Rick Stollmeyer of Mindbody: How We Plan To Rebuild In The Post COVID Economy

June 19, 2020 by Authority Magazine

Thank you so much for your time! I know that you are a very busy person. Our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you got started?

I spent my early years in the Navy as a submarine officer. Those years taught me so much of what I have carried with me today in my career. As an engineer, I found myself following that path within the corporate world in the late ’90s. I co-founded Mindbody out of my garage in 2001, when everything was powered by the internet. When I had the opportunity to help my high school friend sell software to yoga and spin studios, I took the risk.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lessons or ‘take aways’ you learned from that?

Early on, we thought that we could simply set these companies (workout studios) up with a software and walk away. I truly thought that by coding the software, selling it in and then onboarding the business, our work was done, and we could go on selling the software elsewhere. I specifically remember — it was the spring of 2001 and we thought we nailed it. I was wrong. I quickly learned that supporting this robust software and people’s use of it truly never ends. These small business owners needed us. We had to not only help them understand the software, but to evolve the software and make it better with each passing day. Now, I understand that we will never be done supporting our tens of thousands of customers. We’re here as a sounding board to listen to their feedback and continue evolving the product to make running their businesses easier.