A look at what makes Pike13 a cool place to work and why it has such a great software solution for fitness, wellness, and other instruction-based businesses.
My first official day here was March 27th. As soon as I finished my new employee orientation (great benefits and perks), I began mapping out my calendar and highlighted June 1st. In just 2 months, we would need to rename and rebrand the company. Our company would now be found at Pike13.com.
Thankfully the new name had already been chosen, inspired by a look out the window of our Seattle office at the street sign pictured in this blog post. Choosing a new name (with a URL that’s available) can be half the battle on its own! You can read about the “why” of our new name here.
Now that the transition is official I’ve had a chance to catch my breath and reflect on why I feel so honored to be part of the team. There are lots of reasons, but here are my top Reasons Why I’m Excited About Pike13:
I’ve worked for software companies of all kinds and sizes over the years, but I’ve never been as energized by a company’s mission as I am by what we do here.
Our customers are small business owners who have a passion for improving people’s lives in some way: helping them get fit or otherwise improving their wellness, teaching a sport, craft, or art, improving kids’ confidence and social skills, or just providing a community to help nourish and enrich lives.
And at Pike13 our mission is to help increase the effectiveness and profitability of their businesses, freeing them to improve the lives of their clients and strengthen their communities.
We strive to make our customers’ lives easier in any way we can. To give them tools to help them pursue their passion and earn a living doing so. To give them the freedom to get out from behind their front desk and spend more time engaging with clients, nurturing relationships and growing their businesses.
It’s hard not to get inspired by a mission like that. With each small business we help, we’re impacting not only the business owners but their clients and their community as well. I come to work each day excited about the opportunity to make a difference.
Yes, that’s a reference to DodgeBall: A True Underdog Story, one of my favorite movies (I say this with no shame). We’re the little guy, a lot like most of our customers. If Dodgeball were a movie about the fitness and wellness software industry, Mindbody would be "Globo Gym" and we'd be "Average Joe’s".
Mindbody holds their customers’ data hostage (seriously, they charge their customers $600 for access to their own data if they want to leave). Pike13 would and will never do that. Globo’s support experience is an 800 number where customers might have to explain their issue anew to many different people, struggling against the impersonal corporate behemoth to get a resolution.
If you’re a Pike13 customer you have a dedicated Onboarding Specialist and Account Manager that you know by name and can contact directly.
Being the little guy means we treat our customers better, understand their needs better, and take the time and care to provide a better experience. I like being the little guy.
My wife is in the yoga industry and for a time was the Studio Director at Be Luminous Yoga here in Seattle (they’re awesome – drop in for a class). I spent a lot of time there, helped out a bit when I could, and learned much about what it takes to run a successful yoga studio.
They were using Mindbody and I observed how the owners, managers and staff interacted with the software and with customer support, and saw how frustrated everyone there was with “Globo Gym”.
That frustration leads people to look for alternatives to Mindbody, and new customers are making the switch to Pike13 every day. It is gratifying to be able to offer a better way.
We’re a small, scrappy, eclectic bunch, and I like that. Pike13 boasts some smart, dedicated people who all feel that same sense of commitment to our mission that I described above. Plus, we are all personally connected to fitness and wellness in so many ways.
We were founded by a group of CrossFit owners who were frustrated with Mindbody and decided to create a better alternative, and our employees all share a passion for fitness. As I look up from my desk I can see a yoga instructor, a dance instructor, a gym owner, and several CrossFit athletes. We’re users of Pike13 software at some of our local Seattle customers where many of us attend classes. That’s pretty cool.
We’re a tech startup, so of course we have a dog-friendly office, right? From Biscuit, 9-year-old Golden Retriever and unofficial mascot of Pike13 to Kygo, lovable little Corgi and the newest member of our canine crew, the dogs that pad around our digs help create a pretty cool vibe.
Yet for all the food to scrounge and toys to play with, its amazing how well-behaved our dogs are. It’s as if they’ve all graduated from one of Pike13’s many canine-related businesses like School for the Dogs.
Our office sits above Elysian Brewing Company, a local institution in the Capital Hill neighborhood of Seattle. In fact our conference rooms take their names from some of the iconic Northwest beers they brew downstairs. Having a local gathering place right here makes it easy to bond together. We'll stop and raise an occasional toast to celebrate milestones we reach together on our journey to help power the personal services economy.
