NEO U Invites Competitors to Help Everyone Get Fit
*By Christian Smith*
Peloton and Equinox may be racing each other for fitness domination, but the new studio and streaming service NEO U is taking a more collaborative approach, said one of its co-founders; he's inviting major brands to join his effort.
"If I was to meet with any of those companies that I just said, I would say, 'Hey, we're not competing against each other. I'm just another revenue stream for you,'" Nate Forster, a co-founder, told Cheddar. "Equinox can be on the platform. Peloton can be on the platform. I'm not trying to take the users from them."
NEO U just closed a $4 million round of funding, said Forster, bringing the New York fitness studio's total capital raised to $20 million. The company plans to use that cash to finish and launch its global streaming platform by September. The new service will store content from dozens of trainers and fitness studios; and all of it can be filmed at NEO U's Fifth-Avenue headquarters, Forster said. It's home to three studios ー weight and HIIT training, boxing, and yoga ー with industry-standard camera and lighting equipment, and a live control room.
Trainers and studios that partner with NEO U can make money by charging clients for classes in NEO U's physical space and through a revenue share on streamed content.
NEO U already has over a dozen trainers shooting content in preparation for the launch of its streaming service, including fitness influencer Nicole Mejia. Though she already has more than [1.3 million](https://www.instagram.com/nicole_mejia/?hl=en) Instagram followers, Mejia, the founder of the popular workout program Fit and Thick, sees NEO U's streaming platform as a way to grow her audience.
"I'll be able to kind of access all of my following all over the world really in a way that I'm not currently able to with my physical classes," Mejia told Cheddar.
In its first iteration, NEO U's streaming platform will focus primarily on classes, but Forster has bigger ambitions. He said he wants NEO U to become the "Amazon" of health and wellness.
"When our platform is done, we're going to have talk shows and nutrition shows and e-commerce," he said. "And it's going to be a place where all these different things can live."
For more on this story, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/how-one-gym-plans-to-take-over-the-fitness-streaming-industry).
Five women have been named to the U.S. short-track speedskating team for the 2022 Beijing Olympics. Among those five, there was only one returning Olympian of the group, Maame Biney, who competed in the 2018 Olympics as the first African-American woman to ever qualify for the U.S. short-track speedskating team. JD sat down with Biney to discuss how she's preparing for the games.
Eric Mitchell, Sports Analyst and President & CEO of LifeFlip Media, breaks down the updated rules around testing in the NFL and outlines how vaccinated players are impacted by new return-to-play guidelines.
Carlo and Baker kick off the weirdest week of the year with all the news you missed over the holiday weekend, including calls for the CDC to shorten its isolation window as Omicron sweeps through the country.
The 2022 Winter Olympics will be without some of hockey's biggest players. The NHL and the NHL Player's Association have agreed to not participate in the men's hockey tournament at the Games in Beijing next year. The league has been forced to postpone some games because of a rise in COVID-19 cases among players. Washington Post sports reporter Samantha Pell joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss what this could mean for the Winter Olympics and the sport of hockey.
Former professional tennis player Patrick McEnroe joined Cheddar to discuss the troubling issues surrounding player Peng Shuai who appeared potentially to have been silenced following her social media post accusing former Vice-Premier Zhang Gaoli of sexual assault. Shuai's subsequent disappearance, reappearance, and apparent retraction of the accusation in an interview only added to worries. "When this happened, all of us in the tennis community were very concerned. And, by the way, another thing Peng said in this interview was that she doesn't speak very good English," McEnroe noted. "Well I can assure you, she speaks darn good English, 'cause I spoke to her on many occasions over the last 15 years."
Carlo and Baker cover the heartening news on the Covid front ahead of the holiday, plus President Biden punting student loan repayments again, a new space telescope and Love, Hate, Ate: Christmas Eve Eve Edition!
The boys discuss President Biden's plans to send out free rapid tests as the testing supply chain starts to buckle ahead of the holidays. Also, why aren't Americans having more babies, and The Matrix returns.
Cam Rogers, host of 'Lock It In with Cam Rogers,' and betting analyst at the Bleav Podcast Network, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell, where he breaks down how sportsbooks - and bettors - need to adapt to changes to sporting events due to the spread of the Omicron variant.
