Cat Kom of Studio SWEAT: Inside the Quest to Scale Virtual Fitness While Rejecting Toxic Industry Standards

As a part of our series about “Why We Need More Women Founders”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Cat Kom.

Cat Kom is the Founder and CEO of both Studio SWEAT and Studio SWEAT onDemand. Studio SWEAT is a boutique fitness studio located in San Diego, California, offering cycling and other group training classes. Studio SWEAT onDemand is a virtual fitness platform, offering a wide variety of streaming cycling and other full-body workouts to a worldwide membership base.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?

For many years, I was working as a technology consultant and engineer, trying to make the most out of my Business and Technology degree from the University of Washington. Until one day when I decided that life was just too short and it was time I do something I was more passionate about. So, I opened my first gym in Washington state, and plunged into fitness full time. A few years after that, in the same spirit, I sold the gym I opened there (for a great profit I might add — yes!) and fulfilled a lifelong dream, picking up and moving to San Diego, California. Shortly after I arrived I figured out that in San Diego I was going to need to create a more niche fitness service, so I opened one of the first boutique fitness studios in Southern California and called it Studio SWEAT.

Interestingly enough, even after I moved, many loyal customers in Washington expressed that they wanted to continue taking classes with me, so I decided to marry my background in the tech world to produce classes they could take with me online. This of course expanded to what is now Studio SWEAT onDemand (SSoD), and now I’ve got a large subscriber base around the world that take classes not only with me, but many amazing trainers that make up the talented SSoD team!

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company?

Shoot, that’s a tough one because interest is a pretty subjective thing, isn’t it? But, okay, I think some might find this one interesting.

A couple of years after I launched Studio SWEAT onDemand, I was approached by a much larger company that wanted to feature my fitness content on their platform. They said they loved it and offered me a LOT of money. But (and this is big), they said they wanted me to make a few “adjustments”. I’m always game to learn from others, so I was eager to hear what they were going to suggest…until they did. Here are the 2 suggestions that I just could not agree to:

• Stop using varying body types. In other words, stick to the size 6 and under, ripped fitness model types.
• Do every exercise rep to the beat of the music. If you’re a true, smart, experienced fitness trainer you know that’s just a bad idea in some cases. It’s a bad practice. Someone 6’2” and 210 should not do a deadlift at the same pace as someone 5’2” and a buck 20. It’s just common knowledge for a true fit pro.

My mission with Studio SWEAT onDemand was to make everyBODY, wherever they were tuning in, feel welcome. What they were asking for with the first suggested change would completely derail that train. I couldn’t get onboard. And the second, well to be honest, it violated my code as a personal training expert. It was sacrificing safety for show. So, even though it cost me a huge deal, I politely declined and we parted as friends.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

Well, when I first started I thought my video quality was going to come from a webcam in the ceiling. So… that didn’t work! It was such a pain to install back then too! Needless to say, it was a great idea, but not one that worked.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

That would 100% be my husband, Brian LaRose. When others couldn’t follow my vision, he saw it. When I had (and have) not so good days, he’s there to help me get back up. When something amazing happens, he tells me to take a victory lap, but understands why I hesitate to celebrate for too long, because there is always more work to be done. And…he happens to be extremely smart and a financial wizard. He uses that superpower for good when it comes to Studio SWEAT onDemand too — helping with forecasting, accounting, financial modeling, etc. Every year he tells me his educated forecast, every year I tell him that seems like a long shot, every year he’s been right. Dang it! Really though, it’s the first things I described about him that have meant the most, and I know it’s totally cliche to say, but I literally couldn’t have done it without him.

Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. According to this EY report, only about 20 percent of funded companies have women founders. This reflects great historical progress, but it also shows that more work still has to be done to empower women to create companies. In your opinion and experience what is currently holding back women from founding companies?

I don’t think that anything is currently holding women back from founding companies, just that the great changes we’ve made to our culture occur slowly. When I was growing up, there weren’t that many female business leaders to look up to, especially in the tech world. Now, as more and more female entrepreneurs step into the limelight, we’ll be encouraging more and more young girls to go down that career path, and I believe the numbers will continue to grow.

