This video features a fascinating conversation with Eric Min, CEO and co-founder of Zwift. He shares the journey of growing Zwift into one of the most successful fitness and metaverse platforms, covering everything from early fundraising and the importance of community to his vision for the future. In particular, the discussion dives deep into Zwift's impact on the fitness industry, the role of partnerships, and the ambitious goal of making Zwift an Olympic sport. Come experience the world of Zwift, where technology, gaming, and fitness combine to revolutionize how we work out!
1. A First Encounter with Cycling 🚴♂️
Eric Min started cycling at age 14 after watching a friend go on a bike trip. Before he had a driver's license, the bicycle was an exciting way to explore new places. At first he insisted on getting the same oversized bike as his friend, but over time he found one that suited him.
Going beyond just riding around, he joined the Sleepy Hollow Cycling Club near New York and began developing a deep passion for the sport. There, three brothers taught him about racing, training, and the world of European cycling — introducing him to legendary riders like Greg LeMond. In 1981, without the internet, he'd wait for magazines and analyze races, and from that point on he was hooked on competitive cycling.
After achieving good results in junior races, he dreamed for a time of becoming a professional cyclist. But after testing at the Olympic Training Center, he faced the reality that he wasn't quite good enough to go pro.
"Wow, I'm not good enough to be a serious professional."
From that moment he resolved to find another career, partly to ease his parents' worries about his future. Even so, the deep passion and experience with cycling he had built from childhood would later become the essential foundation for creating Zwift.
2. Developing an Entrepreneurial Spirit 💼
After setting aside his dream of a cycling career, Eric Min began his professional life at JP Morgan. Over eight years in financial technology he gained extensive training and experience, and he became fascinated by technology during the internet boom era. Watching his boss, he realized that path wasn't what he wanted, and at the young age of 28 he decided to start a company.
"Do I want to become like my boss? I didn't want to take on his responsibilities."
Judging that he had no kids, no mortgage — nothing to lose — he teamed up with a JP Morgan colleague to found Sakana Technology, his first company. It was a technology firm that built trading systems for hedge funds, banks, and insurance companies. Through this experience, he learned everything an entrepreneur needs: writing a business plan, raising capital, and building a team.
Sakana Technology raised an initial $600,000 from friends and family and grew to a total of $2.5–3 million, developing into a successful business. By making the company profitable and returning money to investors, Eric earned credibility as an entrepreneur — a springboard, he says, for starting his next venture.
"Taking money from investors, demonstrating execution, and turning it into a profitable business — that's how you earn credibility as an entrepreneur."
3. The Birth of the Zwift Idea 💡
After successfully running Sakana Technology, Eric began thinking about his next business idea. Having run his own company for over a decade, he had grown accustomed to being his own boss and felt he could no longer go back to being someone else's employee. While exploring various industries, a personal problem he encountered after moving to London gave him the idea for Zwift.
In Manhattan, he could easily train in Central Park and socialize with other riders, but in London the nearest park was 30 minutes away, the weather was poor, and he was simply too busy. He thought that if he could recreate — even at 80% fidelity — the convenience, social connection, competition, and training experience he had enjoyed in New York, in a virtual space, millions of people would want that service.
Because social networks and games already existed at the time, he believed it was feasible to deliver those experiences in a virtual world. He pitched the idea to his partner Alaric, who had no interest in fitness but was drawn to the mission of inspiring people to live active and healthy lives, and so joined to co-found Zwift. That is how the idea for Zwift was born — built around social experience and community in a virtual world as its core.
4. Early Fundraising and Launch Strategy for Zwift 🚀
Because Zwift had a grand vision from the very beginning, it required substantial capital, people, and content. Fortunately, one of the co-founders, Jon Mayfield, had already been building an indoor training game to solve his own personal problem. Eric saw in that game the potential for something far more sophisticated, but above all he believed social experience was the key.
Eric and his partner self-funded the initial capital from money they had made in their previous business. This meant they were able to develop the product and build a small team of fewer than ten people before having anything to show potential investors six or seven months in. If they had started fundraising with only a concept, he says, they would have given up far more equity.
