When Isabel came to see me she had draft of a slide deck, a full-throated passion, and one big question: Could a community-driven modern health lounge work?
Her CV read like a tour through modern luxury. French skincare, Swiss FMCG, a stint at a venture-backed luxury marketplace in Tokyo—each move sharpened her sense of brand and scale. What grabbed her heart, though, was the consistent ritual of infrared sauna sessions she’d tried while traveling. The recovery benefits were great, but the spaces felt transactional. Everyone booked a slot, sweated alone, and bolted. “Surely other people want more than five quiet minutes scrolling on their phones,” she told me.
So a plan took shape in her mind: renovate a studio in Berlin or Copenhagen with six individual sauna pods, referral-only membership, and a small lounge where guests could cool down together over electrolyte mocktails. Price point? Forty to sixty euros per visit, right in the boutique-wellness range. Total capital required? Roughly €180K for pods, renovation, and a year of rent.
The only problem: this was cash she didn’t have. That's where I met her: full of confidence, passion, and a business model mapped out, she felt sure this was a solid startup and was looking for advice around next steps.
I laid it out plainly: investors don’t fund concepts, they fund evidence. Even with her top notch CV, this was never going to be a blitzscaling tech startup and capital has tightened up dramatically the past few years. So surveys and a clever pitch deck wouldn’t cut it anymore. Instead, she needed real-world validation: quick, cheap, and measurable.
I advised her to go to cafés near boutique gyms. Strike up conversations with the kind of people who treat wellness like a sacred hobby. Run a pop-up weekend by renting two portable infrared units; charge for 20-minute sessions and host a post-sweat hangout. Build a single-page site with tastefully curated AI-renders and a wait-list form. Each ticket sold or email captured turns a hunch into data.
Quick, cheap, and measurable. She jotted notes: “interviews,” “pop-up,” “wait-list”... then dropped a bombshell: “How fast should this turn a profit?”
I get this question every time, so I gave her the same straight answer I give my students: speed of profitability depends on who is writing the cheque and what they expect in return. Friends and family who often write smaller checks, likely are more risk averse and seek reassurances within a year; professional angels care far more about momentum than month‑six cash flow.
If an investor sees sauna pods booked at 70 percent capacity, a waiting list that grows weekly, and a second location already scouted, they’ll forgive a thin margin in year one. Six‑month payback? Unrealistic. Twelve months? A pleasant surprise. Eighteen to twenty‑four? Perfectly respectable for such a retail space as long as the top‑line curve keeps climbing.
I reminded her that early profitability can even be a trap. If she starts throwing off cash too soon she might starve growth just when demand is heating up. Better to keep margins slim while reinvesting in new pods, referral perks, and eventually: a second or third location. The real metric isn’t euros left in the drawer; it’s validated demand she can leverage into the next phase of growth.
Isabel left with a 90-day sprint plan: conduct 30 street interviews, host two micro-events, capture 500 sign-ups, and use those wins to secure the first tranche of funding. If she hits those numbers she’ll have more than an idea—she’ll have momentum.
In the end, the advice is simple and portable: Validate before you renovate. Whether you’re dreaming of an infrared-sauna lounge, a silent AI coworking club, or the next big paddle community, start by proving strangers are hungry enough to pay and talk about it. Evidence AND enthusiasm: that's a winning combo in any pitch.