Making waves with CITYROW Founder and Author Helaine Knapp

The narrative around startups is often glamorized, focusing on success stories, but the true journey of entrepreneurship is much more complex. The rise of connected fitness, followed by its decline, brought unexpected challenges for many companies during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Helaine Knapp, the founder of CITYROW, navigated this tumultuous landscape, ultimately selling her company to WaterRower in early 2024. But what does it really take to build a business from scratch, and what happens when the journey doesn’t end with fairy-tale success?

How do entrepreneurs cope with the emotional and practical challenges of winding down a business?

Welcome to Tuesdays with Morrisey. In this episode, host Adam Morrisey sits down with Helaine Knapp, founder of CITYROW and author of Making Waves. They explore the highs and lows of Helaine’s entrepreneurial journey, from founding CITYROW to the tough decisions leading to its sale, and the lessons learned along the way.

Key Points:
– The Realities of Entrepreneurship: Helaine shares the often untold, gritty aspects of the startup journey, emphasizing that success isn’t always a fairy tale.
– Founding and Growing CITYROW: Helaine discusses how a personal injury led her to create CITYROW, a fitness brand that became an early adopter in the digital at-home fitness space.
– Winding Down and Moving On: The emotional and strategic challenges of navigating the end of CITYROW’s journey and why asking for help is crucial for founders.

Helaine Knapp is the founder and former CEO of CITYROW, a nationwide fitness brand that she led for over a decade before its acquisition by WaterRower in 2024. With extensive experience in early-stage SaaS companies and a strong background in business strategy, she now focuses on coaching, advising, and consulting for growth-stage companies and executives. Helaine is also an author, with her first book, Making Waves, detailing her entrepreneurial journey and offering insights to other founders.

Article written by MarketScale.