Ever thought about starting a business with your BFF? For co-Founders and co-CEOs Ashley Mills and Mark Mullett, two entertainment industry vets who became fitness fanatics, that dream became a reality in 2018 with obé Fitness.
Before becoming talent agents (and best friends), Mark and Ashley grew up in the 1980s, watching their moms work out in their living rooms to Jane Fonda and Richard Simmons. The sense of joy those moments carried would ultimately be part of what powered their vision for obé.
It was during the boutique fitness boom of 2015 and 2016 that the spirit of their core memories was revived. The two became ingrained in the burgeoning fitness community—falling in love with movement in all its forms.
As life picked up and the two began traveling cross-country frequently, Mark and Ashley were on the hunt for a tool to sustain their fitness habits. Then it hit them: There wasn’t one that checked all the boxes. And voila, obé was born—along with its technicolor studio (called the Box), high-energy instructors, and never-boring classes. (P.S. In 2021, these two founders were named “100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs” by Goldman Sachs.)
But let’s talk details. Why does the obé studio look the way it does? Who came up with the name obé—and what does it mean? And what were the first classes on obé? Here, we sat down with the co-Founders to get the full story about the early days of obé, fun facts included.
Why did you design the obé studio to be a box instead of an open room?
Ashley: Originally, it didn’t have a ceiling. But you could see the ceiling of the office, which was problematic. When we added a ceiling to make it into the Box, the light just bounced better. It made it magic.
Mark: The top of the Box is not an LED wall like the rest of it, but the light refracts off of it. And it creates this sort of three-dimensional zone where people can escape and get into the workout. And—fun fact—the Box also fits perfectly into your TV screen, tablet, or phone screen.
Ashley: It was really hard to find an office space where we could set up the studio because the forefront had to be 16 feet wide for that very reason. That’s why we ended up in DUMBO, which has all these factories and massive spaces.
Mark: The other thing is, the lines of the Box are clean—they’re perpendicular. We can play with the exuberance of the color but also the simplicity of the lines. And we liked that juxtaposition between the insanity of color saturation and the cleanliness plus modernity of the Box.
Let’s talk about those colors. How did you develop them?
Ashley: In the very first brand book, the colors were supersaturated. And then we got people in the Box, and they looked like shadows. Those colors were blues, purples, and pinks, more of a nightclub vibe. We transitioned to pastels because that’s how the instructors look their best.
Mark: We did a total 180. And in that new phase, everything reminded me of the marshmallow princess from Candyland. Which was cool. I liked it. When we see those first images, I get this wave of nostalgia.
How did you come up with the name? Most people don’t know obé stands for Our Body Electric.
Ashley: When we were at work, Mark printed the poem, “I Sing the Body Electric” by Walt Whitman and put it on my desk. After the first read, I thought it was really cool. Mark thought there was something there, maybe a name. We were looking at the title, thinking about how we want our platform to be anchored in community. That sentiment became the “Our” in “Our Body Electric” (aka obé). The “body” played in because it’s a poem about the beauty of the human body. And “Electric” would be the vibe.
Mark: We were already circling about something like “Body Electric.” That’s what caused me to look at the Whitman poem again. That realm felt good, avant-garde yet rooted in something old school, sustainable, and beautiful—which is the human body and poetry that stands the test of time. But the “Our” was a really important addition because it contains the communal element.
So Our Body Electric was the original name of the company. For us, it holds weight, purpose, and pride. But it was also kind of a mouthful! I remember for a while we thought, O-B-E, obe—no accent.
Ashley: And a friend told us we couldn’t call our company obe.
Mark: So we thought to add the accent (obé) and make it sound like obey. We also wanted to create a company that had a name and resonance that couldn’t be confused with something else—so it wouldn’t be a “it sounds like this.” It’s a name that doesn’t evoke fitness at first glance, and it’s kind of a made-you-look name, as opposed to something like: The Sweatbox.
Ashley: That got trashed. Along with The Sweat Port. There were so many bad ones!
What were the four original obé classes?
Ashley: We wanted something that was functional and something that was more creative-movement driven. The functional side was comprised of a strength-training and circuit-style class. And on the creative side, we had Sculpt and Dance Cardio.
