Meet the Founders of Soul Cycle: Find Out How They Grew Their Small Business Into An Exercise Phenomenon

By TIM FASANO

SoulCycle grew out of co-founders Julie Rice and Elizabeth Cutler’s dream of an exercise studio that provided an efficient and “joyful” workout. From the “rear lobby” of a space in New York City, SoulCycle has grown to a booming business, with dozens of indoor cycling studios.

In our exclusive interview with Julie Rice and Elizabeth Cutler, they reveal how staying true to their vision and listening to their customers led to their overwhelming success.

How did SoulCycle get started?

Elizabeth: Julie and I both were living in New York City, and we couldn’t find an exercise that we loved. We both started thinking independently about a place that was an exercise studio where you could sign up online for your classes for the whole week and have a really efficient workout that was joyful and fun.

So we had a lunch, and we immediately shared our common vision about what we wanted, and how we couldn’t find anything that was out there. . . it was like the best blind date we ever had! We left that lunch and continued to have this conversation: “Well, you know I’m going to go find something on Craigslist because I couldn’t get any real estate. . . call me back.”

Amazingly, we found something on Craigslist and went to go look at it and fell in love with it. We designed [the studio] and we signed the lease and we opened about four and a half months later.

What does SoulCycle look like today?

Elizabeth: We just opened our seventeenth studio and we are going to have twenty-five studios by the end of the year. We are really committed to bringing SoulCycle to the people. We’ve found that people have really connected with indoor cycling; it’s inspiring, and we both believe we can incorporate that upper body core workout in an environment that [is] well-designed. We have really focused on customer service so that when [customers] walk through the front door, they feel like they’re here for an experience every single time they come for class, and it’s something that seems to have really resonated in the markets that we’re in.

Right now we’re in New York and surrounding areas, and in Southern California and Los Angeles, and in the surrounding areas there. We also just opened in Northern California, and our plan for this year is to open more in all of those regions and start to look forward into 2014 to adding more studios in Washington DC, Boston, and London.

What is your core vision for SoulCycle?

Julie: We really believe that you can have an experience in the classroom, not just a workout. Elizabeth has always said there’s only three ways people can get cardio, and that’s running, cycling, and swimming. It just seemed like there was so much more that could be done with the indoor cycling experience and there was more that could be done in a workout that was efficient and incorporated your whole body: in terms of how much fun you could have on the bike, adding choreography and doing some dancing on the bike. Not only finding a difficult workout but having a fundamental, driven emotional release as well. So we really began to think of creating a meaningful experience every single time, which plays to our pay-per-class model. That’s a constant challenge for us to continue, to make sure that every single time you come, you get a wonderful experience.

I think the last piece also was really the customer service piece. We really felt people spend so much time at the gym, and you go every single day at pretty much the same time, and we really felt like it should feel like your place. You should have a community and the people at the front desk should know you, and so customer service has become a real cornerstone of our brand.

How does SoulCycle create a culture that keeps customers coming back?

Julie: Elizabeth and I created an environment that we would want to be in. People always remark, “Oh, it’s so ingenious you put hair ties on the front desk,” or “You put chewing gum there.” The truth is, we really created a place that made us feel like it was our place and we have really extended that to our riders. We always wanted our riders to feel like they would be greeted by somebody who knew their first name. In fact, we always joke around even as we get bigger, the way that we explain our customer service policy to our staff is we want every SoulCycle [studio] to feel like it’s the only SoulCycle. We always try to create little communities so that people not only felt like they were getting great service and that the people that worked at SoulCycle really had an interest in. . . their wellness and their fitness, but also people could socialize with each other, creating an environment that was comfortable and without judgement and empowering. It allowed people to open up and make friends a lot more easily.

What are your hiring practices and how do you create a strong employee culture?

