Andy Hoang wanted to build a Peloton-style rowing machine but with gaming and competition built in. He'd spent his life doing martial arts and wanted that competitive edge in home fitness. Rowing hit all the muscle groups and made the perfect platform for turning workouts into games you could actually win.
Chapters
So I'd love to hear more about what sparked your initial idea for Aviron and then some of the factors that went into the decision to make that switch to direct-to-consumer.
Yeah, so I always had a passion for fitness and I think I competed in high-level martial arts for most of my younger life. When I saw Peloton for the first time, I was like, wow, this is like a great idea. It's like fitness, which is what I'm really passionate about, but also it's really convenient. Like I can do it at home whenever I want. And so I bought the Peloton bike and found that it just didn't really register It was great, and I could see how a lot of people would really enjoy the Peloton experience. But for me, being someone who's been very competitive growing up and doing martial arts, like, I like to win. I like to beat other people. I like to push myself. And one of my other passions is gaming as well. So I wanted to combine the two things that I had passion for. So we decided to build a game-based rowing machine. Rowing because it's such a great modality that it works out all your muscles.