Mark: We started with a lot of Sculpt and Dance Cardio. Those are two modalities we personally love, and we knew our members would love them too. But we also wanted obé to be super well-rounded. We wanted the ability for people to plug and play across movement modalities. So if you came in loving Dance Cardio, we wanted you to try a circuit class.
From a naming perspective (anyone who’s an OG will know!), we had Sweat, Define, and Flow. You’re going to sweat in a cardiovascular moment, define in that strength-training moment, and flow in that mobility, yoga, restorative moment. It’s the perfect plate.
Ashley: And then that also became a mouthful because it was like: Sweat Dance Cardio with Mary. There were so many names!
If you could go back and give yourself one piece of advice for those early days as founders, what would it be?
Ashley: Be ready. Someone who worked here told me that when you’re in a startup environment (and as a founder), you should do every job until it becomes untenable. And that’s when you hire someone to do that job. That creates empathy for all the roles and helps you understand how it all comes together.
Mark: I remember the beginning when you’re doing every job and there are these new challenges you’ve never faced before. It can feel really daunting, and then you hit the pillow at night thinking: “It’s okay…at some point, it’ll be over. The challenge will smooth down, and it will be easy.”
But I learned early on that’s not necessarily the case. You will jump over one hurdle and ascend one mountain, and things may be good for a day or two, but then a new challenge or hurdle pops up. If the mindset is: “If I can just get over this one hurdle, then everything’s going to be gravy. That’s not true. It’s not true in business, life, or relationships.
If you’re agile and solutions-oriented, you can find a way to get through it. You’re going to navigate life better, not just business. And you’re also not going to succumb to the emotional waves of disappointment or triumph—those polar opposites of the emotional spectrum—because you can remain even-keeled. You know what good stuff feels like, you know what bad stuff feels like. You move on, you get better, you survive. And you find pleasure in it too. You end up finding a sense of accomplishment in the stuff that used to terrify you.
Was your relationship as besties and co-Founders ever tested?
Ashley: We’ve always really liked and respected each other. Naturally, there’s conflict—but there’s never been anything bad.
Mark: In any relationship—in business, friendship, romance, whatever—if there’s real passion, enthusiasm, and pride attached, you’re going to disagree on something. You have an opinion because you care. If we agreed on everything, all the way along, that would be lame, and it would be phoning it in. It wouldn’t be an optimization of us as people. We wouldn’t be doing the best we can for this company, our members, and our team. To have opinions and to fight for them is important. I think how you fight for them in a professional environment comes down to showing respect, providing the right information, and not having an ego.
Ashley: We’ve also been through a lot of hard stuff. Good things, but also really hard things. I’ve had multiple kids—we’ve both had stuff. But that just makes you deeper friends, because you show up for each other in those tough moments.
What’s one thing that went wrong during those first days of operation?
Mark: Everything.
Ashley: At first, we were a live-streaming platform that could not live-stream very well.
Mark: The schedule was great. Always on, every day of the week, beginning at 6am. But thinking that a team of four or five could maintain that on day one? Ashley and I were getting here at 5am and leaving at 8pm, including the weekends. For several months, that’s what felt a little untenable. Now, if I have a long day, I think—well, that wasn’t as long as March 18, 2018.
Ashley: It was worse than the couple of days after you have a baby and you’re not sleeping. (laughs) It was like the birthing of this child!
Mark: We would take turns taking a snooze on a mat, sometimes behind the Box.
Ashley: And we would also take turns on the board putting up names. At the time, it was all manual. Now we know that you’re Susan P. from Los Angeles. But at the time, it showed us someone who lives in North Carolina. Who is it? We didn’t actually know. We knew we had two members from North Carolina, so we’d kind of guess who they were.
Mark: If someone was tuning in from Syracuse, that was my mom.
Ashley: Dayton, Ohio was my mom.
Mark: It’s cool to think about how much more sophisticated that’s gotten. I was just taking Mary’s most recent 20-minute Pilates class. Someone’s name came up, and it was their 600 class. Mary freaked out! Instead of just saying their name, she was able to celebrate the monumental 600 class milestone.
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