Julie: In terms of hiring the right instructors, that has become a really great process. We. . . do auditions four times a month. We see well over a hundred people every month, and they are usually auditioning for eight spots in the training program. Then we have an eight-week training program and then we have a continuing education program that goes on for as long as they are here. So, we really put a lot of time and energy and education in making sure that each of our instructors is fabulous.

With our employees, we do the same thing; we have a really thorough interview process. People that work here ride here, so they know it and they love it; there’s a real culture of passion about what we are doing because everybody that works here is a real user of the product. We also have pretty much created an in-house hospitality training program; everybody who works here gets trained in everything from history of the culture and the brand to what we expect from them each and every day they’re working.

How do you market SoulCycle?

Elizabeth: The experience is what matters at SoulCycle and so we try to bring experiences to people. We don’t market in a traditional way. Julie had this one idea. . . when we opened in Williamsburg, we had 140 bikes in there, and we invited people from the neighborhood and also people who spread the word to come and try it. So, it was a combination of people who would be able to spread the word initially, but also people who might enjoy the experience and want to become a rider, and that was something that was very successful that people really enjoyed. We definitely try to connect with our communities before we go into a community. We reach out to friends to try and get people to come and experience SoulCycle. We will do stuff with schools, we’ll do stuff with charities, just things that people have an emotional connection to, because people get tired of doing the same sort of fundraising things; this is a little something different.

Julie: I’d also just like to add that most of our marketing efforts are experiential; it’s very hard to articulate to somebody what makes SoulCycle different. You know, you’re swept up in the moment and the sweat is flowing and the adrenaline’s pumping; it’s very easy to understand.

We made a decision early on to put most of our marketing dollars and efforts towards creating experiences. In fact, when we opened our Bridgehampton studio, it was our second summer in business, and we really opened it as a marketing experience because we were really trying to expose more people to SoulCycle; at the time, we only had one SoulCycle on the Upper West Side. We really found that running a summer business out in Bridgehampton took our very local business and made it more of a citywide destination.

Another thing that’s really interesting is our retail line, which is now its own business. In the beginning, we designed one t-shirt, because it was our very first marketing effort, and we had 2,000 dollars left over. We figured if we could get 150 people wearing t-shirts with a wheel on it, they would be walking billboards. That was one of our really great marketing efforts.

What would your advice be for a small business owner that’s growing a business?

Elizabeth: I think you have to listen to your customer. If one person is saying it, then probably ten people are thinking it, or more. We really listen to what they say and we act on it. One example is a towel vendor who was using a certain kind of soap that didn’t smell very good. The next week, we changed the soap, and somebody came up to the front desk and said, “I can’t believe these towels smell differently! What did you do?” It’s those little touch points that can make a difference in someone’s experience.

Julie: We’re always looking at things through the eyes of the consumer.

What would you do if you had $500 left over at the end of the month?

Elizabeth: A great example is the retail business coming out of the t-shirt. When we first opened we didn’t really have any money for marketing. So, we figured that somebody would wear one t-shirt and may be running along Central Park. And maybe somehow, people would see the wheel on the shirt and connect the dots. That one particular t-shirt has gone on to birth a whole retail business.

If you had one piece of advice for someone starting their own business, what would that be?

Elizabeth: My advice would be that you have to love what you do. You’re going to do it all the time. If you’re going to have a partner, you have to share a vision, compatible skill sets, yet different, and also the same work ethic. You’ve got to be able to go for it. It’s a lot of work being an entrepreneur; you have to do it all day, all night.

What do you consider to be the keys to your success?

Elizabeth: I think it’s hard work, and we really do listen to our customers. We take what each customer says to heart. If one person says it, there are a slew of people behind it. We implement change [from] email suggestions. We look at hundreds of people that write in and look for common themes. We stay agile; as a small business, we are never too proud to change, and we’re also always trying to evolve. We want to see what customers want tomorrow. Just because we are successful today, doesn’t mean that’s going to last forever.

Customer service is the last part. People want to be treated well and have people be nice to them. We are a service business and we’re a luxury product. . . we are always thinking about how we can make our customers happy.