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Peloton Confidentially Files Statement for Proposed IPO

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Re: Peloton Confidentially Files Statement for Proposed IPO

#101

Post by el_benhameen »

ftio wrote: post #98

Peloton's business model is breathtakingly good, but I wonder about the size of their TAM and their ability to have sustained, multiplicative growth in the future. First, the business model. They sell you a $2000+ bike, which includes a year of live classes with some of the best spin instructors in the world. Afterwards, you pay for a $40/month subscription in perpetuity to make your $2000 investment more than a bori…

I am asking this in earnest: what makes a spin instructor a "best-in-the-world" instructor? I can see how an instructor for e.g. one of those classes where you do workouts with a weighted bar might have better techniques or routines than another, but from my naive perspective, it seems like a spin instructor can just tell you to pedal faster or slower. But I'm not just trying to dig at them! I really am curious. I'm more of a "get outside" type of person, so I don't know a lot about this sort of thing.

Re: Peloton Confidentially Files Statement for Proposed IPO

#102

Post by Johnny555 »

sojournerc wrote: post #36
bstar77 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This bike is for people that don't want to go to a gym and/or don't have lots of time to leave the house on a daily basis. You can also finance the bike so the hit isn't so bad. Additionally, there's no extra charge for multiple accounts (up to 10), so if everyone in the house uses it, the cost makes more sense. I work out of home and this is the only way I get consistent exercise. My fitness has gone up tremendously…

I don't understand how you save time not leaving the house... Doesn't it take just as much time to go on a ride outside?

In the winter, putting on (and then taking off) the winter clothes plus rinsing the salt off the bike when I get home adds 10 - 15 minutes to the ride.

And while I don't really don't enjoy riding stationary bikes, there is some appeal to getting in a fake ride on a stationary bike in my living room when it's 35 degrees and raining outside. Or 90 degrees and high humidity.

Re: Peloton Confidentially Files Statement for Proposed IPO

#103

Post by TomVDB »

alistairSH wrote: post #96
TomVDB wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How many people are willing to spend thousands on an exercise bike? Tons of them. I've had a bunch of setups where you could plug in your road bike into a stationary setup, with virtual screen and everything, but the hassle of setting it up was always just a little too much friction. It'd be the logical N+1 addition to my stable of more expensive road, cross and mountain bikes. You have no idea how much people are…

I don't understand Peloton because there are smart-trainers available (Wahoo Kickr, etc). $1000 bike. $1000 trainer. $15/month for Zwift or TrainerRoad. And you can take the bike outside when the weather is nice. Or, for a bike enthusiast (or anybody who already owns a bike), the bike is already there. So, it's just the trainer.

Twice, I had something like a Wahoo Kickr. Twice, after repeated use, the mounting mechanism to fasten my road bike to the trainer started to fail or became very cumbersome to use.

When it did work, the tires on the road bike slipped when putting on high power.

In the end, even if it wasn't a huge inconvenience, the hassle of using the system was sufficient friction to stop me from using it, just like the overhead of going to a gym.

There is a large market for tailor-made solutions that are perfect for just one application. (See also: iPad, bike GPS computers, 10 different categories of mountain bikes, ...)

Re: Peloton Confidentially Files Statement for Proposed IPO

#104

Post by Johnny555 »

smacktoward wrote: post #81
spyspy wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My sides. I have friends working there that have tried getting me to apply. Glassdoor reviews indicated their backend interview is unnecessarily difficult and I have little faith in their business model. How many people are willing to spend thousands on an exercise bike? Let alone one that requires a $40/month subscription? It feels the same as Blue Apron - the market is people rich and lazy enough that don't want do…

> How many people are willing to spend thousands on an exercise bike? In an age when wealth is highly concentrated among a few people, you can make a lot of money selling those few people absurdly overpriced luxury goods. Are there lots of them? Not really. But they have all the disposable income, so...

Maybe you can make a living at selling $50,000 jewelry to the very wealthy, but I'm not sure you can make much of a living selling a $3000 bike to the 1%.

Re: Peloton Confidentially Files Statement for Proposed IPO

#105

Post by makomk »

rchaud wrote: post #52
wlesieutre wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Semi-related, I just got a $400 Oculus Quest and burned 1900 calories playing Beat Saber yesterday (as calculated by Apple Watch's "Other" workout type). Much cheaper purchase and fun enough that I can enjoy playing it for hours a day. I have an (admittedly shitty) exercise bike, and will probably be using that a lot less now. If anyone's looking for a home fitness gadget, give that a look. I'm told BoxVR is a better…

1lb of fat is approx 3500 calories. How realistic is it that you dropped over half a pound of fat playing a VR game?

