June 5, 2025 • 9 mins
Bloomberg's Mark Gurman interviews Peloton CEO Peter Stern at the Bloomberg Tech event in San Francisco.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news, the Bloomberg Tech Summit
in San Francisco. We have something specially on stage right now.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Yeah, let's head on over to the main stage because
we've got Peter Stern, the president and CEO of Peloton
Interactive in conversations happening right now.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
It's with Bloomberg Technology s Marketermount.
Speaker 3 (00:20):
A typical day for me is like this morning, getting
up and doing a little bit of cardio, ran to
the gym actually, and then did also some strength training,
and then I'm mostly spending my time working on those
twenty five initiatives with our team members, trying to find
how we can serve our members better.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
And you know, if I.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Can spend my time on that kind of substance.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
That's a really great day.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
What are the top three of your twenty five?
Speaker 3 (00:44):
So I'm not going to announce all of the you know,
all of the details of these sorts of things, but
then I'll tell you a little bit about the top one,
and that is that we have reignited the innovation engine
for us as a company, and so focusing on the
products and the experiences that we're going to offer over
the next few months is absolutely my number one. Another
(01:07):
one that I think is really important that we're focused
on is how we use AI to deliver personal experiences
for our members. That is another one I'm spending an
enormous amount of time on, so huge priority for us.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Talk to us a little bit more about that about
AI and what does the future fitness look like with
AI at its core.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
So every member is different.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
They all have different intents for why they choose to
become a member of Peloton. That can change over time.
So we need to not just get to know you,
but we need to evolve along with you. Every member
is different in terms of their baseline level of fitness,
their level of commitment, their level of confidence, and so
(01:54):
one of the things that I really value is the
human coaching that are amazing instructors.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Provide at Peloton.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
But I want to find ways to scale them by
creating individualized programs for each of our members so that
they can get the right class from the right instructor
that's personalized for them. A really simple example of how
we're doing it right now is that we do something
called power zones on bike, or we do paste targets
on tread where we actually set individualized speeds or levels
(02:26):
of effort for each of our members. But then we've
introduced a new set of features called personalized plans, and
we've had at this point over six hundred thousand of
our members have started a personalized plan, and the system
basically understands your goals and then builds a plan out
for you, and we deliver real results with these sorts
(02:47):
of things. So just to give you an example of
how this stuff really does make a difference.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
For example, when one of our members buys a treadmill, within.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
The first four weeks of using the treadmill, we're on
average reducing their mild time by thirty seconds. So we
can make real differences in somebody's conditioning and that translates
not just into more confidence and better performance as an athlete,
it translates into a longer life.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
What about data.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
Collections, you can get some more information about the user
and then use AI to optimize their workouts. Do you
need a wearable, do you need a new heart rate strap?
Do you need more sensors on the treads and bikes themselves.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
Yeah, we're very lucky in this regard in that our
members are doing a lot of that hard work for us.
So we have a great partnership with Google Fitbit. For example,
we have done integration with Garman smart watches because a
lot of top athletes choose that, And we also are
(03:47):
working with the Apple Health app to make sure that
we can import data from there.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
A very large fraction of our members have.
