Opinion
Alberto Perlman: Founders not selling AI will likely struggle to raise money
“For anyone that doesn't, isn't selling AI, it's probably hard to raise money.”
Disclosure
Alberto Perlman nearly sold one-third of Zumba for $300,000
“I remember I offered investment in Zumba to four or five different friends of mine at the early days, and they could have bought a third of Zumba for 300,000 dollars. And I'm glad I didn't do it. I'm so glad I didn't do it because that equity down the road was…”
Insight
Alberto Perlman: Consumers demand transparency due to lost trust in the FDA
“Transparency with consumers right now is huge. I think people have realized that they can't trust all companies. Before, when we were growing up, if we assume that the FDA was protecting us and that there were someone, some government authority protecting us a…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Perlman: Instructors earning $30 in person made $150 per virtual class
“I know instructors who were making 25 dollars a class teaching at the YMCA or 30 dollars a class teaching at the YMCA. Suddenly when they switched to virtual, they're making 150 dollars a class. So some of them are making more money Than before the pandemic.”
Insight
Perlman: Zumba succeeded by offering exercise people actually want to do
“And I'm like, this guy doesn't know it, but he has discovered like the magic pill. He has discovered the exercise that people want to do instead of the exercise that people have to do.”
Insight
Perlman: Zumba's product breakthrough was replacing verbal instruction with visual cueing
“And so he doesn't scream at people in the class, or there's no talking. It's only visual cueing, so with hand signals, we tell people what to do. And the magic is letting the music lead the choreography, lead the class”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Perlman: Zumba Reaches 15 Million Class Participants Across 200,000 Gyms
“So we have fifteen million people taking classes, and we're in 200,000 gyms.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Perlman: Zumba Has More Locations Globally Than McDonald's
“We have more locations teaching Zumba than there are McDonald's in the world.”
Insight
Perlman: Zumba uses non-verbal visual cueing so music leads the class
“And so he doesn't scream at people in the class, or there's no talking. It's only visual cueing, so with hand signals, we tell people what to do. And the magic is letting the music lead the choreography, lead the class”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Perlman: More locations teach Zumba than there are McDonald's globally
“We have more locations teaching Zumba than there are McDonald's in the world.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Alberto Perlman: Zumba operates in 200,000 fitness facilities
“We're in 200,000 fitness facilities right now.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Alberto Perlman: 15 million people take Zumba classes every single week
“We have fifteen million people taking Zumba classes every single week.”
Disclosure
Alberto Perlman: Zumba financed its early growth through a Kellogg's partnership
“Instead of us raising money, we ended up financing through Kellogg's. Our deal with Kellogg's in the early days of Zumba is what allowed us to sustain the business.”
Assertion Not publicly verifiable
Alberto Perlman: Zumba sold 14 million video games
“We sold fourteen million Zumba video games.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Perlman: Pre-pandemic Zumba had 15M weekly participants in 186 countries
“We have pre-pandemic, over fifteen million people who take Zumba classes every week. And we're in 186 countries, and pre-pandemic, we were in 200,000 locations.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Perlman: 1M weekly users took virtual Zumba classes within six weeks
“And to our surprise, within a month and a half, we had about a million people a week taking Zumba classes virtually, which is amazing for a new virtual product.”
Assertion Supported
Perlman: Zumba takes 0% of virtual class revenue, paying instructors 100%
“Everything goes to the instructor.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Perlman: Zumba avoided all layoffs and employee furloughs during the pandemic
“So we didn't do any layoffs. We didn't do any furloughs.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Perlman: 2020 Zumba instructor registrations lagged behind 2008 crisis levels
“So we are seeing people coming in. It's not as big as the 2008. And it's not as big as what we predicted was going to happen at the beginning of the year, but we are seeing every day a large group of people registering to become Zoom instructors.”
Assertion Supported
Perlman: Zumba enlisted Steve Aoki and Timbaland to score workouts
“So we went to our favorite DJs, DJs like Steve Aoki, Or producers like Timbaland, and we said, can you score music to this workout? Instead of the music being in the background, let's score music, just like you would score music to a movie, like a training sce…”
Disclosure
Perlman: Advertising 'Find a Class' is a massive, zero-revenue corporate expense
“We spend hundreds of thousands of dollars advertising Find the Class. Even though we don't make any money from Find the Class, right, because that money all goes to the instructors, we advertise it all the time, and it's one of our biggest line items in our co…”
Insight
Perlman: Word-of-mouth friend invites are Zumba's primary customer acquisition driver
“Obviously the number one thing that drives people to Zumba is bring a friend. Is when somebody tells you, Hey, I'm taking this amazing class. I found this amazing instructor. Do you want to come with me? It's one of the best marketing tools we have.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Perlman: Zumba Lost $500K in Committed Funding After 9/11
“We had raised about half a million dollars, but we hadn't gotten the wire transfers yet. And then September 11 happened and everybody backed out and said, everyone pulled out.”
Disclosure
Perlman: Zumba licensed early video rights due to lack of capital
“We licensed. We licensed. Because we didn't have money to do it ourselves, right? And we didn't know how to do it, frankly. They knew how to do it.”
