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If Peloton approached me to fix their story, here's what I'd do:
First, I'd have to tell them we can't tell this story.
It's just bad. We have to change the narrative—I mean cut it down to the core and start over—before we focus on telling it.
And I'd do that through real community.
The current situation:
- Peloton rode high in 2020 with a $4B in annual revenue, stock peaking and a market cap of $50B
- Heavily benefited from folks being forced to workout at home
- The world re-opened for business
- Peloton refocused on being a hardware company with a closed loop tech platform
They’d already built a solid platform for a storytelling empire.
Then they abandoned the plot.
Since then:
- Revenue down 13% YoY Q3 2025
- Connected fitness subscriptions down 6%
- Net losses: $47.7M in Q3 2025
- $1B refinancing to stay alive
- 3 CEOs in 3 years
So what's the play to create growth?
Peloton needs to stop trying to be a cable network, and start being Kajabi meets Skool: A platform where ANY great trainer can build a program and a community while earning a slice of the pie.
I don't like making plans without doing in-depth research, but with what I can see from the outside looking in, here would be my 4 part plan to help Peloton shift gears:
1) Turn the influencer bottleneck into a growth engine
Peloton’s in-house coaches are great and have become mini-celebrities themselves but they're no longer growth engines. They’re internal influencers, preaching to a congregation who's already bought in.
Peloton needs to open the ecosystem. I'd do that by:
- Creating a MasterClass-like ecosystem where creators can create courses and customers can subscribe / buy the classes
- Pay creators through a strong rev share in this ecosystem
- Create an internal team to help grease the tracks
This instantly unlocks:
- New hardware customers
- New users without new ad spend by tapping into existing audiences
- Niche groups Peloton isn’t serving today
- A long tail of content / community gains
2. Build real community mechanics
Likes and leaderboards aren’t enough. If Peloton wants to cut churn, they need:
- Creator follow systems
- Public/private empowerment groups
- Messaging and feedback loops
- Creator-led challenges with real-world rewards
- A Patreon-like system for supporting / tipping creators in the ecosystem
When your users find each other, they stick around because they are with their tribe. And when your creators see multiple paths to monetization, they advocate for their community to find them on your platform.
3. Diversify the revenue model
This play gives us more margin to play with and more ability to incentivize our creator partners, and we can shift to performance-based marketing vs. outright sponsorships (which is what it seems like Peloton is doing currently). Peloton is currently trapped with a model that has seemingly low margin on its bikes (they heavily discount bikes regularly, which is diluting the true value of the product due to the poor pricing control—consumers know they can just wait to buy that expensive bike).
Subscriptions and courses are high margin, which is what the company needs.
4. Tell the new story: Peloton's an empowerment platform, not a product. We help you "find your movement."
The new narrative isn't about bikes or metrics. It's about building something bigger than hardware, and being a part of a tribe.
Peloton becomes the place where:
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Customers can connect with people like themselves
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Creators build movements
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Best minds in fitness build communities, earn a living
The story shifts from “buy OUR bike” or "watch OUR courses" to "find YOUR movement."
(OK, I just gotta say, "find your movement" is excellent copy here. Yes, I'll brag on myself. I kinda love it.)
In this new world, it's not just workouts.
It’s culture. Connection. Coaches you follow not just for fitness, but for identity.
Peloton needs to remove itself as the hero of the story and should be the stage where the heroes perform.
Audit Your Brand's Story
You dig this kind of thinking, don't you? You did, it's why you're still reading. Prologue audits brand's stories, which helps you in a number of ways:
- Analyze competition's messaging / positioning
- Find the competitive "white noise" which gives clarity for "white space" across message and voice
- Audit your brand's messaging against the white space opportunity
- Provide itemized list of improvements to help your brand resonate with customers better
These audits can be completed fairly quickly. If you're interested, reach out.
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