Speaker 3 (03:53):
An Apple Watch, and that Apple Health app basically can
act for many members as basically a Rosetta stone for us,
allowing us to get access to the data that we
need with the permission of the member. Once we have
that data, now we can use the third party information
that our members are providing us. But we have such
(04:14):
rich first party information on our members as well, based
on the workouts that they're doing on our machines and
how much they're pushing themselves. If they have a watch,
we can look at their heart rate and we can
impute then how much effort they're expending. And if they
don't have a watch, we can basically compare them with
members who do have one, and so we can basically
(04:36):
determine how hard you're working, and we can, for example,
calculate things like a cardio fitness score.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
So I'm really excited about how we'll be able to
use data.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
To deliver ever more personalized experiences for our members.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
So you said you did a workout this morning. Obviously
pelotons based in New York, so you're here probably stayed
in a hotel. How important is the hotel business in
the gym business to Peloton under Peter Stern in compare
it to the someone buys one for their home business.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
So the nice thing about this is these are not
either or situations. I think it might have been perceived
that way in the past, but it's absolutely not. Let's
take travelers in hotels as an example. If you're the
type of person who is in a hotel, then you're
a person who is investing in yourself. You have some
(05:27):
ability to pay for a service, and you're going to
a hotel gym. You are really committed to taking care
of yourself. That is a situation where we should have
Peloton equipment everywhere. I'm really happy with the partnerships we
have right now with Hilton and with Hyatt, where we
have peloton equipment in most of their gyms. I do
(05:47):
think in hotel gyms, basically, peloton equipment should be a
must have amenity. It's the sort of thing where you
shouldn't even choose. You wouldn't even want to stay in
the hotel if it doesn't have the Peloton equipment that
you count on having at home. And then that's a
great way for us to meet new members because you know,
some people might not have had a chance to try
our equipment out, but while you're traveling at a hotel
(06:08):
gym where you've got a little time on your hands,
that's a great way to do it.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
Now, with regard to.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
Commercial gyms, there's also tremendous opportunities there. We have a
number of pilots taking place with all sorts of gyms,
including the y so we can try to make Peloton
equipment as accessible as possible. But one of the things
that I'm really excited about, and this is, you know,
this is not something that.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
We've we've really talked about publicly before.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
Not a lot of people know that we own pre
corep which is one of the leading providers of equipment
to gyms everywhere.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
We are bringing pre Corp in.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
To basically be the lead partner in a commercial operating
division for Peloton, and the pre Core business has the
skills to be able to install and service equipment.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
To the exacting standards of gym operators who have very
heavy duty cycle.
Speaker 3 (07:01):
On that type of equipment, and so we're gonna be
able to bring Peloton equipment into more gyms with the
capabilities of pre Core. At the same time, we're now
bringing Peloton workouts onto pre Core equipment, which will really
differentiate that pre Core equipment in the minds of gym
operators and hopefully open up even more new audiences for them.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
So, you know, I would basically say this.
Speaker 3 (07:25):
Is a long overdue post merger integration that we're doing
with pre Core and making it the foundation for our
commercial business.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
How do most people buy a Peloton right? Are they
subscribing to it with your rental program, are they doing installments?
Speaker 1 (07:38):
Are they buying it out right?
Speaker 2 (07:39):
And then earlier this week you launched a new program
sort of a resale website, like a Craigslist for Peloton.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
I guess you can call it. Talk to us about that, I.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
Would say, Actually, so the two largest channels are people
buying a Peloton equipment from our website. You go to
one Peloton dot com and it's all there, and it's
a really great way to buy it.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
But one of them.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
Ourgest ways for us to acquire new members is in
the secondhand market.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
So you raised mark.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
This announcement that we had a couple days ago about
something called Repowered, and the idea here is that there
are lots of Peloton bikes in particular that are out
there in the world that are being underutilized and that
does no one any good. I'd love for people to
get back on the bike. It's the right thing for them.
Certainly it's great for us as a company. But if
you're not going to use a Peloton bike, we want
(08:28):
to make it really easy for you to get that
into the hands of someone who.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
Will love it. And historically that's taken.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
Place, for example, on Facebook marketplace, and that's absolutely fine
for people who want.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
To do that, but it means that you.
Speaker 3 (08:39):
Need to transact with a stranger on both ends and
potentially have the stranger come into your home. And so
what we're trying to do is streamline that and deliver
a more premium experience for those secondhand customers.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
What this does is.
Speaker 3 (08:53):
It allows us to get our bikes that are built
to last into the hands of people who will love
it at a price. It's a fraction of a new bike,
and there's no capital.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
Expenditure for us as a company.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
There's no environmental impact associated with producing those bikes because
they're already out there in the world, and so it's
a great way to help somebody get fit.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
And you know, grow our business.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
Last question for you, Peloton standalone business for years to come?
Is it potentially an acquisition target for a larger company.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
What do you see as the You know, I was
not hired to sell this company.
