North Shore Dads develop Trainerly, an Online Platform Offering Last Minute Fitness Deals - No Membership Required
Northbrook, IL - Russ Berkun and Leo Akselrud, local dads and residents of Glenview and Northbrook, developed Trainerly (www.trainer.ly) - an online fitness platform to deliver last minute deals for classes at local fitness studios. Users of Trainerly can log on the night before or on their way home from work to find an available class deal near them without committing to a membership at a studio or gym. Unlike popular fitness site ClassPass, no membership is required for Trainerly, classes are available based on need, location and budget.
Trainerly founders Berkun and Akselrud decided to launch the platform after finding it frustrating to make scheduled class times. Whether they were stuck in traffic, in between meetings, racing home after work or driving kids around town, the partners said they often missed scheduled class times at their local studios and wished there was an app that would offer a fitness class near where they were at.
Trainerly is primarily a listing service for fitness classes - similar to Expedia for airfare or Hotels.com for accommodations. Requiring no monthly membership, Trainerly is designed as a pay-as-you-go platform. Trainerly is great for individuals who have unpredictable schedules, not sure of the type of fitness program they want to belong to long term, or not ready for a commitment.
The program was designed as a win-win for the studios, Trainerly, and the users. The fitness studios set their own discounted pricing, Trainerly offers an array of classes on its website for a small percentage of sales and users can choose a class that fits their needs without any long standing commitment. Currently there are 40 studios on the Trainerly platform, from boot camp to yoga and boxing to pole dancing. Trainerly expects to sign on more than 100 studios by the end of 2017.
The studio owners like Trainerly because their class prices aren't devalued like Groupon or ClassPass. Since studios set their own pricing, they can change it based on demand. If the class is more popular, the fee will be higher than a class that has more than 5 spots left.
"There is nothing like it in the Chicago market", said founding partner, Leo Akselrud. "Sure, there's ClassPass but you have to pay a monthly membership to try their classes. At Trainerly, you only pay for the classes you use. Some studios offer classes as low as $5".
The founders worked with local fitness blogger and marketing strategist, Edan Gelt, at Joy of Fitness - www.edanjoygelt.com to help identify the needs of local studios and gyms before launching. "We learned that studios wanted qualified leads and were concerned about devaluing their classes and offending current members. We addressed that in our location and pricing structure when building the platform", said founding partner Russ Berkun. "We custom created a program to cater to the end users but also benefit the gyms or studios by delivering qualified and valuable leads", he said.
Subscribe to Trainerly at www.trainer.ly or at Trainerly on Facebook for last-minute classes up to 50% off. Gyms and studios can find out more information about joining Trainerly in the Chicago market by visiting their website or by emailing founder Leo Akselrud at leo@trainer.ly