I see him every week.
03:23 It's a friend, right?
03:24 So I am working out with someone.
03:25 There is something there.
03:25 She's different.
03:27 I'd say focus, right?
03:28 - Yeah.
03:29 Yeah, you did go ahead and ink a deal in August
03:32 with a Risher company.
03:33 I believe, hopefully I'm pronouncing that correctly.
03:36 But more importantly, what kind of growth has this driven?
03:38 Let's just say in the past two months,
03:39 if you're able to comment on that,
03:41 but more importantly, what do you think folks can expect,
03:43 say a year from now?
03:44 - So we signed a deal with Risher, which, you know,
03:50 candidly, they're probably the company
03:52 that installed that device in Houston,
03:53 if you saw it with a cousin.
03:54 - Yeah.
03:55 - Their base there.
03:56 And that was the first install.
03:58 - Okay.
03:59 - We're seeing a lot of demand in multifamily.
04:02 People want to, you know, consumers,
04:04 wellness is obviously growing.
04:05 Consumers expect not just a dinky little gym.
04:08 And, you know, there's kind of nothing better
04:09 than putting our device in there,
04:11 being sort of the most premium device in the market.
04:13 So developers love making the gym look nice.
04:17 Makes you want to rent the place.
04:19 So that Risher is kind of one of them.
04:21 There's other players in the US there.
04:24 So we're starting to push product through that channel.
04:28 I think the other aspect around kind of growth
04:32 and inking deals really is probably the deal
04:34 we signed this week, right?
04:35 You know, and not to jump ahead, but I think-
04:38 - No, you're good.
04:38 I mean, you're good.
04:40 - Order of magnitude is massive, right?
04:43 So we signed a deal this week to buy a company
04:46 called Climber, which is another piece of equipment,
04:49 right, expanding our portfolio.
04:51 But it's, you know, it's tens of millions of revenue.
04:55 It's got a great route to market
04:58 with a really big distributor.
05:00 And I think it really transforms the business.
05:01 You know, we sort of go from, I think,
05:03 an early stage growth business to something
05:05 that's going to do 20 million in revenue next year
05:07 and be profitable, right, on a run rate basis
05:10 towards the end of the year.
05:10 So that's transformative.
05:13 I'd say incredibly honored that like their shareholders
05:17 basically rolled all their equity and said, you know,
05:20 we want to put this together.
05:21 One plus one's really three.
05:23 And so those are products that are in the home already
05:26 that they've already sold a few thousand units to consumers.
05:28 And now they're pushing into commercial.
05:30 So, you know, there's, there are the devices
05:34 in places like Planet Fitness and Crunch being considered
05:38 for rollout into the whole portfolio,
05:41 kind of going through the sales qualification.
05:44 So this is, and international as well, right?
05:46 It's an amazing product.
05:47 It's a climbing device.
05:48 So full body, safe, efficient, you know,
05:53 not just a stair stepper, not a bike,
05:57 but something that really works the whole body.
05:59 You know, frankly, one of the, you know,
06:02 as you probably know, there's a bit of a trend
06:03 towards having, you know, bigger butts, right?
06:05 And kind of like a dash in stuff.
06:07 - Yep.
06:08 - This is about as good as you can get for it.
06:10 So, you know, I think we're in the right spot there
06:13 and it's incredibly exciting that we've got that deal done.
06:16 - Yeah, that's where I was going to want to go next.
06:18 So let's go ahead and skip forward from that.
06:20 You know, there's always that trend where I feel like
06:22 a lot of gyms make a lot of money first week of January,
06:25 'cause everybody's like, "Hey, new year, new me."
06:27 So that's a trend that then unfortunately falls off
06:29 and maybe picks back up,
06:30 you know, they're trying to get that summer body.
06:32 But are there any trends or anything
06:34 that you kind of have seen different
06:36 in the personal fitness industry
06:37 in say like the past three years
06:39 that you feel like your company can take advantage of that?
06:42 Like for example, COVID, right?
06:44 Obviously no one could go out, work at home.
