Helaine Knapp : From Tech Start-Up to Founder of CITYROW
After spending years climbing the corporate ladder, Helaine Knapp left the world of publishing for tech start-up life. Group fitness was her outlet while she was working hard and taking on the hustle and bustle of New York City. Months of spin and boot camp classes left her with a lower back injury, however, and she began searching for a workout that was low impact, but super effective. After a friend suggested rowing, Helaine initially rejected it as something “my dad did in college,” but the benefits couldn’t be ignored. Helaine saw the potential to make rowing accessible and appealing to a much broader audience by pairing rowing with strength on a beautiful rowing machine, and the concept for CITYROW was born. With a mission of delivering a smart, fun, effective workout to all fitness levels, under Knapp’s leadership, CITYROW has grown from one studio in New York City to a national omnichannel fitness brand with 12 open studios and 65 franchises sold nationwide, and a top-ranked on-demand global program featuring at-home rowers and a fast-growing digital subscription business alongside.! And Knapp built that all without yet rowing on the water! Helaine has been featured as a business leader and a wellness expert on TODAY, Women’s Health, ABC, Harper’s Bazaar, Shape, Well + Good, Vogue, Yahoo! Finance and PEOPLE, among many others.
Helaine Knapp
From Tech Start-Up to Founder of CITYROW
What was the biggest lesson you learned from 2021?
ALL the lessons came out of 2021! For instance, the pandemic pushed health and fitness to the forefront. For the first time in a long time, we all embraced at-home workouts, and companies and gyms had to pivot quickly to the growing realities of shifting business demands during an unpredictable pandemic. Fitness enthusiasts had to recalibrate their workouts with new routines, while providers had to offer a hybrid at-home/virtual services. Luckily for us, we’ve been building an at-home platform via our app and rower since 2018, so for CITYROW, this was a major opportunity to introduce people to the brand and rowing in general. With so many people changing their routines, there was a huge opportunity out there for discovery and growth.
What advice would you give other female founders that are looking to create big success in 2022?
Be ready for whatever may come your way, there is no such thing as business as usual anymore! Ensure your company is ready to pivot and adapt to whatever obstacles or opportunities present themselves. And for women founders, I always advise being bold: go after every opportunity you can, without apology, and have fun while doing it.
What’s your 2022 mantra?
My 2022 mantra has a few layers (like life!): embrace patience; lean into the light; take care of people and support each other (it's been a hard two years, after all); and take care of yourself, mentally, emotionally, and of course physically through movement. Elle Woods said it better than me: "Exercise gives you endorphins. Endorphins make you happy!”
To connect : https://www.instagram.com/cityrow/