Zwift just raised $450 million in funding led by KKR

pretty cool

—-

https://techcrunch.com/2020/09/16/zwift-maker-of-…

Zwift, a 350-person, Long Beach, California-based online fitness platform that immerses cyclists and runners in 3D-generated worlds, just raised a hefty $450 million in funding led by the investment firm KKR in exchange for a minority stake in its business...”

 

It's pretty awesome, you need a "smart-trainer" that will adjust the distance throughout the ride. I can see them expanding to other sports like rowing etc. 

 

Johnny Cashflow

Has anyone used this? Interested in thoughts. 

How "real life" is this? Is there an attachment for your bike to increase / decrease tension? For example, is it harder to pedal if you are going up hill in the video?

Yeah it becomes harder to pedal on hills and you have to shift to a lower gear or pedal harder.

I also weigh myself before every session - your weight affects speed.

Zwift is a lot of fun for me. I just got it this past spring and am addicted. I have a Wahoo Kickr Core direct drive trainer. 

The Zwift races are a blast too.

"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
 

I genuinely don't get who is buying this stuff--Peloton, Zwift, etc. I could do 3 years of high-end cycling classes with hot girls, pumping music, amazing light shows, and professional trainer for the cost of these setups (a complete, true and proper immersive Zwift setup runs around $3k + monthly subscription). I just don't get it. But they're obviously popular. 

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It's not that I don't see the merit. It's that I genuinely believe most people will spend $3k and never get that much value out of it. It's not entertaining enough to maintain for many people as a long-term/permanent lifestyle. In 6 months many will grow tired of riding the bike at home. 

On a separate note, one of the motivating factors for me to work hard at the cycling class is that the instructor is there looking right at me. I would 100% slack off if I were in the privacy of my own home.

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Firstly, I think many parents with children find at home workout to be appealing due to the convenience, and find it worth the hefty price tag. Secondly, there's a lot of intangible value from being able to work out from the comfort of your home w/o "being judged"...kind of similar to how Planet Fitness was able to cultivate a brand with their lunk alarm. 

 
Most Helpful

It's a bit of everything, right? I've been working out more consistently since COVID, simply because it's convenient. No excuses - weights are literally staring at me. I can lift, run and be done in roughly the time it would take me to get to the gym. Much less having to change, shower, etc. Hell - you can literally work from home in your gym clothes if you don't have client calls. 

It's frankly pretty alluring - I have to admit I'm staring at the peloton treadmill ( the new, cheaper one) that will be a miracle when it gets cold here. I hate the subscription for classes - that's the only thing holding me back... i guess i don't have to get it, but, that kinda defeats the whole point. I was a lead mocker of peloton buyers for a long time... and I'll admit... I'm somewhat convinced. 

Do I think it's long term? Probably not - I think people will snap back from this COVID induced quarantine and be more social than ever. Gyms will resume. Life will resume. I do think that marginally, people may spend money on outfitting their own homes purely out of convenience and/or lifestyle changes. If i work from home two days a week - when I don't have to be in the office - why on earth not? 

 

There is obviously theoretical value to expensive at-home workout equipment. My position is that I think most people will never realize the value because working out at home is really, really boring. It takes a lot of workouts to realize value for your fixed costs relative to variable membership fees.

The difference between a good cycling class and working out on a Peloton is night and day. Maybe Peloton, et al would work for someone who has never been to SoulCycle, Cyclebar, or Flywheel, but anyone who has would be ruined forever on home cycling workouts. They would be wholly insufficient.

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Zwift and peloton are targeted at very different markets. Zwift is geared toward serious cyclists while Peloton target market is much more broad. I have never understood who pays $30 a class for soulcycle and I don't get why someone would buy such an expensive bike as the peloton and then pay another $30 a month for the classes. Zwift is different, all you need is a smart trainer to hook your bike too (Wahoo Kickr in my case, although I'm thinking about adding a Climb too). For someone who lives in the heart of a large city, Zwift have some really awesome benefit. Getting to roads where you can properly train takes about 30 min for me so I lose an hour everytime you ride just getting to a good place to cycle. I now do pretty much all of my structure workouts at home now and go outside for long and / or social rides. I end up training much harder. I also have have a weekly race with some bschool friends of mine that are scattered across the world (WFH really helps with that, have to admit I have taken a lot of calls from my bike). Plus living on the East Coast, there just isn't a lot of long hard climb (which I really enjoy) so Zwift is another huge benefit there. So thrilled with the summer map addition, especially Ventoux!!

 

mtnmmnn

Zwift is different, all you need is a smart trainer to hook your bike too (Wahoo Kickr in my case, although I'm thinking about adding a Climb too). 

Zwift isn't going to build a huge business off of "serious cyclists." There is too much revenue left on the table for them to just target serious cyclists. You're going to have a huge segment of people who aren't "serious cyclists" buying a $1, 2, 3k set-up thinking that this is going to be a tool of amazing value when it turns into an extremely boring drag. That's my point. These at-home exercise bikes have theoretical value, but a great number of customers are never going to realize its value. That's all I'm saying. If you're a serious cyclist and live in an area not conducive for serious cycling (which is weird if you're a serious cyclist) then of course there is benefit to it.

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"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee

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