Speaker 3 (09:31):
I was hired to bring this company back to growth,
to reinvigorate it, and it is happening.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
So there is we are. We are a standalone company
for years to come. Great.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
Thank you, Peter Stern, thanks for having me Mark.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
All right, everyone, you've been listening to a live conversation
between our Mark German and of course Peter Stern, who
is the president and CEO of a Peloton Interactive
Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news, the Bloomberg Tech Summit
in San Francisco. We have something specially on stage right now.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Yeah, let's head on over to the main stage because
we've got Peter Stern, the president and CEO of Peloton
Interactive in conversations happening right now.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
It's with Bloomberg Technology s Marketermount.
Speaker 3 (00:20):
A typical day for me is like this morning, getting
up and doing a little bit of cardio, ran to
the gym actually, and then did also some strength training,
and then I'm mostly spending my time working on those
twenty five initiatives with our team members, trying to find
how we can serve our members better.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
And you know, if I.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Can spend my time on that kind of substance.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
That's a really great day.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
What are the top three of your twenty five?
Speaker 3 (00:44):
So I'm not going to announce all of the you know,
all of the details of these sorts of things, but
then I'll tell you a little bit about the top one,
and that is that we have reignited the innovation engine
for us as a company, and so focusing on the
products and the experiences that we're going to offer over
the next few months is absolutely my number one. Another
(01:07):
one that I think is really important that we're focused
on is how we use AI to deliver personal experiences
for our members. That is another one I'm spending an
enormous amount of time on, so huge priority for us.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Talk to us a little bit more about that about
AI and what does the future fitness look like with
AI at its core.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
So every member is different.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
They all have different intents for why they choose to
become a member of Peloton. That can change over time.
So we need to not just get to know you,
but we need to evolve along with you. Every member
is different in terms of their baseline level of fitness,
their level of commitment, their level of confidence, and so
(01:54):
one of the things that I really value is the
human coaching that are amazing instructors.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Provide at Peloton.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
But I want to find ways to scale them by
creating individualized programs for each of our members so that
they can get the right class from the right instructor
that's personalized for them. A really simple example of how
we're doing it right now is that we do something
called power zones on bike, or we do paste targets
on tread where we actually set individualized speeds or levels
(02:26):
of effort for each of our members. But then we've
introduced a new set of features called personalized plans, and
we've had at this point over six hundred thousand of
our members have started a personalized plan, and the system
basically understands your goals and then builds a plan out
for you, and we deliver real results with these sorts
(02:47):
of things. So just to give you an example of
how this stuff really does make a difference.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
For example, when one of our members buys a treadmill, within.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
The first four weeks of using the treadmill, we're on
average reducing their mild time by thirty seconds. So we
can make real differences in somebody's conditioning and that translates
not just into more confidence and better performance as an athlete,
it translates into a longer life.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
What about data.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
Collections, you can get some more information about the user
and then use AI to optimize their workouts. Do you
need a wearable, do you need a new heart rate strap?
Do you need more sensors on the treads and bikes themselves.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
Yeah, we're very lucky in this regard in that our
members are doing a lot of that hard work for us.
So we have a great partnership with Google Fitbit. For example,
we have done integration with Garman smart watches because a
lot of top athletes choose that, And we also are
(03:47):
working with the Apple Health app to make sure that
we can import data from there.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
A very large fraction of our members have.
