Riverdale Park’s Bikram Yoga studio has joined a coworking startup in D.C. that allows users to work and workout for the same price.
The brainchild of Rockville entrepreneur Sarah Hostyk, WorkStrive offers a marketplace where freelancers and remote workers can sign up to get work done for the day and also take an hourlong fitness class for the same price.
The initial partnerships are in some trendy locations: Mint D.C. in Dupont Circle and two Yoga Heights locations in Petworth and Takoma.
The fitness studios set up tables and chairs in separate spaces that aren’t heavily used otherwise, so workers aren’t right next to people working out. Hostyk got the idea while doing door-to-door sales for another startup.
“I would go by all these gyms and yoga studios that were in all these high-rent areas that were completely empty during the day,” Hostyk told the Washingtonian. “I said, ‘There’s something here,’ and that was the lightbulb moment.”
WorkStrive is onto something. Coworking giant WeWork has already started to branch out into fitness with spinning, yoga, meditation and dance classes at some locations. The Equinox gym chain has been adding communal work areas with wi-fi.
Coworking and fitness have similar business models: Large floorplans, monthly memberships, groups of strangers meeting up. It makes sense that they’d look to partner.
