Joining the Crew.....

For my next adventure in research on crafting my innovative idea I decided to take a lesson at Community Rowing in Brighton. Rowing was a sport I aspired to learn as a child. Living in an area surrounded by Head of the Charles, a neighborhood teeming with former Ivy league rowers, and a view of the training team for a local university gave me the opportunity to appreciate the sport at a very young age. It seemed only natural that part of my collegiate experience would involve being part of a "crew".

I first became introduced to a rowing machine in high school after I was sidelined from running due to an achilles tendon injury. I really enjoyed the solidarity of rowing on the machine in the gym and getting lost in my thoughts.

Community Rowing requires that it is located in Brighton on the Charles River, requires a decent amount of real-estate to house sweep and sculling shells, oars, and additional equipment. Community Rowing is a not for profit offering rowing outreach programs to at risk youth and disabled veterans.  the barriers to entry for rowing and made it accessible to all income levels in the Greater Boston area. I registered for a 90 minute introductory course that reviewed the basics of rowing where we had the opportunity to get out on the water. The first 45 minutes of the course covered the basic form of rowing and was taught on land with the assistance of a rowing machine. The instructor broke down the act of rowing into three steps for us to follow when out on the water; body, legs, arms. Rowing on the water as part of a crew proved to be far more challenging than I had anticipated. When crew members rowed out of sync it placed you in danger of having your oar roll over you which would give you the appearance of looking like a crab flipped on its back. Rowing with 9 other strangers proved challenging when trying to hold one another accountable for rowing out of sync. 

Like Zumba, Community Rowing seemed to be more inclusive than some of the boutique exercise classes I attended. This can be partly attributed to their not for profit status and attributed to their clearly defined mission of "Rowing for All". Inclusion is also a major factor in a team sport and for this lesson I did experience rowing as part of a crew. Community Rowing also offers classes rowing in singles, a conditioning gym, and indoor training during inclement weather. The instructor's level of training and experience was greater than the typical training. My instructor had rowed crew at Southern Methodist of four years and had moved to Boston to work on a new master of coaching in rowing at CRI. The typical level of training for a boutique exercise class such as Zumba, Soul cycle or Pure Barre is typically a personal training certification and individual training in the particular concentration. An interesting fact based on our teachers length of time and experience is that Rowing is a sport where in order to be good at it it does not require that a minimum amount of time for you to achieve mastery. If you learn the techniques and are physically strong you can row as well or better than a counterpart who has been rowing longer. This broadens the scope of individuals who can learn rowing, you don't need to be 20 to join the crew. 

I enjoyed my time at CRI and was really impressed with the quality of the facility as well as the instructors. I look forward to exploring additional classes. 

Exercise of Inclusion

As part of my continued exploration I took a Zumba class for the first time. As someone who enjoys exercise, enjoys music, dancing and was a former cardio kickboxing junkie  people were surprised to hear that I had never attended a class before. Zumba, founded in 2001, has become one of the largest exercise classes in the world. Zumba's boasts over 15 million users in 180 countries. As part of my continued research project in the evolution of the concept I am creating, I thought it would be important to learn what all buzz was about.

I was able to locate a class using the official Zumba websites class locator. Studio offerings ranged from health clubs such as the Equinox and Sports Club LA to dance companies located in VFW halls. I selected a class 3 miles from my office located at an American Legion in Newton.  While it was simple to find the building it was challenging to find the class location as a Bingo game was playing in the large hall and it was difficult to determine who was a Zumba attendee and who was there for Bingo. Really, I chased down some 20 something girls in sweatpants hoping to follow them to Zumba class only to find out that they were attending Bingo.  I was able to finally find the room once the music started for class. I was able to enter the class late and only required to pay my $5 cash fee, no pesky waivers or health forms to contend with. Out on the dance floor I tried my best to follow along with the instructor to the beat of the songs. My group ranged in ages from 8 years old (the teachers daughter) to about 60. Size and athleticism range was also on as large a scale. The one common denominator was that everyone was there to have fun. The class lasted an hour for a total of about 12 different songs and routines. I was wearing a fitbit during the class and tracked walking 3 miles over the duration of the class. At the end there was a cool down period where slowed down salsa and meringue moves were used to stretch us out. I found the class to be a great experience and I plan to incorporate into my routine.