Can you help articulate a few things that can be done as individuals, as a society, or by the government, to help overcome those obstacles?

I think we can all encourage our youth, particularly our young ladies, to pursue whatever career paths they’re interested in, without restriction or expectation. Now in order to allow for that I hope that we, as a society, can truly do some work to provide real equal opportunities to our youth. For example, if we could provide all our teens, no matter rich or poor, the chance to go to a college that they’ve earned a chance to attend…I’d consider that a good use of our tax dollars. It’s an investment in our future.

This might be intuitive to you as a woman founder but I think it will be helpful to spell this out. Can you share a few reasons why more women should become founders?

I think there’s a few important reasons that more women should start their own companies. Firstly, to overcome a challenge. When you work for someone else, depending on your career, you may fall into a period of stagnation and lethargy — not so when you own your own business, every day is a new and exciting challenge. Secondly, to achieve financial freedom. Financial freedom is something we should all be working towards. As a woman, it is such an incredible feeling to be able to stand tall on your own two feet. Lastly, because women are just incredible leaders. Over half of the world is made up of women, and sometimes it takes a woman to know a woman. We can (and should) lift each other up and empathize with one another. Doing so is one of the many reasons women can be such effective leaders.

What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about being a founder? Can you explain what you mean?

Good question because there are a lot of myths out there around entrepreneurship:

1) Being a founder of a company means you have no personal life — with a little time management and a lot of hard work, you can maintain a balanced life, filled with fun, family, recreation and lots of time doing other things you love.

2) Being an entrepreneur means you don’t have a boss. Oh, you do have a boss, you have thousands (and hopefully millions)…your customers!

3) Business founders are risk-takers. Sure there are always risks involved with starting a business, but as long as the risks you take are calculated, you’re going to be okay. Some risks will pay off, others won’t, but as long as you experience more of the former than the latter those risks will turn into rewards.

Is everyone cut out to be a founder? In your opinion, which specific traits increase the likelihood that a person will be a successful founder and what type of person should perhaps seek a “regular job” as an employee? Can you explain what you mean?

The short answer…no. My husband is the CFO of a Fortune 1000 company and there is no way he could or should be a founder. I mean the guy is brilliant, but no…being an entrepreneur is not for him, and he’d be the first to admit it. If you have a lot of grit, intrinsic motivation, thick skin, a high tolerance for uncertainty, and the ability to truly look at road blocks as stepping stones, you’ve got a healthy shot at being a successful founder.

Ok super. Here is the main question of our interview. Based on your opinion and experience, What are the “Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder?” (Please share a story or example for each.)

