I spent every moment of my childhood running around, being outside as much as I could, and playing literally every sport, except swimming. I surfed and always wanted to be by the ocean, but the pool never called my name. Swimming was not in my rolodex of activities I was good at. 

Growing up in Los Angeles and attending Harvard-Westlake with my co-founder, Charlie Melvoin, I played soccer year-round, which led me to the Division I team at the University of Michigan. Eventually migrating back to the best coast for law school at University of California, Los Angeles, after graduation, it was clear I had to fine a job that combined my passions and didn't keep me behind a desk.

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After working in the legal and business development departments for an international hospitality and restaurant group and starting my own 501C3 ​non-profit, DINATING that raised money to help families in need, I reconnected with Charlie at a mutual friends wedding. 

After 10 years apart and a brief conversation about our mutual love of all things boutique fitness, two things were clear: there were no great workout options for non-swimmers in the pool and we were going to try to make a splash in this market.​

Both of us being fitness fanatics with an entrepreneurial spirit, we started with the question: why is there no swimming-based boutique fitness class?

As everyone knows, it’s the best form of low-impact, full-body exercise, and yet there was no innovation around swimming, as evidenced by the lack of listings on the ClassPass app. We injected our favorite things from our favorite studios – fun music, social community, charismatic instruction, healthy lifestyle, positive energy – into the pool.

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We wanted to offer a workout that was a great calorie burn while easy on the joints, and something that everyone could do while appealing to the same people who seek out boutique fitness options in LA. 

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However, we quickly pivoted into the technology aspect as everyone kept asking us about the headsets.  We saw a much larger market and a real opportunity to change the way people engaged in all aquatic activities, not just swimming.  Think stand up paddle board, kite surfing, rowing, sailing and more.

This is the cheesiest thing I can say but it’s also the truest statement – I wake up every morning grateful to be working on Zygo.  I never feel like I am working because I believe in the product and the potential for its success. 

It’s true that every day feels like a Monday as I am always “on” but everyday also feels like a Saturday because I can spend my days as I wish and they are never the same. I feel lucky to be in a position where I never dread what I do (that doesn’t mean it’s easy, it just means it’s worth it).

Absolutely not.  All the quotes about hardware being hard and a long road are definitely true.  However, my excitement and enthusiasm for what we are building has never wavered.

Besides for the technical obstacles of building something that’s never been done, I would say it’s the daily effort to maintain a positive and optimistic attitude even when you seem to be swimming upstream, quite literally -:)

I believe strongly in the motto – the way you do one thing is the way you do all things.  That is to say, to be a decent manager, you need to be a decent human. To be disciplined and detail oriented, you need to pay attention in every aspect of your life. You can’t simple turn on your work ethic, you have to live it day in and day out.

This is hard because in hindsight there are many mistakes we made, but at the time you do the best with the information you have. But to answer the question, we over paid for concept design at the very beginning and think it is definitely something we would do differently if we could now.

This may be a small moment, but every time we have someone demo our current beta prototype and see their response and utter amazement with what the product will be able to do, that is the success I yearn to magnify and multiply over the coming months.

Take in all the advice and opinions and experiences of others, and then do what you feel is right in your gut.  What you’re doing hasn’t been done before not because it’s impossible but because no one else thought like you or pushed the boundaries past their own limitations.  Just because they couldn’t, doesn’t mean you can’t!

You can’t force people to care and the best work product comes from a genuine belief in product or service.  We’ve tried to develop personal relationships with people and understand what motivates them, what they want out of a job and how they like to spend their days.  It’s not just about believing in the technology we are building but in the lifestyle we try to live.

We are currently still in development so we are not in fully advertising mode; however, when we launch we will be targeting influencers in various aquatic worlds as well as social media.  We believe the most powerful resource is word of mouth so we will be strategic in getting it into specific people’s hands.

I’m most proud that we, as 2 non-swimmers, took the status quo and refused to accept it to be true.  When others relegated themselves to swimming without music or not listening to a podcast as they surfed, we decided that’s not the way we wanted to live and we were going to do something about it.  And we did.  Further, we did not let the fact that we have no hardware experience stop us from believing in our ability to be the right team to bring Zygo to market. We have no set limitations from expectations and thus we can push past any guidelines previous set from others.

To transport anywhere at anytime and bring a +1 with me.

To transport anywhere at anytime and bring a +1 with me.

The Grecian sunset.  It’s the most magical experience any night and it feels like a true wonder.

I’m not sure it’s a talent but I can juggle both with my hands and feet and I collect zippo lighters from the countries I visit (when I can find them nowadays as they are no longer made).

The Hard Thing About Hard Things is a great entrepreneurial book.  I also just read Shoe Dog.  I love the podcast How I Built This.  Our goal would be to be featured on it one day – vision board goals!

Persistent