Many entrepreneurs believe they must choose between following their passion and building a successful career. Payal Kadakia Pujji built her life proving otherwise. As the founder of ClassPass, she turned a personal frustration into a billion-dollar company that transformed the fitness industry while remaining deeply committed to her lifelong passion for dance. Her story is one of identity, persistence, and the courage to build a business around what you genuinely love.
Key Takeaways
- Some of the best startup ideas emerge from personal frustrations experienced firsthand.
- Passion and entrepreneurship do not have to be competing priorities.
- Successful founders often pivot their original ideas before finding product-market fit.
- Cultural identity can become a source of entrepreneurial strength rather than limitation.
- Long-term success often comes from building communities, not just products.
A Founder Who Refused to Compartmentalize Her Life
Growing up in New Jersey as the daughter of Indian immigrants, Payal Kadakia Pujji excelled in academics while nurturing another equally important part of her identity: dance.
She began studying Indian classical and folk dance at the age of three, and what started as an extracurricular activity soon became a lifelong passion. Dance provided discipline, creative expression, and a strong connection to her cultural roots.
Like many children of immigrant families, Kadakia was encouraged to pursue educational and professional excellence. She embraced those expectations, eventually earning admission to MIT, one of the world’s most respected institutions.
Yet even as she excelled academically, she never viewed dance as merely a hobby.
That distinction would eventually shape her entrepreneurial future.
Throughout her life, she resisted the notion that people must separate their creative passions from their professional ambitions. Instead, she believed both could coexist – and that belief would ultimately lead to one of the most influential fitness startups of the past decade.
MIT, Consulting, and an Unexpected Problem
At MIT, Kadakia studied Operations Research and Economics while continuing to pursue dance at a serious level.
She even founded MIT Chamak, the university’s first Indian dance company, demonstrating an entrepreneurial mindset long before she launched a startup.
After graduation, she joined Bain & Company, where she spent several years developing analytical and business skills. The consulting experience exposed her to strategic thinking, problem-solving frameworks, and operational discipline.
Later, she moved to Warner Music Group, where she worked in digital strategy and business development.
From the outside, her career appeared successful and conventional.
Internally, however, she felt something was missing.
Dance remained a central part of her life, but finding and booking classes in New York City often proved frustrating. Information was fragmented, schedules were difficult to navigate, and discovering new studios required significant effort.
One evening, after unsuccessfully trying to book a dance class, she experienced the realization that would eventually change her life.
If finding classes was difficult for someone deeply committed to dance, how many others were experiencing the same problem?
The question lingered. Unlike many fleeting frustrations, this one refused to disappear.
Building the First Version: When Good Ideas Need Better Models
Like many founder journeys, Kadakia’s path to success was not linear.
Her original company was called Classtivity, a platform designed to help users discover and book fitness classes. While the concept addressed a genuine problem, the initial business model struggled to gain meaningful traction.
Many entrepreneurs encounter this moment.
The problem is real. The market exists. Customers express interest. Yet growth remains elusive.
Instead of abandoning the idea, Kadakia and her team analyzed user behavior, studied marketplace dynamics, and searched for a better approach.
The result was a major pivot.
Rather than charging customers for individual bookings, the company introduced a subscription model that allowed users to access multiple fitness studios through a single membership.
This evolution became ClassPass.
The new model aligned incentives more effectively for both customers and fitness providers. Consumers gained flexibility and variety, while studios gained exposure to new audiences and improved capacity utilization.
What had previously been a struggling startup suddenly began to gain momentum.
Building a Fitness Unicorn
The timing proved remarkable.
As boutique fitness exploded across major cities, ClassPass positioned itself as a discovery and access platform connecting consumers with thousands of studios and wellness experiences.
The company expanded rapidly across cities, countries, and categories.
What began with fitness classes eventually evolved into a broader wellness marketplace that included yoga, strength training, cycling, meditation, beauty services, and wellness experiences.
ClassPass solved multiple problems simultaneously:
- Consumers gained flexibility.
- Studios acquired customers.
- Instructors gained visibility.
- Wellness providers improved utilization.
This ecosystem approach helped fuel significant growth.
By 2020, ClassPass achieved unicorn status with a valuation exceeding $1 billion, making it one of the first unicorn milestones of the new decade.
The achievement was particularly notable because Kadakia built the company in an industry that many investors initially viewed as niche or difficult to scale.
She demonstrated that a strong marketplace model, combined with consumer behavioral insights, could transform a fragmented industry.
In 2021, ClassPass was acquired by Mindbody, marking another major milestone in the company’s evolution.
Strategic Move: Stepping Down Without Stepping Away
One of the most interesting decisions in Kadakia’s journey came in 2017 when she stepped down as CEO of ClassPass.