1. A Team You Trust — When I first opened Studio SWEAT I was friends with another fitness studio owner. One of the things she asked me was “How can you afford to hire other trainers?” To which I replied, “How can you afford not to?” It’s sort of the “It takes a village” mentality, but applied to a business setting. If you have a solid support team in place you are much more likely to flourish and grow!
2. Resilience — About 3 years into launching Studio SWEAT onDemand, I had to go meet with this really intimidating man. I mean he WANTED me to be intimidated by him, trust me. He was one of those guys that was a name dropper, and that thought he and his company could do everything internally without partnering with others. I didn’t really know all this until we met though. Going in I was all kinds of excited about a potential partnership. Well, I walked away feeling deflated and knocked down to be honest. I called a friend I trust on my train ride home from the meeting. She reminded me that it was okay to feel that way today, but that she knew when I slept it off I’d stand up with even more fight and grit in me than I had the day before. She was right. She even said, “You’re Cat Kom. Anyone that knocks you down better get to runnin’ when you get back up.” She was right.
3. A Level Attitude — My son is starting his own business right now. He’s completely full of passion and purpose. I did give him this piece of advice yesterday though when he started to get a bit animated, feeling scared and second guessing what he was doing. I said, “Son listen, I understand feeling scared. You’re going to have days like that. And other days where you feel on Cloud 9 because something amazing just happened, but you have to be really careful to try to not get too low with ‘bad things’ that happen, or too high when exciting things happen. The stress will kill you if you do either. You have to do your best to stay level. Now for some people that’s a bummer because they want to get excited with every win, and I get that, but with high highs come low lows, so just keep that in mind. Oh, and always listen to your gut and lead with your heart, but always take your head with you.” He paused for a second to think about what that meant, then he shook his head up and down in recognition that he got it.
4. Good Intentions — When I started Studio SWEAT I did some math to determine what it was going to take to operate in the black, to figure out how many visits to my studio it would take to pay off my initial investments and to pay for my day-to-day operations. It was a risk, but a calculated risk. And what I learned early on is that if my intentions were good, and they were, and I didn’t make decisions solely based on profit, the money would just naturally follow. My mission was to help everyone that I came into contact with through Studio SWEAT fall in love with fitness. I figured if I could do that and make sure that I was offering my services for a fair rate, then the business would be successful. When you make decisions based on money alone I feel like you’re doomed for failure. But make them with good intentions and you’ll likely succeed.
5. Drive to Always Do Better — “Can’t we just let it ride sweety?” That’s what my husband said to me after I opened my first gym and got it to a point where it was super successful. I looked at him with my head tilted, chuckled and replied, “You don’t know me at all, do you!” Status quo just isn’t a phrase that’s in my vocabulary. I’m always thinking about how to make the experience even better for my customers — constant creative thinking, always striving to improve, and never being satisfied with mediocrity. This is a trait every successful entrepreneur has.

How have you used your success to make the world a better place?

When you have the potential to use your platform superpowers to do some good, well I believe you should. That’s why we created our philanthropic program, Sweat Gives Back, where as a community, throughout the year we raise funds for several different and important causes. We started the program 3 years ago and have been able to raise tens of thousands of dollars for charities and people in need — like a local teen that was paralyzed in a car accident where he used to get a service dog to help (which then led us to raise funds to benefit the service-dog training organization when we found out what amazing work they do!), the Susan G Komen foundation for Breast Cancer research, the TAPS (Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors) to support military families who’ve lost a loved one, and more. It’s a lot of work, but it’s worth it, and the response we get from our members and their loved ones is always such an inspiration.

You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good for the greatest number of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.

OK readers, please don’t butcher me for this, but my movement would be…movement. What I mean by that is that I’d encourage people, ALL people, to move their bodies more. I know that seems simple, but clearly it’s not. Look at how much more harshly the pandemic impacted those that were less healthy. Look at the obesity statistics around the world, the number of individuals with type 2 diabetes, and the surge of those that suffer from heart disease and all the other diseases, many of which (not to be confused with all), could be avoided if everyone just moved more.

Look, the reality is that I’m not in a position to cure cancer, but I can and will continue to do what I can to kindly, compassionately and passionately encourage everyone to learn to love fitness and to incorporate exercise into their weekly routines. Sadly, that’s not as easy as it sounds, but as part of my movement I would (and do) help to educate people that a) You don’t have to take a beastly bootcamp to get in good shape — walk, dance, swim, do some curls girls, there are lots of options. And b) You don’t have to look like a supermodel to be healthy. Fit comes in lots of shapes and sizes. That’s exactly why we feature various body types in our content. So…Let’s move it, move it!

We are very blessed that some very prominent names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.

Ummm, hello Marc Cuban. Surprise!! Bet you were expecting me to say Glenn Close or Michelle Obama right!? I mean, they’re amazing, but I don’t get much free time so I want lunch to be courtside at a Maverick’s game, or on the set of at one of his Network’s most popular shows, or be his sidekick on Shark Tank (as an entrepreneur, I’m obsessed with that show as you can imagine). The guy’s a genius, he’s just the right amount of confident without being too cocky, and as far as I can tell he’s kind. So, yeah, Marc Cuban… what do ya say?

Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.