Jess Rothschild
speaker
92 appearances
3 recordings
1 series
first heard May 2025
last heard Jun 2025
Jess Rothschild’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Appearances
I asked her to characterize the three founders.
And what was Ruth like?
In the very beginning, you would actually sign up for class using MindBodyOnline. MindBodyOnline is a generic site where you can sign up for all sorts of classes, yoga, Pilates, gyms, and SoulCycle was just lumped in with the hundreds across New York City. The SoulCycle website was extremely primitive, with barely the logo and the address. Again, this is spring of 2006.
Lululemon wasn't open yet, and we're still a year away from the very first iPhone release in June of 2007. And an app for signups? Well, that wouldn't be built until 2015.
This is Miles. He and Louise work together at Alice's Tea Cup, cobbling together restaurant jobs to support themselves in New York City.
Some of the original instructors were regulars at Alice's Teacup because of the proximity, so they would encourage the staff to come on over and ride. After all, they were neighboring businesses.
The lobby was so tiny that people were shoulder to shoulder going in and out of class. There was one bathroom, a few lockers, and no shower. They decorated the entry with grapefruit-scented candles, which would become the brand's signature scent. They sold one piece of merch, a t-shirt with a yellow wheel that said SoulCycle.
Miles would go on to not only work for SoulCycle HQ, but witness the company's expansion firsthand as he managed studio openings across the country.
Master Instructor, Janet Fitzgerald.
It would take two years, cutting Ruth Zuckerman, and a bit of success to seduce Janet. The first few months were slow. Some classes had just a few people. The sound system broke nearly every day, and they received regular noise complaints, so they sometimes had to lower the music to just a whisper.
But that core group of instructors, including Lori Cole and Stacey Griffith, were stars with a dedicated following. Suddenly, some press. The Daily Candy email newsletter reviewed a SoulCycle class, which we talked about in episode one. This drew a ton of BlackBerry addicted, plugged-in 30-somethings.
To keep the momentum, Julie and Elizabeth realized their next move would be to open a summer outpost in the Hamptons. Ruth was definitely hesitant about expanding so soon, but Julie and Elizabeth knew better. So after the first year in Manhattan, they opened the now iconic Bridge Hampton studio located in an old barn.
The significance of the Bridgehampton studio, aka the barn, cannot be overstated. The Hamptons is where the 1% of New Yorkers socialize, beach, shop, and live between Memorial Day and Labor Day each summer. With real estate in the Hamptons, they were no longer just a local Upper West Side neighborhood cycling studio.
Now they could showcase the workout and the star instructors to Tribeca, the Upper East Side, Westchester, and even the international crowd that the Hamptons drew. Kelly Ripa became their first celebrity superfan, regularly talking about SoulCycle on television every morning. She described her first ride with the publication Style of Sport.
Here she's gushing about her favorite instructor, Stacey Griffith.
One could argue that this first summer in the Hamptons is the moment SoulCycle evolved into a lifestyle brand. Suddenly, all of these people were exposed to this secret club on 72nd Street. Once Labor Day hit and it was back to school, 72nd Street was bursting at the seams. Sold out classes, wait lists, escalades wrapped around the block.
The demand was there for not only additional studios, but instructors.
This was also when Julie and Elizabeth realized that they were stronger and more strategic without Ruth's involvement on the business side. They knew they couldn't lose her following, so they made her an offer she couldn't refuse. Believe it or not, Ruth stayed on as an instructor for two more years before she left to co-found SoulCycle's main competitor, Flywheel.
Ruth Zuckerman is certainly a success. She went on to co-found the second biggest cycling studio in New York City with Flywheel. But no one was going to dethrone SoulCycle. Cutting Ruth as a business partner allowed Julie and Elizabeth to focus on two emerging priorities. One, finding the best instructors to meet demand. And two, finally seduce Janet Fitzgerald into joining them.
Janet's concept of who would make great SoulCycle instructors was exactly in line with Julie and Elizabeth's thinking. After all, they always said, we're not in the fitness business. We're in the hospitality and talent business.
Showing 41–60 of 92 · page 3 of 5
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