Plus, beer is an ideal recovery drink after a hard workout. The carbs help you rebuild and repair your muscles more quickly, and you get niacin, folate, riboflavin, and B complex vitamins essential for our body’s conversion of food into fuel. Science, baby!
Okay, I’m biased. But like I said, I’ve used Globo Gym’s software. Ours is better. Globo has been around a decade longer and they are waaay bigger so they’ve built a lot of bells and whistles that we don’t offer, that’s true. But we think of it as Pike13 offering “everything you need and nothing you don’t.” And our customers’ success speaks for itself.
Pike13 software is just plain easy to use. Our founders had all used Mindbody to run their gyms – hey, it was the only game in town. It was powerful software, but they and their staffs bristled at the complexity. They basically hated working with it.
When they heard the same complaint from other gym owners they knew, they set out to build simple, elegant software that would be a joy to use, creating what would become Front Desk, and what is now Pike13*.
Mission accomplished. And we’re going to keep getting better. As a fan of good software design, I think that’s a great place to be.
Our customer support crew is the best in the business! Every day we get comments like this:
... always responsive, always nice, you guys have great customer support...
- Genesis Fitness & Performance, 6/2/2017
And this:
Complete resolution to my problem... I couldn't be happier with the outcome. Thank you.
- Solace New York, 6/2/2017
It’s a privilege to work with such a caring, dedicated team and to know that our service sets us apart as much as our product. We're a far cry from Globo Gym.
Some of them, literally. I love having the opportunity to meet with customers, to understand their needs and concerns and to learn how we can best serve them. In my short time here I’ve met customers large and small and I’m always impressed by the energy and passion they bring to their businesses. I love hearing their stories. Check some of them out here.
The world of fitness, wellness, and other instruction-based personal services is vast. The sheer variety of companies we serve is amazing to me. Our online scheduling, billing, and client management software powers thousands of businesses in an astonishing variety of ways.
In the realm of Fitness, Strength & Conditioning we’re naturally used by gyms, personal trainers, CrossFit boxes, and boutique fitness businesses like Pilates, Barre, TRX, or cycling. Then there are martial arts studios, from ‘biggies’ like Karate, Judo, and Tae Kwon Do to lesser-known disciplines like Capoeira and Krav Maga. Businesses like Parkour gyms or rock climbing gyms also love how easy and flexible the software is for their specialty disciplines.
Health & Wellness businesses also love Pike13. Of course we’re used (and loved!) by lots of yoga studios. But also businesses like sports medicine centers, community centers, holistic health businesses, weight loss clinics, massage. Niche offerings like float tanks and cryotherapy businesses often find Pike13 to be the solution that rises to the top and leaves others in the cold.
Music and Arts businesses find Pike13 to be a great fit as well. Music schools, dance and gymnastics businesses, and specialty instruction like aerial arts and even circus studios are some of the artistic members of our customer family.
The education and kids’ activities businesses are among my favorites. I love that Pike13 can help contribute to the enrichment of our children’s lives. And our customers tell us that we’re the best option out there for businesses that focus on young people and families. Soccer and baseball camps, language schools, coding schools, general tutoring businesses, specialty activities from swimming to robotics, and of course general play and community businesses. More businesses use our software to help nurture the next generation.
As we at Front Desk were going through the process of becoming Pike 13, we reflected on what it means to be a part of the community and how we can reflect our values beyond the work that we do together for our customers. Over the past year, we raised money at Thanksgiving for the local Lifelong Chicken Soup Brigade, "adopted" three families through the YWCA during the holidays to make their Christmas merrier with lots of presents for the kids, and provided gifts to kids in homeless shelters on Mother's Day so that they had a surprise for their mother.
That’s the best part. In a few short years we’ve grown from the proverbial garage with no customers, to a fast-growing startup that thousands of business use every day. And our recent name change feels like a new first step. A re-affirmation of our commitment to our customers and their clients.
In every city, town and neighborhood there is an intersection that is the heart of a business’s community, the way that Pike & 13th is the heart of our community. We’re excited about all the ways we can continue to help strengthen bonds, grow businesses, improve health, and unlock potential.
If it sounds like Pike13 might be a fit for your business, we’d love to talk with you!
*Our name is Pike13. But some people search for us as "Pike 13" with a space. So in this post I've spelled it both ways - Google needs to learn :)
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