06:45 That's so great for someone like your company.
06:48 Any other future trends like that you see coming up?
06:51 - No, look, without a doubt,
06:54 and you've got the time, right?
06:55 In the past three years, stuff's changed a lot.
06:57 So the number one reason for working out
06:59 when you survey people was weight loss, body composition,
07:03 right, you talked about summer body.
07:04 During COVID, it was for two years
07:07 that the number one spot was mental health, right?
07:10 We're having anxiety, people were kind of freaking out.
07:12 You didn't have your normal routine.
07:13 You weren't seeing people and going for a walk,
07:15 working out was the best way to sort of, you know,
07:19 reestablish some kind of equilibrium.
07:21 Coming out of COVID, number one answer
07:24 and it's kind of continued to be really is longevity.
07:27 And people sort of realizing, hey, who died from COVID?
07:31 People that were out of shape, right?
07:33 Hey, I saw my mortality, all of that.
07:35 You see in the paper, you start to reevaluate your life.
07:37 You know, what do you want to be able to do?
07:40 And so people, I think, and it's good
07:42 because exercise is really there
07:45 to like keep the body working.
07:47 - Right.
07:48 - You know, there's the caloric stuff and it does,
07:50 that's helpful, but it's really about like longevity.
07:53 And so that's really where the focus is.
07:56 And the thing about strength training
07:58 is it's the number one prescription
08:00 you can have for longevity.
08:02 - Yeah, absolutely.
08:03 You know, I tell people, so I had a weight loss
08:05 during my own, I weighed about 193, went down to 160
08:08 and then I've gained a bit of it back.
08:09 But whenever people ask me like, hey, what motivates you?
08:11 I'm like, I just go to the gym for my mental health.
08:14 And if I lose weight in the process,
08:15 that's the cherry on top.
08:16 So I definitely couldn't agree with you more on that one.
08:19 Do you, you mentioned the climbers kind of, you know,
08:21 you might be looking to get into
08:23 the gym facilities themselves.
08:24 Are you planning on having your other hardware equipment
08:26 in the gym facilities?
08:27 And the reason I ask that is 'cause I've got one friend
08:29 who's got a bunch of weights and everything else
08:32 and it takes up a lot of space in the gym.
08:33 Y'all's equipment, it doesn't.
08:35 And I've seen that again with my cousin in Houston.
08:37 So are y'all planning on going into more and more
08:40 Planet Fitnesses or other gym facilities
08:42 to install your equipment?
08:44 - I mean, I think it depends on what the customer needs.
08:48 If you have a gym floor and that's your business
08:50 and you have a bunch of equipment,
08:52 you're not really focused on space, right?
08:55 You're a big box.
08:56 But when you're a gym in a country club,
08:59 in a multifamily building,
09:02 somewhere where space is a bit of a premium
09:04 and it's not a big box gym,
09:07 I think that's the better place for us.
09:09 So we're in seven or eight, four seasons right now.
09:12 We're in a bunch of high-end hotels.
09:14 It fits really well for that.
09:16 I think it fits well when space
09:20 is probably more of a premium.
09:21 And look, I had a bunch of weights in my house
09:26 and that's kind of what gave me the idea.
09:28 I was like, well, why do I have all these things?
09:30 I'm sure I was single living by myself.
09:33 So it wasn't a huge deal at that time.
09:35 I was like, let's make this look nice
09:38 or get some metrics in there, have it be tracked.
09:42 That's kind of how we came up with that device.
09:44 So I think we will be in commercial settings
09:46 with the strength machine,
09:48 but I think it's more probably like a medical facility
09:52 or rehab, a physical therapist,
09:54 as opposed to high fitness. - That makes sense.
09:57 - Whereas the Climber device,
09:59 it kind of goes in both places, right?
10:01 It's in the physical therapist's office
10:03 and it's on the gym floor.
10:07 Basically, you can remove one elliptical machine
10:10 and put three of these there.
10:11 And it adds newness to the gym
10:14 and it's one of the few innovations
10:17 that's been out there in fitness.
