How This Entrepreneur Turned Hospitality Into a $90 Million Fitness Empire

Why It Matters

The story highlights how professional finance and real-estate experience can be leveraged to commercialize and scale boutique fitness, a high-growth hospitality segment, signaling continued investor and developer interest in experiential wellness real estate. It illustrates a repeatable playbook for turning niche fitness concepts into sizable, franchisable enterprises.

Summary

Adam Shane, a former Wall Street analyst turned fitness entrepreneur, scaled a Bay Area portfolio of Barry’s franchises into a business valued at more than $90 million and later joined Barry’s executive team. After roles at Town Sports International and Equinox, he identified Yoga Joint’s infrared yoga and weight-training concept as a scalable urban brand and is opening Manhattan and Williamsburg studios this year. Shane credits his success to learning the industry from the ground up—real estate deal-making, operations and front-line roles—and applying corporate finance and development expertise to boutique fitness. His path underscores a strategy of marrying technical business skills with consumer-facing hospitality concepts to drive rapid growth.

Original Description

On this episode of Suite Success, host Katie Cline sits down with entrepreneur and boutique fitness executive Adam Shane for a conversation about hospitality, wellness, entrepreneurship, and the power of immersive experiences. Adam is the owner of Yoga Joint New York, a premier chain of infrared-heated fitness and hot yoga studios.

Adam started his career in investment banking and corporate finance on Wall Street. But despite the prestige of that path, he found himself drawn to something entirely different: the sense of community and emotional connection he experienced in fitness spaces. After roles with Town Sports and Equinox, Adam eventually became the most successful global franchisee in the Barry's system, scaling seven Bay Area studios into a business valued at more than $90 million before later joining the company’s executive team as Executive Vice President of Operations and Chief Development Officer.

Together, Katie and Adam explore how boutique fitness evolved from traditional gym culture into a fully immersive hospitality experience — one rooted in emotion, design, community, and human connection. Adam shares how pivotal moments at SoulCycle, Barry’s, and now Yoga Joint shaped the trajectory of his career and taught him how to identify brands with massive growth potential.

This episode is brought to you by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Lodgify⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ &⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Bilt⁠⁠

Lodgify: https://www.lodgify.com/?utm_source=Podcast&utm_medium=organic-social&utm_campaign=SKIFT

Bilt: http://joinbilt.com/suitesuccess

Timestamps:

00:00 Welcome to Suite Success

00:37 Meet Adam Shane

01:34 From Wall Street to Fitness

02:42 Corporate Real Estate

04:06 “Start in the Mailroom”

06:40 Boutique Fitness Awakening

10:17 Hospitality is Everywhere

13:18 Finding Barry’s

17:53 Franchise Mindset

19:58 Moving to San Francisco

21:13 Four Walls Economics

24:47 Scaling to Seven Studios

26:33 COVID and a New Chapter

28:34 Discovering Yoga Joint 

29:53 Workout Experience

30:20 Brand Research 

32:11 Values and Partnership

33:52 New York Expansion Plan

35:33 How to Pick Locations

36:45 Entrepreneur Mindset 

41:32 Future of Wellness

51:39 Suite Summary

⁠Connect with Adam:⁠

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Adam's LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-shane14/

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Adam's Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠: https://www.instagram.com/adamjshane/?hl=en

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Yoga Joint's Website⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠: https://www.yogajoint.com/