“The worst thing that ever happened to Peloton was the Covid pandemic,” Desrumaux suggested. “When you look at Peloton, at the time of their IPO, that is a few months before Covid, in September 2019, they have 800,000 households in the U.S., they’re growing 100% a year, they’re making a 50% margin on hardware, a 60% margin on software, and they have 0% in EBITDA. So they’re practically break-even.”
During the lockdown periods, Peloton launched several new products and spent a lot of money. “And then, in the end, Covid was just a brief interlude. The market returned to its original growth trajectory,” he added.
Now, Peloton seems to be out of the woods after a difficult reality check. That’s why Desrumaux believes connected fitness is still an interesting industry as long as you maintain financial discipline — which is his aim with Growl.