Star Power, Female Athletes, Learn To Dance For Fitness From Global Star Payal Kadakia
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March 31, 2025,
When you are young, beautiful and incredibly wealthy, what does it make you want to do?
Dance, of course. In the streets. The legendary group Martha and the Vandellas told us so.
In the living room. Your family is happy to dance with you.
Oh, one more place.
All the way to the bank.
That is how it started for Payal Kadakia.
Google Books says it well. “Payal Kadakia is the founder of the revolutionary fitness and wellness platform, ClassPass, which provides people access to the best boutique fitness classes, gyms, and wellness experiences around the world. Payal is also the founder and artistic director of the Sa Dance Company, dedicated to expressing Indian American identity. Payal is frequently featured in major news outlets and has been listed among Fast Company’s 100 Most Creative People, and was named to Fortune’s 40 under 40 list. She holds a Bachelor of Science from MIT.
What drove her to global success?
Payal’s parents pushed Payal and moved into a school district which was #1 rated in the state.
What an investment.
In her early life, she was an avid dancer and made fitness part of her life.
Following grade school, she went to M.I.T. due to her love of math and science. Once she graduated, she went to work for Bain. Heard of them?
Bain is a global consultancy group that helps the world’s most ambitious change makers define the future. Across 65 cities in 40 countries, they work alongside clients as one team with a shared ambition to achieve extraordinary results, outperform the competition, and redefine industries.
Sounds impressive. Sounds ideal for Payal.
In her free time, Indian dancing became a large part of her life to the point where she was a professional. Throughout her dancing career, she met many who followed other forms of dancing. She found an interest in ballet, but learned it was hard to find available classes. If only it was easy to find and book dancing classes.
Drum roll please.
Along came ClassPass.
ClassPass is an American company operating a subscription platform for fitness. Founded in 2013, it was acquired by Mindbody Inc in 2021.
Previously it went through a series of changes.
In January 2019, ClassPass acquired Guavapass. Later that year, in October, Classpass acquired Swedish competitor Fitness Collection. Chilean-based MuvPass and ClickyPass, based in Argentina, were acquired in early 2020.
ClassPass is an online platform for booking exercise classes. Payal first thought of the idea when she went to San Francisco to meet some friends who spent all their time designing apps. She came to understand the importance of online platforms, and when she found it hard to book ballet classes, the idea showed itself.
The frustration level was further expanded when Payal discovered that there were many who had the same trouble as she did.
Here, misery doesn’t love company. It just spurs company innovation.
Once she prototyped her site, she went to work designing a search engine for classes which became Classtivity.
Let’s take a pause. Important life lesson here.
This was an early version of ClassPass that failed. The pricing model was hard to understand for consumers and was expensive.
She didn’t give up.
When she launched ClassPass, she tuned the pricing model to follow what her target consumers wanted. In her first round of financing, Payal raised $350 million.
So it began.
Her star is rising and she is making big news. The global news source hindustantimes.com shared, “Payal Kadakia is an Indian-American entrepreneur renowned for founding ClassPass, the first billion-dollar company established by a South Asian woman.”
In hot off the press related news:
ClassPass Announces Best Workout Studios, Spas, Salons, and Instructors of 2024
News provided by
ClassPass
Mar 18, 2025, 09:00 ET
ClassPass releases 5th annual Best of ClassPass Awards, honoring the top fitness & wellness businesses around the world
NEW YORK, March 18, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — ClassPass, the leading fitness and wellness membership offering access to thousands of studios, gyms, and spas globally, today announced the winners of the 2024 Best of ClassPass Awards. Covering 21 countries, the list highlights the top fitness and wellness destinations across the U.S., Canada, Latin America, EMEA, and APAC regions.
This year, the list features its four standard categories: Best Studio, Best Instructor, Best Spa/Salon, and Best Gym, along with a new Hidden Gem category—small businesses that typically fly under the radar but are loved by loyal attendees.
Winners are chosen based on a combination of reservation data and ClassPass member votes. At the end of each year, nominations are collected via an in-app survey and a series of Instagram posts, through which ClassPass users can tag their favorite instructors and businesses. Those chosen as winners are included in various ClassPass campaigns throughout the year to boost exposure for their businesses. U.S. businesses that won a 2023 Best of ClassPass award saw an average of 8% more reservations than non-winning businesses during the month of the campaign.
“We’re excited to celebrate our incredible partners for the fifth year in a row,” said Ivy Wu, VP of Marketing at ClassPass. “These studios, spas, salons, and instructors are raising the bar in the industry, going the extra mile to create inspiring, supportive spaces where their communities can focus on their health and well-being. Since these awards are based on real feedback from ClassPass members, they’re a genuine reflection of the outstanding experiences and value our partners deliver.”
For the complete list of Best of ClassPass winners, and to discover top-rated businesses in your area, visit: https://classpass.com/blog/best-of-classpass-2024/
About ClassPass
ClassPass is revolutionizing the fitness and wellness industry by bringing together the world’s best classes and experiences into one app. Founded in 2013 and acquired by leading wellness technology platform, Mindbody, in 2021, ClassPass connects members to millions of classes and experiences in 31 countries around the globe while working directly with businesses to merchandise their excess inventory, find new customers and generate new streams of revenue. Members can use ClassPass to book at tens of thousands of fitness studios, gyms, salons, spas and more. Additionally, ClassPass is available as a wellness benefit for the world’s leading employers. Learn more at http://classpass.com.
MEDIA CONTACT:
Annie Chapdelaine
Press@classpass.com
SOURCE ClassPass
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https://en.wikipedia.org/?title=Payal_Kadakia&redirect=no
https://www.bain.com/about/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ClassPass
https://www.fciwomenswrestling2.com
https://femcompetitor.com/
https://grapplingstars.com/
https://www.fcielitecompetitor.com/
https://fciwomenswrestling.com/