Zumba exploded on the scene in 2001 and was created by a Columbian celebrity fitness instructor who had forgot his aerobics soundtracks and used a music from his car and incorporated dance moves from  hip-hop, soca, samba, salsa, merengue, mambo and martial arts to teach an aerobics class.  (wikipedia) Zumba sells DVD's, video game programs, clothing and accessories. It also offer certified training to become an instructor. Zumba does not charge a licensing fee to gyms and individual looking to teach Zumba classes. Zumba derives its revenues from the products for sale through its website. http://www.zumba.com/en-US  This is pretty important for a few reasons. First off, Zumba makes it very easy and accessible for consumers to consumer their core product of exercise. By doing this they have broadened the scope of consumers introduced to the Zumba JTBD which is "ditch the workout and join the party". Zumba has also done an excellent job of building a loyal fan base where each participant feels like they belong. Lastly, Zumba makes it very simple to consume their product on a number of different levels. Attending a Zumba class and studying their revenue streams was very helpful for me in working on my concept.

You've Been Served

Monthly box subscriptions seem to be the next big thing when it comes to combining e-commerce and and a membership fee model. While this has been around for a few years with products and samples a new and interesting format has been the evolution signing up to receive curated food and recipes. I decided to try "Plated", simply because I seem to see their advertisements more often than their competitors Blue Apron or Hello Fresh.

I ordered my plated meal on a Monday with the scheduled delivery date of that Friday. On Thursday I received a friendly email from Plated confirming that my meal was en route and confirming the ingredients I would need to have on hand to prepare my meal. For the recipe I chose which was Meatballs with Zucchini, Blackened Tomatoes, and Mint.  this include having an egg, olive oil and salt and pepper on hand.

Experience
My package arrived Friday afternoon in a cool refrigerated container via Fed Ex. Portions were packed in groups of two and according to food group. All ingredients were pre measured and clearly labeled.  A bright and colorful card detailed instructions with pictures demonstrating each of the eight steps. When I order this meal it did not occur to me that I would be spending a significant amount of time slicing and dicing. The instructions estimated the recipe would take between 30-45 minutes to repair; I estimate I spent about 25 minutes of my time peeling the zucchini to make pasta ribbons. I had always wanted to learn how to slice veggies for pasta alternatives so this was a fortunate side effect. Instructions for mixing the meatballs were quite simples and the roasting of the tomatoes took no time. The tools that Plated provided me made me feel confident during the preparation that I could produce a quality product.

Feedback
I served this meal to my husband, sister and mother. I received very positive feedback on the presentation, food combination and process. My husband, a busy Finance/IT professional and father to our two small children felt it was a do again and is hoping to select and cook our next Plated order. I look forward to this too as Fred has not had a lot of training when it comes to cooking and I believe that Plated can help him to fine-tune his cooking techniques.
My sister (who weighs 105 lbs) was concerned that she would not feel full since the pasta was not pasta but zucchini. My husband explained her feeling of fullness would come from the meatballs; Courtney remarked the whole experience felt rather "yuppy".
My mother, a recent retiree, volunteered next time to go food shopping for me at Wilson Farms in Lexington, she thought I was crazy for paying $15 per serving for the meal. After I walked her through their  target consumer (someone who makes too much money to be wondering around a supermarket) the wheels began to turn on her offering her own version of a Plated service. We anxiously await hr shopping her proposal to local VC firms.

Complements
I think that Plated is missing out on an opportunity to sell cooking accessories to their customers. Plated assumes you own sharp knives or a pan. It would be helpful if they could list the tools needed at the time of the order and link you to a page where you can purchase the needed equipment. If Plated decides that is too far outside its business model it should consider partnering with a Williams Sonoma or Sur La Table and receiving a % of revenue for each product sold. They could expand this to include table settings as well. I would also recommend that Plated add technique video's to their website; for a moment I was unsure of how to slice the zucchini, referencing their website for a tutorial on how to prepare this meal would seem like a natural fit and another way to connect with your customer.


Strategy
After this activity was done I thought a lot about what Plated's strategy was. If I was an investor I would be incorporating my suggestions above so that I would catch the attention of Amazon and use Plated as a launching pad for the first online grocery store. The disruption factor would be that it would change the way people purchased food; have them buy according to recipes and not in mass quantities.