Speaker 3 (03:53):
An Apple Watch, and that Apple Health app basically can
act for many members as basically a Rosetta stone for us,
allowing us to get access to the data that we
need with the permission of the member. Once we have
that data, now we can use the third party information
that our members are providing us. But we have such
(04:14):
rich first party information on our members as well, based
on the workouts that they're doing on our machines and
how much they're pushing themselves. If they have a watch,
we can look at their heart rate and we can
impute then how much effort they're expending. And if they
don't have a watch, we can basically compare them with
members who do have one, and so we can basically
(04:36):
determine how hard you're working, and we can, for example,
calculate things like a cardio fitness score.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
So I'm really excited about how we'll be able to
use data.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
To deliver ever more personalized experiences for our members.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
So you said you did a workout this morning. Obviously
pelotons based in New York, so you're here probably stayed
in a hotel. How important is the hotel business in
the gym business to Peloton under Peter Stern in compare
it to the someone buys one for their home business.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
So the nice thing about this is these are not
either or situations. I think it might have been perceived
that way in the past, but it's absolutely not. Let's
take travelers in hotels as an example. If you're the
type of person who is in a hotel, then you're
a person who is investing in yourself. You have some
(05:27):
ability to pay for a service, and you're going to
a hotel gym. You are really committed to taking care
of yourself. That is a situation where we should have
Peloton equipment everywhere. I'm really happy with the partnerships we
have right now with Hilton and with Hyatt, where we
have peloton equipment in most of their gyms. I do
(05:47):
think in hotel gyms, basically, peloton equipment should be a
must have amenity. It's the sort of thing where you
shouldn't even choose. You wouldn't even want to stay in
the hotel if it doesn't have the Peloton equipment that
you count on having at home. And then that's a
great way for us to meet new members because you know,
some people might not have had a chance to try
our equipment out, but while you're traveling at a hotel
(06:08):
gym where you've got a little time on your hands,
that's a great way to do it.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
Now, with regard to.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
Commercial gyms, there's also tremendous opportunities there. We have a
number of pilots taking place with all sorts of gyms,
including the y so we can try to make Peloton
equipment as accessible as possible. But one of the things
that I'm really excited about, and this is, you know,
this is not something that.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
We've we've really talked about publicly before.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
Not a lot of people know that we own pre
corep which is one of the leading providers of equipment
to gyms everywhere.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
We are bringing pre Corp in.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
To basically be the lead partner in a commercial operating
division for Peloton, and the pre Core business has the
skills to be able to install and service equipment.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
To the exacting standards of gym operators who have very
heavy duty cycle.
Speaker 3 (07:01):
On that type of equipment, and so we're gonna be
able to bring Peloton equipment into more gyms with the
capabilities of pre Core. At the same time, we're now
bringing Peloton workouts onto pre Core equipment, which will really
differentiate that pre Core equipment in the minds of gym
operators and hopefully open up even more new audiences for them.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
So, you know, I would basically say this.
Speaker 3 (07:25):
Is a long overdue post merger integration that we're doing
with pre Core and making it the foundation for our
commercial business.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
How do most people buy a Peloton right? Are they
subscribing to it with your rental program, are they doing installments?
Speaker 1 (07:38):
Are they buying it out right?
Speaker 2 (07:39):
And then earlier this week you launched a new program
sort of a resale website, like a Craigslist for Peloton.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
I guess you can call it. Talk to us about that, I.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
Would say, Actually, so the two largest channels are people
buying a Peloton equipment from our website. You go to
one Peloton dot com and it's all there, and it's
a really great way to buy it.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
But one of them.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
Ourgest ways for us to acquire new members is in
the secondhand market.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
So you raised mark.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
This announcement that we had a couple days ago about
something called Repowered, and the idea here is that there
are lots of Peloton bikes in particular that are out
there in the world that are being underutilized and that
does no one any good. I'd love for people to
get back on the bike. It's the right thing for them.
Certainly it's great for us as a company. But if
you're not going to use a Peloton bike, we want
(08:28):
to make it really easy for you to get that
into the hands of someone who.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
Will love it. And historically that's taken.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
Place, for example, on Facebook marketplace, and that's absolutely fine
for people who want.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
To do that, but it means that you.
Speaker 3 (08:39):
Need to transact with a stranger on both ends and
potentially have the stranger come into your home. And so
what we're trying to do is streamline that and deliver
a more premium experience for those secondhand customers.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
What this does is.
Speaker 3 (08:53):
It allows us to get our bikes that are built
to last into the hands of people who will love
it at a price. It's a fraction of a new bike,
and there's no capital.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
Expenditure for us as a company.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
There's no environmental impact associated with producing those bikes because
they're already out there in the world, and so it's
a great way to help somebody get fit.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
And you know, grow our business.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
Last question for you, Peloton standalone business for years to come?
Is it potentially an acquisition target for a larger company.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
What do you see as the You know, I was
not hired to sell this company.
Speaker 3 (09:31):
I was hired to bring this company back to growth,
to reinvigorate it, and it is happening.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
So there is we are. We are a standalone company
for years to come. Great.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
Thank you, Peter Stern, thanks for having me Mark.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
All right, everyone, you've been listening to a live conversation
between our Mark German and of course Peter Stern, who
is the president and CEO of a Peloton Interactive
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