Shalom Meckenzie made a $1.4 billion fortune after merging his software company with DraftKings. He now believes his new fitness company, Amp, could be even bigger—just don’t remind him about Peloton. Or Mirror. Or…
Mekenzie isn’t the first one to think there’s a big business in at-home workouts: Amp’s business model is nearly identical to that of a slew of failed and struggling exercise companies like Tonal, Peloton and Mirror: Sell wealthy folks an expensive machine, hire a bunch of celebrity trainers, collect “data” and then pray you can make money by expanding into more profitable ancillary markets (personalized nutrition, subscriptions and apparel) before the customers get bored and move on. It hasn’t worked for anyone else, but that’s not stopping Meckenzie, who is largely self-financing the company for now.
A minimalist version of a cable crossover machine found at any gym, the wall-mounted Amp costs $2,000; accessing the trainers (both AI and human) through the app requires a $23 monthly subscription. Because Amp lacks a screen (users log in through their own devices), the upfront cost is about half of Tonal’s. Amp, which launched sales in January, has hired a dozen or so fitness influencers and minor celebrities as trainers, the most famous of whom is America’s Got Talent host Terry Crews, who has 14 million followers on Instagram.
All this skepticism only motivates Meckenzie. “When I started SBTech, many people came to me and said, ‘Shalom, you’re stupid, you’re using all the money you have and [money] you don’t have, and you’re going to get you and your family in trouble,’ ” he says. “When people offend me, that’s what keeps me going.”
Read the full story on Forbes:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/willyakowicz/2025/03/27/sports-gambling-billionaire-shalom-meckenzie-interview-home-exercise-startup-amp-fitness/
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