J
ohn Foley can’t find his desk. The cofounder and CEO
of Peloton is showing me around the Manhattan head-
quarters of his company—which streams boutique-style
cycling classes to high-tech, at-home exercise bikes—and
explains that the open floor plan was recently rearranged.
It’s something they do every six months to keep the space
feeling fresh and get different departments talking, he
says. It’s a practice he loves, and he stands by it. Though it
can be disorienting.
“Oh, here it is!” He practically giggles. It turns out his
desk is now next to Hisao Kushi’s, one of his cofounders.
As our tour continues through the offices, Foley is warm
and affable with the ever-increasing number of staffers. The com-
pany moved here a little more than a year ago and took up two full
floors; today it occupies six. In turn, those staffers seem at ease with
their leader. More than one pokes fun at his new mustache.
“Oh, hey, John, nice...’stache,” remarks an employee who flies
past us on the stairs, her tone a mix of confusion and irony.
“Thank you; it’s new!” Foley shouts back earnestly.
Foley is not what comes to mind when you envision the CEO of a
fast-growing tech company. He’s neither a serial entrepreneur nor a
hoodie-wearing millennial. He’s a 46-year-old father of two whose
business experience stretches from manufacturing at Mars, Inc., to
CEO of Evite, to heading up e-commerce at Barnes & Noble, where
he most recently served as president. His success can be traced
backto humble beginnings—his first job was at McDonald’s, when
he was 14. By working the fast-food circuit, he put himself through
college and eventually landed at Harvard Business School.
“I had barely heard of Harvard Business School when I was 28
years old,” he says. “I came out understanding that no one is really
smarter than anyone else, which gave me a lot of confidence in the
business world.”
When he launched Peloton in 2012, it was to replicate the type of
boutique fitness classes Foley loved, but in one’s home—like bringing
SoulCycle to your living room. The market opportunity seems there;
fitness is a $28 billion industry, and Americans are spending more
money but less time on fitness each year. Hence the rise of the bou-
tique fitness industry. But Foley reasoned that people would most
happily invest their hours and dollars in something they could do
at home, so long as it was perfect. That’s what he’s proposing: Buy
a $1,995 Peloton bike, and for an additional $39 a month receive
on-demand access to classes. Join a live class, or choose one of 8,000
archived classes based on instructor, length, music, or intensity.
Whatever workout you’re looking for, Peloton believes it has it.
But this is just the beginning, Foley insists. “We don’t want to be a
stationary-bike company,” he says. “We want to be a disruptive tech
company.” In his vision for the next 10 years, the bike is only one of
many tools Peloton would deliver to users’ doors. “It’s called ‘fitness as
52 / ENTREPRENEUR.COM / January-February 2018PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY OF PELOTON