Gym and studio capital
that smooths the churn.

Gyms and fitness studios are one of the most interesting categories in small business finance. On paper, the model is almost subscription-grade — monthly ACH and card-on-file billing arriving on a predictable day, average revenue per member that can be tracked at the dollar level, and unit economics that look more like SaaS than retail. In practice, the model is haunted by two cycles that no spreadsheet can fully tame: the Q1 sign-up boom that inflates member counts on January 2nd and starts shedding by April, and the summer drop-off that wears the active book down to a trough every August before the September push rebuilds.

Traditional bank lending was not built for this rhythm. Banks want flat monthly revenue, two years of tax returns, and 20 percent down on a $9K treadmill as if it were optional decor. They don't read churn curves. They don't know how to underwrite a boutique studio whose 50 weekly classes drive most of the revenue, or a franchise gym whose royalty schedule affects the cash cycle. SBA loans take 45 to 90 days to close — long after the New Year promotion has launched without the equipment refresh you needed. Goliath was built for fitness operators who understand the rhythm of their own business and want a capital partner who reads it the same way.

What we fund inside a gym or fitness studio

Equipment refreshes — treadmills, ellipticals, bikes, rowers, strength racks, dumbbells, and accessories. Brand-name capital sources include Life Fitness, Precor, Matrix, Technogym, Cybex, Hammer Strength, Eleiko, and Rogue. Boutique-cardio platforms — Peloton commercial, MYX, and Stages — for studios building hybrid concepts. New-location build-outs and second-location expansion. Q1 marketing pushes when paid acquisition costs climb alongside conversion. Trainer and instructor hiring through the ramp window before they carry a full book. Franchise fee bridges and royalty smoothing for multi-unit operators. Studio renovations that reset the member experience and lift retention. Recovery and amenity additions — saunas, cold plunges, infrared, hydromassage — that lift average revenue per member. Summer churn working capital across the August trough.

What we don't ask for

We don't run hard credit pulls to quote. We don't ask for two years of tax returns. We don't require collateral on positions under $250K. We don't demand member-level retention reports from your management software. We underwrite from bank statements, time in business, processor and billing data, and the texture of how the studio runs.

Fitness underwriting at a generic lender misreads the cycle. The Q1 lift reads as inconsistent. The August trough reads as decline. The day-of-month billing concentration reads as risk because the deposits aren't spread evenly. Our underwriters read it as the healthy pattern it is. They look for monthly billing-day consistency, the ratio of recurring dues to ancillary revenue, processor health, and either a clean franchise reporting trail or independent operator metrics that show member acquisition cost and lifetime value tracking in healthy ranges.

We calibrate to your specific model. A 24/7 access gym with 1,200 members at $40 average dues gets a structure sized to the monthly billing run and the realized active rate. A boutique reformer pilates studio with 80 unlimited members at $250 monthly gets a different structure — higher unit economics, more sensitivity to instructor concentration and class fill rates. A CrossFit box gets a structure that reads the community-driven retention as the durability signal it is. A franchise gym gets a structure that accounts for royalty timing and franchisor reporting requirements.

Fitness segments we fund every week

Independent 24/7 access gyms from $400K to $5M annual revenue. Boutique studios — yoga, pilates (reformer and mat), barre, indoor cycling, hot yoga, and stretching. CrossFit boxes and functional fitness studios. Orangetheory, F45, Burn Boot Camp, and HIIT-format franchises. Pure Barre, Club Pilates, CycleBar, StretchLab, and the rest of the Xponential portfolio. Anytime Fitness, Snap Fitness, Planet Fitness, and Workout Anytime franchises. Boxing and combat-sport gyms. Personal training studios and small-group training concepts. Recovery studios layering cold plunge, sauna, and infrared. Multi-location fitness groups consolidating advances or building out the next unit.

Common fitness funding scenarios

A boutique studio wants to refresh its reformer fleet ahead of the January push and needs $120K for new Balanced Body or Stott reformers plus the marketing to refill the classes the old equipment was thinning out. We fund the refresh and the marketing in a single position; revenue lift covers the daily debit. A franchise gym signs an area-development agreement and needs $300K for the build-out of unit two. We fund the buildout, the equipment package, the opening marketing, and the first three months of payroll in one position. A summer slowdown lands the operator with a thin August and payroll on the 1st. We solve the gap inside a day. An aging cardio fleet starts failing during Q1 peak — three treadmills down in a week. We wire the replacement order before the next session.

The pattern is consistent. Fitness opportunity is bound to the calendar and the membership rhythm. The cost of missing the Q1 push or the September rebuild is bigger than the cost of capital. The gym and studio operators who scale through the next decade are the ones whose capital is ready when the billing day arrives.