“In a startup, there have to be challenges. Otherwise, someone else would have done it already. And that’s almost the most exciting part.” – Payal Kadakia
This week we are celebrating entrepreneur and dancer Payal Kadakia! Payal followed her love of dance to create an acclaimed dance company as well as a billion dollar fitness company!
Payal grew up in New Jersey, the daughter of two Indian immigrants who valued education. Payal excelled in school, especially in mathematics and science. She was also an accomplished classical Indian dancer. When she went to MIT to study operations research and economics she wanted to continue dancing, something that had been a part of her life since she was 3 years old. So Payal formed her own Indian dance group that still exists at MIT today.
After graduation, Payal worked at Bain for three years before deciding to pursue her love of dance, putting plans of business school on pause. In 2008 she left Bain to work at Warner Music Group, giving herself the ability to form The Sa Dance Company. Then in 2009, The Sa Dance Company got into a dance festival which led to being featured on the cover of the New York Times arts section. After seeing that in the paper, Payal knew business school was not her next step and threw away her GMAT books.
While visiting San Francisco in 2010, Payal noticed that all of her friends were building apps. She decided to give herself two weeks to think of her own app idea, and if she did she would build it. Later on that week, Payal found herself looking to book a ballet class. Stuck between a few different classes, but unsure whether she would like the teacher or if the level was correct for her, she ended up giving up and not going to any class. She realized that she could create a search engine for dance and fitness classes where people could learn more about the classes and read reviews. Thus Classivity was born. People would use Classivity to search for classes and book them online, but then they would pay for the classes in person. While Classivity saw initial success, its growth seemed to stagnate and decline. After a few years, Payal realized that there was a better way to operate and she rebranded her idea.
In January 2014, Payal launched ClassPass. This app allowed users to pay a monthly subscription fee that would allow them to book various classes at different fitness centers. Payal’s adjustment was a success and by 2020 ClassPass had a $1 billion business valuation. ClassPass is available in over 2,500 locations across the globe, and now has expanded past fitness and dance classes to include health and wellness spas and food and beverage partners.
Payal’s success in both her dance and business endeavors shows that trusting in oneself and learning from failures can lead to greater successes.
