Female Founders: Amanda Freeman of SLT and Stretch*d On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder
An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
Don’t be so frugal — I’ve learned from years of experience that you often get what you pay for. I’m very good at controlling costs and running a lean business. But that doesn’t always serve you so well when in growth mode. Sometimes you have to take a chance on something costly to see if it pays off.
As a part of our series about “Why We Need More Women Founders”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Amanda Freeman.
Amanda Freeman is the founder and CEO of cult favorite workout brand SLT and recovery space, Stretch*d. Amanda is a graduate of Duke University and Harvard Business School. In addition to being founder of SLT and Stretch*d, Amanda is an investor in numerous wellness businesses and a wellness industry trend forecaster.
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?
I started my career as a trend forecaster. I conducted various types of market research and consulted with companies targeting the youth generations regarding the Macro and Micro trends affecting their consumers. I worked at The Intelligence Group for 6 years with a 2 year stint at Harvard Business School in the middle of those years. It was while working on a Macro Trend I called “The Rise of Well-consciousness” that I became aware of both my own and society’s shifting approach to their health. Prior to 2006, things like meditation, veganism and eco-conscious living were very fringe and extreme. People were more into treatment of ailments than prevention of them. But that all started to change in 2006 and so I left my job at CAA (they had purchased The Intelligence Group) to start a wellness-focused business.
In 2007, I co-founded a company called Vital Juice with a friend from business school. Vital Juice delivered the latest information in fitness, nutrition, beauty and wellness to women’s inboxes. It was while working on Vital Juice that I became very interested in an emerging fitness category: boutique fitness. It was a new and emerging idea at that time with a handful of brands and types of workouts. While I loved the idea of these studios (focusing on delivering the best version of one workout all day long), I didn’t like the results people would get from a spin class or barre class. What I wanted was the Pilates body, but in the experience of a group spin class. On a trip to LA, a friend told me to try a pilates-inspired studio in W Hollywood and I found exactly what I was looking for. I made a deal with the owner of that studio and the creator of the equipment to bring the workout to NYC and beyond, and that became SLT. SLT had grown to 26 studios largely in the Northeast prior to the pandemic and has shrunk a bit since then down to 16 studios.
Today, I still run SLT as well as another business I started nearly 4 years ago called Stretch*d. The idea for Stretch*d came from the insight that most people understand that stretching is good for you, yet they also don’t like stretching on their own. In fact, I observed at SLT that many clients don’t stay through the stretching part of class. However, people who work out with trainers love being stretched out by them. Why wasn’t there a place in NYC where you could go to be stretched out any time of the day for as long as you want? Thus, Stretch*d was born. In addition to stretching, we offer a variety of recovery services that people are desperate for in these crazy times.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company?
It’s impossible to pick the single “most interesting” thing that has happened since the founding of SLT, it’s been over 10 years of craziness. Some of the more interesting (some more positive than others) experiences that I’ve had include: Surviving Covid (so far). Partnering with a private equity firm for the past 6 years. Evaluating many acquisition opportunities and making one.
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?
This is another tough one given I’m 11 years out from starting the business. But I’ll never forget the first time I got a call from an instructor at 10 PM the night before the class she was supposed to teach at 6:30 AM. She was calling to tell me she had food poisoning and couldn’t teach her classes. No one else could step in to teach, so despite the fact that I’d never taught a fitness class in my life, I stepped in and taught her block of 3 classes. Stressful!
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?
I’ve had a tremendous amount of help from people throughout my career: I’ve had amazing partners, colleagues, employees and supporters. And I’ve had only one boss: Jane Buckingham. Jane was the founder of the trend forecasting company I worked at early in my career. Not only has she been a great mentor to me, but she’s remained one of my closest friends who feels a lot like family. We’ve spent several Thanksgivings together over the course of the 20+ years I’ve known her.