It's not realistic to expect the amount of fat lost from any kind of exercise to be anywhere near the total amount of calories expended, though. There are biological limits to fat metabolism that just can't be avoided.

Re: Peloton Confidentially Files Statement for Proposed IPO

#106

Post by notyourday »

el_benhameen wrote: post #101
ftio wrote: post #98

Peloton's business model is breathtakingly good, but I wonder about the size of their TAM and their ability to have sustained, multiplicative growth in the future. First, the business model. They sell you a $2000+ bike, which includes a year of live classes with some of the best spin instructors in the world. Afterwards, you pay for a $40/month subscription in perpetuity to make your $2000 investment more than a bori…

I am asking this in earnest: what makes a spin instructor a "best-in-the-world" instructor? I can see how an instructor for e.g. one of those classes where you do workouts with a weighted bar might have better techniques or routines than another, but from my naive perspective, it seems like a spin instructor can just tell you to pedal faster or slower. But I'm not just trying to dig at them! I really am curious. I'm…

Local following. That's what gets the buzz. Online is what you get after it is impossible to book classes in a studio.

Re: Peloton Confidentially Files Statement for Proposed IPO

#107

Post by mikeryan »

rchaud wrote: post #52
wlesieutre wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Semi-related, I just got a $400 Oculus Quest and burned 1900 calories playing Beat Saber yesterday (as calculated by Apple Watch's "Other" workout type). Much cheaper purchase and fun enough that I can enjoy playing it for hours a day. I have an (admittedly shitty) exercise bike, and will probably be using that a lot less now. If anyone's looking for a home fitness gadget, give that a look. I'm told BoxVR is a better…

1lb of fat is approx 3500 calories. How realistic is it that you dropped over half a pound of fat playing a VR game?

That’s not how it works.

Re: Peloton Confidentially Files Statement for Proposed IPO

#108

Post by ftio »

el_benhameen wrote: post #101
ftio wrote: post #98

Peloton's business model is breathtakingly good, but I wonder about the size of their TAM and their ability to have sustained, multiplicative growth in the future. First, the business model. They sell you a $2000+ bike, which includes a year of live classes with some of the best spin instructors in the world. Afterwards, you pay for a $40/month subscription in perpetuity to make your $2000 investment more than a bori…

I am asking this in earnest: what makes a spin instructor a "best-in-the-world" instructor? I can see how an instructor for e.g. one of those classes where you do workouts with a weighted bar might have better techniques or routines than another, but from my naive perspective, it seems like a spin instructor can just tell you to pedal faster or slower. But I'm not just trying to dig at them! I really am curious. I'm…

They're entertainers and motivators.

They know exactly what to say and when to say it to help you push hard at times when you're feeling ready to give up (at scale — they can't see you if you're not in the studio). They choose fun, energetic songs to keep you motivated throughout. They order their playlists in such a way that you push yourself just past your limit and have just enough time to rest.

Being a good instructor is like being a good comedian or even stage actor, where you're feeling the energy of the audience and optimizing for a given outcome. In comedy, it's laughs. In fitness, it's energy. In either case, people come back wanting more.

Re: Peloton Confidentially Files Statement for Proposed IPO

#109

Post by drugme »

spyspy wrote: post #6
codeulike wrote: post #2

When I see Peloton now, I always think of this twitter thread that critiques their adverts https://twitter.com/clueheywood/status/1089699762331217920

My sides. I have friends working there that have tried getting me to apply. Glassdoor reviews indicated their backend interview is unnecessarily difficult and I have little faith in their business model. How many people are willing to spend thousands on an exercise bike? Let alone one that requires a $40/month subscription? It feels the same as Blue Apron - the market is people rich and lazy enough that don't want do…

Glassdoor reviews indicated their backend interview is unnecessarily difficult

Difficult for you, maybe. How else do you expect them to find the top 0.01 percent of the candidate pool they're looking for?

Re: Peloton Confidentially Files Statement for Proposed IPO

#110

Post by criddell »

bruceb wrote: post #8

A friend of mine got a Peloton, and I as a good friend razzed him about it a couple times. Like a $2k stationary bike, come on! But now I get it. He is a busy professional who would not always have time to go to the gym. He is also a bit of a special case as he legally blind and could walk fast to exercise but could never ride a regular bike. This being said he has lost a decent amount of weight. Part of it is the in…

One of the BoingBoing editors made his own Peloton bike [1]. He's posted a few times since making it and seems happy with how it works.

[1]: https://boingboing.net/2017/04/05/diy-peloton-for-introverts...

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