digital-coaching
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Runna sold the training plan. Strava bought the coach.
Two friends started with personalized running PDFs. Their subscription app now sits inside Strava, with a bigger test ahead: making the plan fit the runner when life refuses to cooperate.
The $14 Billion Workout: How ABC Fitness Became the Gym Industry’s Invisible Operating System
It started with one Arkansas gym owner chasing unpaid dues. Four decades, several acquisitions and $14 billion in annual payment volume later, ABC Fitness is trying to make the gym’s front desk disappear into software - without taking the human part of fitness with it.
Pinnacle - AI Coaching
Pinnacle is a New York-based HR-tech startup building scalable AI coaching that lives inside the tools employees already use. Its AI coach, Pascal, embeds in Slack, Microsoft Teams, and video meetings to give managers and employees personalized, real-time guidance drawn from their actual work context - performance reviews, 360 feedback, company competency frameworks, and day-to-day communication patterns. Founded by former accelerator CEO and executive coach Alexei Dunaway, Pinnacle raised a $2.5M seed round in March 2025 to bring executive-grade coaching to every employee, not just the C-suite.
Alexi Robichaux
Alexi Robichaux is the CEO and Co-Founder of BetterUp, the human transformation platform he started in 2013 after a soul-searching walk along the Camino de Santiago. He built BetterUp from a two-person idea into a $5 billion company with 2,800 employees and over $628 million in total funding, pioneering digital professional coaching for enterprises including Google, Salesforce, and NASA. A former product executive at VMware who once struggled with imposter syndrome and public speaking anxiety, Robichaux turned his personal journey with coaching into a mission to make elite professional development accessible to everyone.
Ravi Swaminathan
Ravi Swaminathan is the co-founder and CEO of TaskHuman, a real-time 1:1 digital coaching platform that connects employees with live human coaches via video call across 1,000+ topics - from fitness and financial planning to leadership and emotional well-being. A seasoned technology executive with roots in semiconductor and enterprise storage, he built TaskHuman in 2017 after recognizing that no generic article or pre-recorded video could replace the power of an expert human conversation. The company has raised $35M+ in funding, grown ARR 700% between its Series A and B rounds, and now operates across nearly 50 countries with a network of 1,000+ coaches.