Why AKT founder Anna Kaiser isn't afraid of Peloton

AKT is one of the fastest-growing luxury boutique fitness franchises, and has celebrity fans including Karlie Kloss, Shakira, and Kelly Ripa.

Founded in 2013 by celebrity trainer Anna Kaiser, AKT offers curated dance and fitness routines designed to create unity among class members. Kaiser, the company’s CEO, formulates weekly exercise classes that are then distributed to AKT studios nationwide.

“Nationally, there’s tons of room for expansion,” Kaiser told Yahoo Finance. While densely populated cities like New York and Los Angeles are inundated with workout studios vying for consumers’ attention, the rest of the nation is, according to Kaiser, “just getting an introduction to boutique fitness.”

AKT currently has locations in New York, California, and Connecticut, but plans to open studios in Colorado, Michigan, Florida, Ohio, New Jersey and elsewhere.

Kaiser says her company’s focus on community allows it to grow even in the age Peloton and other of fitness innovations in tech.

“I think the market has space for both [Peloton and AKT],” she said.

Peloton, sometimes called the ‘Netflix of exercise,’ allows people to take live and on-demand studio cycling classes at home, via an Internet-connected screen. The company has attracted over a million customers with its on-demand workouts, and boasted $400 million in sales as of 2017.

Kaiser thinks people get more out of classes. “On a bike, regardless of whether the screen is interactive, it’s still a screen.”

Olivia Balsamo is a writer and producer at Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter @BalsamoOlivia.

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