10:19 - I definitely agree with the high-end sleek look of it.
10:23 It's kind of like the Peloton of strength training.
10:26 That's kind of the comparison that I have in my head,
10:28 at least when I first saw it at my cousin's place,
10:30 is I have seen it in different hotels and high-end spaces.
10:33 It's so compact, it's great, it works awesome.
10:35 Matter of fact, when I was doing research
10:36 for this interview, I was like, I got a whole wall here
10:38 that I could just use one of these for, no problem at all.
10:41 But man, before we go though,
10:43 I'm gonna turn the floor over to you.
10:44 We've talked about a lot in terms of the deal,
10:46 the past, future stuff as well.
10:48 Is there anything else that you wanted to talk about
10:50 that I didn't bring up?
10:51 The floor is kind of yours to talk to our viewers.
10:54 - I appreciate that.
10:55 Look, I think COVID put a lot of focus
10:59 on the fitness industry and it also created a lot of noise.
11:02 At the end of the day, it just goes up every year.
11:04 People want, more and more people are interested
11:07 in health and wellness,
11:08 and so it's a really good backdrop to be in.
11:10 I think there's some failed business models, right?
11:14 I mean, I don't think you can be a direct
11:16 to consumer only business.
11:17 It's too expensive, a distribution channel.
11:19 And we saw that with Peloton and some of these other players
11:23 and that's one of the reasons we're driving
11:25 towards B2B, right?
11:27 We should be kind of 2/3 or 80% B2B next year.
11:31 It's a more traditional channel.
11:32 It's a much more capital efficient channel.
11:34 And so that's the way you build a real business.
11:36 The other aspect is from an affordability perspective,
11:40 we just signed a partnership with a company
11:43 called TrueMed today that we announced,
11:46 which those guys are great, Justin and Casey.
11:50 They, or Cal, excuse me.
11:52 They have basically found a way
11:56 to confirm that exercise is medicine.
11:59 So you think telehealth stuff,
12:01 you get a prescription for something.
12:03 - Yeah.
12:04 - With their payment plan and their system,
12:06 you can get a doctor to say that exercise is medicine.
12:09 It keeps you from being sick, right?
12:10 It cures diseases like old age.
12:13 And you can use your HSA and FSA dollars to pay for it.
12:16 So you can buy personal training with pre-tax dollars.
12:18 You can buy our equipment with pre-tax dollars.
12:20 And that saves 30 or 40%.
12:23 And it's the right way, I think for society, right?
12:26 We shouldn't be spending our money
12:27 and being incentivized by the government
12:29 to not have healthcare costs, right?
12:32 To eat well, to exercise.
12:33 And so they're really pushing that, and that's great.
12:36 So when you go to our website,
12:37 you can check out with your HSA, FSA dollars.
12:41 So that's exciting as well.
12:43 And I think health and wellness
12:45 has been a niche category historically.
12:48 Only 20% of people in the US actually work out regularly.
12:51 But that's growing every year,
12:52 and I think it's a great place to be.
12:54 - Yeah, especially I think as the new generation, right,
12:57 kind of comes into play.
12:58 I feel like so much of the conversation
13:00 that I have with my cousins
13:02 that are a little bit younger than me is,
13:03 hey, mental health, like, hey, I'll take less of a pay cuts,
13:06 or I'll take less of a pay
13:08 to make sure I get more flexibility in terms of remote.
13:10 So I can be healthy, go out, walk, parks,
13:13 working out, this, that.
13:14 So completely agree with you on that.
13:16 But man, what a pleasure to talk to you.
13:17 I really am looking forward
13:18 to seeing what you do with the company.
13:19 Might even go ahead and stack one of those babies
13:21 in the back wall there, but thank you so much.
13:23 That is Trent Ward, co-founder and CEO
13:25 of Interactive Strength, aka Form Nasdaq.
13:28 Ticker is T-R-N-R.
13:30 Thank you so much, man.
13:31 (upbeat music)
13:33 (upbeat music)
Comments