Fitness on Demand's new leaders focus on technology to make workouts accessible

Uday Anumalachetty and Andrew Evenson are leading Fitness on Demand's sharpened focus on innovation and user experience and engagement with their promotions to senior-management roles at the Chanhassen-based digital fitness content service.

Anumalachetty, previously senior product manager and technology leader, now serves in the key leadership role of divisional vice president.

Evenson moves to senior director, operations and brand strategy, from his previous role as director of brand.

Fitness on Demand, founded in 2011, offers on-demand fitness content for health clubs, hotels and commercial properties including multifamily housing locations and hotels.

The company has a library of 3,000-plus videos of fitness classes and other programming licensed from Jillian Michaels, Zumba and other creators, Anumalachetty said. They are available through mobile apps, web portals and streaming at customer locations.

Anumalachetty is in charge of the company's direction, execution, vision and financials among other responsibilities.

Fitness on Demand is on the fifth generation of its on-premise video system, which allows facilities to schedule classes and enables members, residents or guests to call them up on demand, Evenson said.

Fitness on Demand has 25 employees at its headquarters and operates remote offices in Australia and the United Kingdom, Evenson said. Its parent company is Lift Brands, which also includes Snap Fitness and Steele Fitness.

The company is at the top of the market among competitors in hotels, apartments and fitness clubs, Evenson said.

"The future for our business has to be about continuing to invest in the best content that engages consumers, but also in designing the technologies and bringing the right management team into place to take us and our customers to the next level," Tom Welter, Lift Brands' chief operating officer, said in a release.

Q: Why is technology so important to your growth plans?

Anumalachetty: You have the infrastructure now to experience the virtual world the way it should be in any channel. From a growth perspective, that plays really well into the products that we offer as a (software-as-a-service) platform. People want access to tools that can make them healthier. We want to make it as easy as possible for end users to get access to that content. Our main customers buy our product to fulfill that end customer need so we want to make it easier for them to fulfill that.

Evenson: Our content partners. This gives us the opportunity for customers to say, "Come at this time and do a class with Jillian Michaels" or "Come at this time and do a Zumba. It gives the facilities an opportunity to scale their fitness programs and make them more accessible to users rather than being limited by when they have staff available.

Q: How are you pursuing growth?

Anumalachetty: On the business side we're forming relationships with providers and bringing more videos online so our variety keeps growing. On the product side we're focusing on what our customers' needs are and making it easy to identify the [return on investment]. We have a customer experience team that works with every customer and identifies usage trends and recommends popular classes.

Todd Nelson is a freelance writer in Lake Elmo. His e-mail is todd_nelson@mac.com.