I was thinking the opposite. A terrible idea greatly executed by a great management team in times of loose money.

I cannot blame those who were able to cash out.

What’s the great idea exactly? It’s an incredibly expensive (and low margin) exercise bike with an expensive (and high margin) monthly subscription.

Charging a lot (and not making a lot) for something people probably won’t use for long isn’t a winning bet IMO.

My understanding of Peloton is they have very solid user retention numbers. 92% year over year [1]

Where they struggle is growth. They are seen as a premium product. They're expensive. That's why they have tried creating new tiers, new products that aren't just the bike, and ways to get a subscription from just a streaming device.

IMO they would have done better to stay a slower growing, niche, premium product but focusing on quality and profitability instead of growth. The price elasticity in the premium user base is pretty high, they probably would have paid more / bought other products. Then they can keep their cool, and create more organic demand, but not obsess over always filling that demand. Scarcity is a good thing for a premium product.

I think, however, now they are stuck. They need growth.

As n=1, I'm a long term peloton subscriber, and find it a really invaluable way to exercise. Not for everyone, but I get a lot out of it.

1 - https://backlinko.com/peloton-users

People bought them in droves, and those that did broadly seem to enjoy it. I certainly have a few mega fans in my circle. The execution though was just terrible. They just kept pumping the things out after it was clear they saturated the market. They could have had an excellent business with a smaller market but instead didn’t know when to tap the brakes on their growth and built a bloated mess that may be impossible to unravel.

That's underselling their innovation, they also made an expensive treadmill that was uniquely prone to eating children and pets.

Inspired by Stephen King’s The Mangler.

https://www.baen.com/Chapters/9781625791108/9781625791108___...

There’s no way silicon valley would have realized the importance of the content in the equation. The talent is absolutely a huge part of the success. There are multiple huge facebook and ig groups for some of the most popular instructors. It’s a moat.

I started out with a different bike but eventually bought a peloton because the community and integration was so much better than bike + tablet.

Plus I love stretching, yoga, pilates, meditation.

During cancer I couldn’t ride. But those chair and standing yoga classes made an enormous difference in my state of mind and health.

I wish it wasn’t so hard for a few folks here to see that passion and emotion for a brand has value.

That said, there are enormous opportunities in front of Peloton. It’s time to get some Silicon Valley leadership in there to apply product led growth initiatives.