Jane is dynamic, sharp, witty, brilliant, creative and entrepreneurial. She had written a book on teens when she was a teen and was dubbed “an expert” at 16. She was very hard working and ambitious, yet caring and kind. She was always my model for running a business. She’s often my sounding board for ideas.
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?
There are several things that hold women back from starting more companies, and I’ll focus on a few of them. First, in general, I believe women are more risk averse than men are when it comes to money. Entrepreneurship takes chutzpah, confidence (usually over confidence), risk and the willingness to fail. Women tend to have less of that then men. Women tend to be more conservative and underestimate themselves and their abilities. Second, most businesses require capital to start. Women tend to have less of their own money to invest and they have less access to networks of investors. Third, starting a business takes a tremendous amount of time and focus. Because of traditional gender roles when it comes to starting and having a family, women often prioritize their family and don’t think they can have both a family and a business.
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 encourage more women to take risks, be brave and pursue their ideas for businesses with rigor, analysis, and confidence. I also encourage them to focus more on accumulating wealth and being financially independent.
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?
Being a founder is amazing and I believe the pros tend to outweigh the cons. It is usually fun to be your own boss and to chart the future of a company. It’s also extremely rewarding to see how your company can create livelihoods for your employees and joy for your clients. I also believe that if more women started companies, we’d have more products and service companies that both create value and adhere to positive values.
What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about being a founder? Can you explain what you mean?
People think being a founder of a company affords you more flexibility in your work schedule. I’ve seen the opposite of that. As the founder of a company you have to set an example for your staff and there is always work to be done and problems to solve.
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?
Not everyone is cut out to be a founder. As mentioned above, you have to be a risk taker and be confident about your idea and the business, yet understand you may fail. You also have to be passionate about your idea and approach your job with grit. Being adaptive, yet decisive is another key to founder success.
Ok super. Here is the main question of our interview. What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why? (Please share a story or example for each.)
- Don’t take things personally — When dealing with so many people (employees, clients and partners), it’s hard not to take things that happen personally. It’s hard not to see the success or failure of your business as a reflection of who you are. Those feelings can cloud judgement and take up valuable time.
- Plan more for success, than for failure — When I first started SLT, I was too focused on: “But what if it doesn’t work out.” I signed a short term lease, didn’t raise a ton of money and didn’t invest enough in my brand and studio space. Had I been more confident that it would be a success I would have created something bigger and better.
- Don’t be so frugal — I’ve learned from years of experience that you often get what you pay for. I’m very good at controlling costs and running a lean business. But that doesn’t always serve you so well when in growth mode. Sometimes you have to take a chance on something costly to see if it pays off.
- Leading and managing are two different things — I think most people equate leading and managing in a business context. However, I’ve learned over time that there are two very different skill sets for each. I am a stronger leader than I am a manager, and had I realized that early on, I would have brought on a partner who excelled at management.
- Hire around your weaknesses — I tend to hire people who are similar to me and who I can relate to. But the best teams are made up of a diverse area of individuals who bring various perspectives to the company. While hiring similar types of people may get your more consensus, it will also limit your point of view and you may miss things.
How have you used your success to make the world a better place?
I strive to make my businesses great places to work, to make our employees’ lives fulfilled and happy. I also strive to create products and services that make people’s lives better through their health and wellbeing. I spend my non-working hours trying to make my children into good people who will contribute positively to society. And I support and get involved in causes that are important to me including Jewish Life at Duke University, mental health awareness and treatment and cancer prevention.
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.
When I was 25, my father took his life via suicide. Just 2 ½ years later, my mother died of stomach cancer which I am convinced was caused by her pain and suffering enduring my father’s passing. If I had more time and money, I’d like to focus on better understanding mental health and work towards decreasing the number of suicides in this country.
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.
As a graduate of Duke, a huge college basketball fan and a leader of my businesses, my hero is Coach Mike Krzyzewski. The man is a legend, the greatest coach of all time and an amazing leader…not to mention he is not afraid to curse to get his point across. My kind of guy!
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
Female Founders: Amanda Freeman of SLT and Stretch*d On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.