How This Small Business Hit $1 Million in Revenue With a Simple Service: Kids' Gym Class

He thought his kids' schools didn't have effective resources for teaching PE online--in fact, those resources didn't seem to exist at all. Instead, the schools had a patchwork of YouTube videos and online curricula, but nothing like the online resources that had been developed for academic subjects.

Titus, who was working in finance at the time, spotted an opportunity and in 2020, along with a group of friends and fellow parents, began dreaming up Hiveclass, a company that would provide high-quality sports and PE education over video.

He had a natural co-founder in Paul Suhr, a childhood pal who had a long career in ed tech and is now Hiveclass's chief product officer. Rounding out the launch team was Lisa Ezekiel, a PE teacher and Hiveclass's curriculum lead.

PE is one of the most skipped classes in schools, says Titus, the company's CEO. That's a major problem in New York City, where Hiveclass is based, because passing PE is a graduation requirement for public schools. "Physical education looks and feels like it did in the 1970s--it may actually be actually worse," says Titus. "You see that in childhood obesity rates."

Early on, Hiveclass's founders realized that they should target school districts, homeschool networks, and library systems, rather than selling subscriptions to individual parents, reasoning the cost of acquisition would be too high. A major selling point for Hiveclass is that it allows students to recover PE credits and schools to expand their offerings.

The online platform officially launched in 2022, and today the video library includes more than 2,000 videos in English and Spanish, ranging from traditional team sports to yoga, strength training, and self-defense. 

Early indicators suggest it's a home run: The company reports that 97 percent of clients renew after the first year. In March 2024, less than two years after its launch, the company hit $1 million in lifetime revenue. Titus wants to reach $100 million in revenue by 2030. Earlier this year, the company signed a deal with the Department of Defense to offer its platform at more than 800 military bases.

Traditional marketing methods like ads and social media were unlikely to be effective in reaching people who make purchasing decisions for school districts. Instead, the Hiveclass team, which has just 11 full-time employees, has attended more than 40 conferences and offers professional development webinars that showcase the company's products.

Hiveclass raised a seed round of about $1.3 million in 2022, and is only now exploring taking on more outside funding. "Sustainability isn't something that a lot of companies are focused on," says Titus. "We wanted our business to be not solely reliant on venture capital funding."

For other companies that are just beginning to raise funds or take their product to market, Titus says to "speak from the heart." "Growing up with immigrant parents who didn't really understand the culture of youth sports in America, I learned so much in physical education," he says. "I just felt that all kids should have access to great quality instruction."