For many founders, relinquishing the CEO title is viewed as failure or defeat.
Kadakia approached it differently.
She recognized that leadership evolves as companies scale and that organizational needs change over time. Rather than clinging to a position, she focused on where she could create the greatest impact.
She transitioned into the role of Executive Chairman while remaining deeply involved with the company’s mission and long-term vision.
The move reflected a level of self-awareness that many founders struggle to achieve.
It also reinforced an important entrepreneurial lesson: building a successful company is not always about holding a specific title. Sometimes it means empowering others to lead while continuing to contribute in new ways.
Beyond ClassPass: Building a Life Around Purpose
Unlike many founders whose identities become inseparable from a single company, Kadakia continued pursuing multiple passions.
Years before ClassPass became a unicorn, she founded The Sa Dance Company, a contemporary Indian dance company dedicated to bringing Indian dance traditions to broader audiences.
As Artistic Director, she has continued performing, producing shows, and exploring themes related to culture, identity, and belonging.
This commitment to dance was never separate from her entrepreneurial journey.
In many ways, dance informed her leadership style. Both disciplines require creativity, repetition, resilience, collaboration, and the willingness to perform under pressure.
Kadakia frequently speaks about how lessons learned in dance translated directly into startup building.
She also expanded her influence through writing and public speaking, publishing the book LifePass, which encourages readers to define success according to their own values rather than external expectations.
Founder Identity: The Rise of the “Dancetrepreneur”
Few founders have built a personal brand as distinctive as Payal Kadakia Pujji.
She often describes herself as a “dancetrepreneur” – a term that captures the unusual combination of artist and entrepreneur that defines her career.
The label is more than clever branding. It represents a philosophy.
Many professionals compartmentalize their lives, separating personal interests from business ambitions. Kadakia chose integration instead.
Rather than suppressing her artistic identity to appear more corporate, she embraced it; rather than viewing culture as a distraction from entrepreneurship, she treated it as a source of inspiration.
This authenticity helped her connect with employees, customers, founders, and audiences around the world.
Her story also resonates with many first- and second-generation immigrant entrepreneurs who navigate multiple identities while pursuing ambitious goals.
By refusing to choose between different parts of herself, Kadakia created a career that feels uniquely her own.
You Don’t Have to Choose
The story of Payal Kadakia Pujji challenges one of the most persistent myths in entrepreneurship.
Many people believe success requires sacrificing passions, interests, or parts of their identity in pursuit of business goals.
Kadakia’s journey suggests the opposite.
The very passion that outsiders might have viewed as a distraction from her career ultimately became the inspiration for her most successful company.
By combining analytical rigor, entrepreneurial resilience, and creative authenticity, she built a business that transformed an industry while remaining true to herself.
For founders, the lesson is powerful: sometimes your greatest competitive advantage isn’t something you acquire. It’s something you’ve loved all along.
FAQs
Who is Payal Kadakia Pujji?
Payal Kadakia Pujji is the founder of ClassPass, entrepreneur, author, speaker, and dancer. She is widely recognized for building one of the fitness industry’s most successful marketplace companies while maintaining a professional career in dance.
What is ClassPass?
ClassPass is a subscription-based fitness and wellness platform that allows members to access classes, studios, and wellness experiences through a single membership. The company helped popularize flexible access to boutique fitness services worldwide.
Why is Payal Kadakia Pujji considered an influential founder?
She successfully transformed a personal frustration into a billion-dollar company while pioneering a new category in fitness and wellness. Her story is also notable for blending entrepreneurship, creativity, and cultural identity in a highly authentic way.
What happened before ClassPass became successful?
The company originally launched as Classtivity, which struggled to achieve strong traction with its initial model. After a significant pivot to a subscription-based approach, the business found product-market fit and accelerated its growth.
What can founders learn from Payal Kadakia Pujji?
Founders can learn the importance of solving problems they understand deeply, embracing pivots when necessary, and building businesses that align with their authentic interests and values. Her journey also demonstrates that passion and entrepreneurship can strengthen each other rather than compete for attention.
Sources:
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ClassPass
- https://www.payalkadakia.com/
- https://trailblazers.substack.com/p/classpass-founder-payal-kadakia
- https://dancemagazine.com/payal-kadakia/
- https://medium.com/@distillerytech/classpass-and-payal-kadakia-a-pivot-isnt-just-a-dance-move-69078bf337f2
- https://www.forbes.com/sites/yolarobert1/2020/01/08/classpass-becomes-the-first-new-unicorn-of-the-decade/
- https://www.linkedin.com/posts/justine-juillard_femalefounder-activity-7394067653193195520-WuaR
- https://www.cnbc.com/video/2021/10/14/mindbody-classpass-ceos-on-acquisition-and-post-covid-fitness-outlook.html
