This is an installment of Startup Year One, a special series of interviews with founders about the major lessons they have learned in the immediate aftermath of their businesses’ first year of operation.
Like virtually every other business, The Well, a spa and wellness clinic startup, was pressed to make some dramatic changes at the onset of the pandemic.
First opened in 2019, the brand’s New York City location was forced to shut its doors in March 2020. The company later reopened again—albeit gradually—by the fall, and has been growing ever since. The company launched a second location in Connecticut that has seen appointments booked up continuously for months.
But among the most critical changes concerned both access and the business model. The Well reopened without a membership program, meaning all fitness and movement classes, spa services, medical appointments and programming are available for individual bookings and available to anyone online in applicable use cases.
Fortune recently spoke with CEO Rebecca Parekh, chief operating officer,
Sarrah Hallock, and chief creative officer Kane Sarhan—all cofounders of The Well—about what it’s like been like launching (and relaunching) a wellness center before and during the pandemic, and plans for the future.
The following interview has been condensed and lightly edited for clarity.
Fortune: Could you share more about your professional background prior to launching The Well?
Hallock: I’ve spent the last 20 years working in marketing and branding primarily with better-for-you consumer products. I was a marketing executive at Vitaminwater, until we sold the company to Coca-Cola in 2007. I then went on to help launch and run marketing for a beverage called Bai, an antioxidant enhanced water. We sold Bai to Dr. Pepper Snapple Group in 2016. After Bai, I helped launch and run marketing for a fresh pressed beverage called Wtrmln Wtr.
Sarhan: Prior to The Well, I was the Head of Brand at SH Group—Starwood Capital Group’s hotel brand management company—where I oversaw the development for 1 Hotels & Homes and Baccarat Hotels & Residences. I drove the launch of both new brands and oversaw all strategic marketing and public relations efforts. I love approaching everything from a hospitality lens to develop and create best-in-class programming, design and experiences for guests.
Parekh: I started my career working in finance and spent 10 years at Deutsche Bank, focused primarily on structured credit, covering hedge funds and private equity firms. Following that, I co-founded a healthcare non-profit and later worked for Deepak Chopra as his chief operating gofficer. Wellness has always been an integral part of my life; my mom was teaching yoga in the 1970s when she was pregnant with me and she taught me about Reiki, Tai Chi, and the philosophy of food as medicine at a very young age. I’m also half Indian and spent summers in India with my dad’s family where I learned about meditation and Ayurveda.
What inspired you to launch The Well? What kind of services does it offer that you can’t find elsewhere?
Parekh: While I loved working in finance, I found it difficult to prioritize my own health and well-being. In the fall of 2009, I visited a spa in Sedona, Ariz. and experienced first hand the power of an integrated approach. Great food, lots of sleep, a life changing craniosacral treatment, and countless words of wisdom from practitioners along the way. I felt incredible after just a few days and was inspired to bring that offering to cities like New York.
With so many different offerings in the health and wellness space, it can be overwhelming to navigate, especially when you’re running around to multiple locations with limited time and bandwidth. At The Well, we bring functional medicine, Chinese medicine, Ayurveda, mindful movement, health coaching, and physical therapy under one roof. We don’t believe in a one-size-fits all approach to wellness and we develop customized plans based for each individual. We aim to meet people where they are at and we look at all aspects of well-being, spanning physical health, mental health and emotional and spiritual well-being. Our practitioners are consistently collaborating, communicating and working together in real-time to create highly customized plans for our guests.
Hallock: Getting sick was one of the best things that happened to my health. About 12 years ago I found myself struggling with health issues which ultimately led me down the path of launching The Well with Rebecca and Kane. I had gained 25 pounds in one year, my hair was falling out, I wasn’t sleeping and had anxiety. Despite seeing eight to 10 different specialists and doctors, no one was able to figure out what was wrong. I was prescribed anti-anxiety medication and sleeping aids to treat the symptoms, but ultimately no one was helping address the root cause. It wasn’t until I met a naturopath doctor that diagnosed me with an autoimmune disease called Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis.
From there, I really became a student of my health. I began to educate myself through hours of research and realized I needed to start treating my issues holistically. I ended up leaving my career in marketing and going back to school where I did health coaching courses at the Institute of Integrative Nutrition and at Duke Integrative Medicine. From there, I started my own health coaching practice, but I knew in order to be most effective, I needed to be part of something more integrated. It was at that time that I connected with Rebecca Parkeh and Kane Sarhan and we came together to start building The Well.
The Well New York first opened in 2019 but abruptly had to shut its doors a few months later during the lockdown. How did the business respond to the pandemic? What changes did you have to make? How did your customers respond to these changes?
Hallock: We knew as a wellness company that we wanted our products and services to be as accessible to our community as safely as possible during this time. People needed us more than ever. We had quickly pivoted all of our in-space and offline offerings. We were able to offer virtual medical appointments, streamed yoga and meditation classes and group support circles. Our community had responded with appreciation and we were able to widen our reach, this allowed us to offer our services to more people during a difficult period.
We had also launched an eCommerce platform debuting our own line of self-care and immunity supplements developed by our expert team of practitioners and chief medical officer, Dr. Frank Lipman. Our immunity line is a range of therapeutic vitamins, tinctures and plant based powders that bolster the immune system. This allowed us to support the need for immune health during the pandemic, while also offering overall health benefits.
The Well previously used to operate on a membership model, but that changed during the pandemic? What caused the shift, and how is entry/access different now?
Hallock: The Well has always been about fostering community. When we first opened our doors in September 2019 we were a membership club with the intention of bringing together like-minded members to support each other on their wellness journey. When we reopened our doors a second time this April, it has organically led us to broadening our community to those who are genuinely interested and committed to their health and wellbeing. All are welcome to drop in for a class, book an appointment with a practitioner or eat at the Kitchen & Table.
When The Well was originally constructed, it was designed for hosting live events and group classes. Obviously, all of that was put on hold over the last year. But as New York state prepares to rescind capacity limits, how are you ramping up to return to hosting events and larger, more frequent classes?
Hallock: We are thrilled to welcome people back into our spaces and are seeing more and more each week. Of course we will continue to closely follow local, state, and CDC guidelines around safety and sanitation protocols and make necessary changes to our operations to ensure the health and safety of our community and team members.
Sarhan: We have also had a tremendous amount of demand for private events. From birthday dinners to bridal party foot rubs and brunch to corporations looking for new ways to bring their team together with full buy-out of talks and movement classes and treatments, we’ve been able to develop some amazing programs that are fun, experiential, and safe.
The Well currently has two locations (in New York and Connecticut). Do you have plans to expand in the next year?
Parekh: We are planning to expand and taking a measured approach. We’ve been approached by multiple hotels and universities to partner and consult on holistic health and wellness projects. It further shows how the industry will continue to evolve and expand. We are planning to introduce additional locations starting in 2021.
Looking forward, where do you see The Well five years down the road?
Hallock: Coming out of the year we just had, we are more committed than ever to our vision to be the gold standard for wellness and to change the way people think about their health.
