Company: Powhow
Website: www.powhow.com
Founders: Viva Chu, Agatha Chang and Ben Jurist
Headquarters: New York
Year Founded: 2012
Employees: 8
Facebook: facebook.com/powhow
Twitter: twitter.com/powhow_com
Company Description: Powhow is the leading global platform for live webcam classes. Powhow vStudio provides the essential marketing, customer support, and business tools to teach live webcam classes, broadcast and record in-studio classes, and upload and sell videos.
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By Viva Chu, co-founder and CEO
Product Overview
Powhow is the leading global platform for live webcam classes. Powhow’s vStudio Platform enables fitness, dance, music and arts professionals to connect with their students in multiple ways. Instructors can train and interact directly with students via webcam, broadcast and stream their in-studio classes live to a global audience, or upload recorded videos for their students to train on their own time.
Founders’ Story
The three of us have all been friends for over ten years and have a lot of history together. Ben [co-founder Ben Jurist] played the guitar at my wedding to Agatha [co-founder Agatha Chang] last year. After getting married, Agatha and I moved out to the suburbs and had a hard time finding time to work out with our fitness trainer in New York City. That’s how the idea for Powhow was born. Agatha and I realized that a lot of other people could benefit from the ability to connect with their favorite trainer virtually. Prior to starting Powhow, I sold my second company to Slide and worked at Google doing research for the smart TV market. Agatha was formerly the VP of Digital at Universal McCann where she had worked with Ben. At Powhow, I lead product and engineering, Ben manages the instructor community and Agatha heads up business development and marketing.
Marketing/Promotion Strategy
We provide Instructors with the tools to promote their studios and classes via social media and email marketing.
Market Opportunity
There are over 260,000 fitness trainers and 250,000 music and arts instructors in the U.S. alone. The global market is at least twice as large as the U.S. market.
Four months since the start of beta in November, 2012, Powhow vStudio has enabled over 700 instructors to successfully launch their online businesses worldwide. Powhow’s instructor base ranges from individuals just getting started to established brands and large studios who teach a wide variety of topics: yoga, kettlebells, bellydance, Irish dance, Tai Chi, piano, watercolors and pottery.
Powhow.com is the world’s largest marketplace of live webcam classes, with 3,700 classes available per month. Sales transactions on the site have grown 40 percent month-over-month and net revenues have quadrupled over the past six months.
How Powhow Differentiates Itself from the Competition
Powhow vStudio is the only software solution that provides a complete solution for teaching live interactive classes, live stream broadcast, video library, class recording, and all the studio management tools. We are also the world’s largest marketplace for live webcam classes.
Powhow vStudio revolutionizes the training industry by eliminating the startup costs of launching your own studio business. Powhow vStudio is available to fitness, dance, music and arts professionals as a subscription service with packages as affordable as $30 per month. Powhow manages all software, videos, and hosting, allowing instructors to launch a professional home page to market their studio, classes, and videos within minutes.
Business Model
Our business model is to offer Software-as-a-Service to instructors who pay us a monthly or annual subscription fee with plans starting at $30 per month.
Current Needs
We are currently raising a Seed round. Details can be found at: angel.co/powhow.
Powhow – www.powhow.com
