One of the most profound societal shifts in recent years has been the rise of longevity, health, and fitness as a cultural movement. We’re seeing it everywhere, from declining alcohol consumption to people optimizing their sleep, recovery, and building real-world connections through movement.
Walk through any major city- Seoul, London, New York and you’ll feel it: the stampede of run clubs, packed pickleball courts, Sunday morning cold plunges, and the growing sense of community built around shared movement. It’s what Sweatpals calls “daylife,” a global movement toward social connection through health. Increasingly, this is how people make friends, find partners, and build belonging - not in bars, but through fitness, wellness, and shared lifestyle experiences.
As one of the earliest consumer investors at a16z, I learned how transformative marketplace businesses can be in shaping global culture. As a passionate runner and triathlete, I never imagined that in 2025, I’d lace up my running shoes, join a run club for diligence, and ultimately win one of the most competitive deals of the year - a company that feels reminiscent of the early Airbnb days: a scalable consumer marketplace capturing a generational shift in how people connect and business businesses through fitness.
Sweatpals checked every box for us as a 2025 modern consumer marketplace bet:
- ⚙️ Capital-efficient and AI-enabled, rapidly scaling fast with a lean team
- 💬 Deeply engaged community with organic demand and world-class NPS
- 💪 Marketplace dynamics that double as a lead-gen engine for fitness entrepreneurs
- 🚀 Hosts turning pro, leaving day jobs to build full-time businesses on the platform
- 🎟️ Already monetizing across events, ticketing, and brand partnerships, connecting top fitness brands to hundreds of thousands of users
- 🧰 And most impressively, a “business in a box” infrastructure layer replacing outdated and fragmented fitness CRMs and empowering a new generation of entrepreneurs and business owners
Since our investment just a few months ago, and from only a handful of launch cities, SweatPals has already onboarded over a million users, 4x’d its GMV run rate, proven multiple revenue-generating business lines, and is quickly emerging as one of the fastest-growing companies in our portfolio.
Thrilled to back Salar, Mandi, and the team as they redefine what “daylife” means — and how we connect, move, and thrive in the years ahead.