In the summer of 2014, Eric gathered investors at a party celebrating the success of his previous venture and pitched his new idea: Zwift. Since they had already seen returns of 7–8x on their earlier investment, they were willing to invest in Zwift again. Believing in the scale of the business, Eric set a pre-money valuation of $20 million — his colleagues thought he was crazy — but he ultimately succeeded in raising $7 million, far exceeding the $3 million target.
"I told my partners, 'I'm going to set the pre-money valuation at $20 million, because I think it's a huge idea.' They all thought I was on drugs."
Zwift launched in late September 2014, hosting simultaneous launch parties in London, New York, and San Francisco alongside notable brands including Rapha, Team Sky, Pinarello, Wahoo, and Elite. It was a large-scale event where all the media gathered in one place to ride together. With a PR firm hired from the start to generate significant press coverage, Zwift attracted enormous interest — 30,000 people signed up for the closed beta.
5. Early Growth Strategy and Product Evolution 📈
Zwift's early growth was built on several smart strategies. One of them was the Strava integration. The first map, "Jarvis Island," was a small airstrip in the South Pacific, last used during the World Cup. The reason it was chosen: Strava had no segments there. When people started posting their Zwift rides to Strava, their friends began asking, "Why are you in the South Pacific?" — sparking curiosity about Zwift. This acted as a powerful word-of-mouth engine and an early growth hack.
"How did people find out about Zwift? Because their Strava feed said, 'Why are you in the South Pacific?' That was word-of-mouth. It was a bit of a growth hack early on."
Eric also recalls that limiting the map size to 3 miles (5 km) was a wise decision. When user numbers are low, a map that is too large means people cannot see each other, making it hard to form a sense of community. Encountering a diverse mix of people from around the world on a small map added to Zwift's appeal.
In its early days, Zwift had very limited features. There were just three jerseys — for King of the Mountain, fastest sprint, and fastest lap time — and each jersey lasted only one hour. People competed enthusiastically to win those jerseys. Events, racing, training plans — none of the features that exist today were present, but the jersey chase alone was enough to motivate people. Eric recalls being so moved when he saw 100 people riding simultaneously that he threw a celebration party in New York.
Launching in time for the winter season, Zwift grew rapidly alongside the explosive growth of the indoor cycling market. This was thanks to a complementary relationship with hardware companies like Wahoo and Tacx. The standardization of connectivity protocols between software and hardware also made it an optimal time for a platform like Zwift to flourish.
Many people assumed Zwift would remain a niche product, but Eric was convinced that the cycling market itself was very large and would continue to grow. Zwift focused on leveraging partnerships for mutual benefit, and on delivering value to customers by integrating with other platforms like Strava and Garmin Connect.
6. Product Evolution and Customer Experience Optimization 🛠️
In the process of evolving the product, Eric admits that Zwift overflowed with ideas in the early days but tried to do too many things at once. Now, he says, the focus is on doing fewer things, but bigger. He considers simplifying the onboarding process — making it easy for customers to get started with Zwift — the single most important priority.
In particular, early on, users had to research and purchase compatible hardware themselves before they could use Zwift — a friction point that slowed growth. This eventually led Zwift to enter the hardware business directly. The goal was to help customers start with Zwift more easily and affordably, and to ensure they had the best possible experience on their very first ride.
"Consumers are very lazy. If they have to click three times, they might not buy it. You need to remove those clicks."
For example, Eric emphasizes the importance of eliminating friction such as having to visit a bike shop because the cassette on your smart trainer isn't compatible with your bike. This isn't a problem for competitive athletes, but it can be a real barrier to entry for the general public.
Zwift sees enabling customers to create their own content as its next growth driver. Just as the club feature lets riders create events or custom kits, the goal is to strengthen Zwift's role as a platform that customers can shape however they want. Many brands also want to collaborate with Zwift, but Zwift's resources are currently limited — so providing tools that allow brands to leverage the Zwift platform on a self-service basis is another important objective.
7. Attracting Elite Athletes and Building the Team 🌟
Zwift's word-of-mouth grew even stronger as more prominent athletes began to participate. Eric notes that professional cyclists enjoy using Zwift to train without riding in the rain, or to maintain fitness while recovering from injury. During COVID-19 lockdowns in particular, Zwift gained widespread recognition as an effective training tool and attracted large numbers of pro athletes.
"Even the professionals really enjoy riding on Zwift without getting wet."
Zwift offers pro riders free accounts, but Eric emphasizes that the real reason they participate is training and the social experience of riding with others. In what can be a lonely training environment, Zwift provided an excellent opportunity to connect with other people. Beyond cyclists, riders on Zwift include Formula 1 drivers, MotoGP riders, and athletes from a wide range of sports.
On the subject of team building, Eric says that because startups are so hard, you need to work with people you genuinely want to work with. For co-founders in particular, he stresses the importance of clear role division and a shared vision. As the company grows, he advises hiring people with different skill sets suited to each stage. For example, early on you need people who can do everything themselves; in later stages you need leaders with experience running large-scale operations.
"Accept that you need a different team at each stage of your journey and your company's growth. And mix them."
He also stresses that you should never be afraid to hire people who are more capable than you. He says this is essential for growing the business and raising the bar for talent, culture, and execution.
8. Super League Triathlon and the Olympic Dream 🏊♀️🚴♂️🏃♂️
Eric Min has extremely high hopes for the partnership with Super League Triathlon. The Arena Games, held a few years before 2025, were a massive success — selling out all 2,000 tickets. Triathlon is normally a sport that is difficult for spectators to watch in person, but the Arena Games brought all three disciplines inside a swimming venue, making the entire event visible at once — a genuine innovation.
This new competition format has attracted significant interest from the International Olympic Committee (IOC), and Eric is convinced it could become an Olympic sport. The ability to bring all athletes together in one place, show virtual swimming, cycling, and running, and still allow fans to cheer live in the venue is a major advantage. While there is room to improve broadcast quality, providing viewers with rich real-time data — athletes' power output, speed, heart rate — is deeply compelling. Eric even suggests adding meta-data like a fuel-tank indicator to further boost viewer engagement.
Athletes can see their own position and competitors' performance data in real time as they race virtually, giving them far more information than in a traditional race — with the potential to change the nature of competition itself. The Super League Triathlon's Arena Games and the UCI Cycling Esports World Championships are already recognized as official world championship events.
Eric believes the 2024 Paris Olympics were too soon, but sees a real possibility that these formats could be added as new sports at the 2028 LA Olympics. Zwift has a vision of contributing to the Olympics in the field of hybrid sports that combine digital and real-world athletes. The IOC is viewed as more receptive to digital sports like Zwift — which demand genuine physical effort — than to traditional esports such as shooting games.
9. Zwift's Future Vision 🚀
Eric Min says Zwift will continue to focus on optimizing the customer experience going forward. The priorities are adding more gamification elements within the game, providing tools for users to create their own content, and doubling down on support for community building.
He emphasizes that Zwift has been realizing the metaverse since its very first days. People log into Zwift — their metaverse — for an hour every day to exercise, carrying their own identity and socializing with friends. When the session ends, they return to the real world.
"We've been living in the metaverse since we started. Every day, or near enough, people carve out an hour and step into the Zwift metaverse to do their fitness."
Eric expects the metaverse of the future to take a similar shape — places people dip in and out of for various experiences. Zwift actively embraces the concepts of virtual worlds and the metaverse, and as a category leader, its goal is to inspire non-cyclists and non-runners to join the Zwift community and discover new sports.
Closing 👋
Eric Min's story shows how personal passion can lead to an innovative business idea, and how a strong entrepreneurial mindset, strategic partnerships, and a relentless drive to improve the customer experience can turn that idea into a global platform. Zwift has moved far beyond simply being a place to work out — it provides the joy of social connection and competition in a virtual world, broadening the horizons of the fitness industry. As fitness and technology continue to converge in the metaverse era to transform our lives, it will be exciting to see what Zwift does next! ✨