For the Wellness Briefing, Glossy spoke with Jamie Weeks, the founder and managing partner of Founders Row, an Atlanta-based investment firm that operates fitness and wellness concepts like SweatHouz, LiftHer and SculptHouse. Weeks has partnered with P90X founder Jon Congdon to debut better.states, a new wellness concept centered around intentional rest and time away from screens.
Additionally, MrBeast files a trademark application for wellness wearables, CocoLab gets a new CEO, and padel continues to usurp pickleball as the hot new racket sport.
Fitness and wellness juggernaut Jamie Weeks is betting on a new “daydream studio” concept for screen-free rest
Atlanta-based Founders Row, an investment and operating firm behind fitness and wellness concepts like Sweathouz, has partnered with Beachbody founder Jon Congdon to create a new boutique wellness category based on brain health through digital disconnection and intentional rest.
“If we look at the science of what screens have done to us in the last 20 years, it’s so obvious [what we need],” Jamie Weeks, the founder and managing partner of Founders Row, told Glossy. “Prior to 2007 [when the iPhone was released], we didn’t know that this would be a problem, that [the need for] disconnection would be a real thing. … I know we’re early [with better.states], but this [category] is coming, no two ways about it.”
Weeks predicted another wellness trend back in 2019 when he opened the first Sweathouz, a cold plunge and infrared sauna studio that now has 105 locations across 25 states. Weeks also scaled the largest Orangetheory franchise group, operating 142 locations at one point. Orangetheory is the bootcamp-meets-treadmill workout started in 2010 with more than 1,200 locations today. Weeks is also currently fast-tracking a digitally-instructed pilates concept called All Day Pilates and a women’s strength training gym called LiftHer.
Better.states will open in New York City, Miami and Atlanta next year with a wide-ranging menu that includes meditation, breathwork, journaling, instructor-led sound baths, late-night silent discos, an adaptogenic juice bar and “substance-free digital psychedelic journeys.” The latter is powered by the Morphus LayFlat portal, a bed created by Congdon that ‘induces meditation’ or ‘a drug-free digital psychedelic experience’, depending on user preference, by combining synchronized light, sound and vibration.
“When you’re trying to define a category, you have to know that you’re trying to define a category,” Weeks said. “That means you go so broad in this category of disconnection that you put all the modalities there, and you let the people tell you what they want.”
As expected, no phones or smartwatches will be allowed at better.states. Clients will be instructed to check them in at the front desk, or place them into lock bags for the duration of their visit. Weeks anticipates the average client will spend two to three hours during each visit, with modalities ranging from $50-$85 per session. Both group classes and individual appointments will be available.
Weeks also hopes to tap into an underserved time of day. “Eighty-five percent of the health and wellness [offerings available now are] before 6 p.m.,” Weeks said. “Better.states is the place where you’re going to want to go at 8, 9 or 10 p.m. on a Friday or Saturday night to do a digital meditation session while you’re hanging out with your friends, or before or after dinner.”
But disconnection from one’s phone is just the start, Weeks said. “It’s also about the ‘default mode network’ in our brain that’s tied to meditation and daydreaming,” he said. “When you daydream, it’s memory consolidation and emotional connections. There’s science to it. Now, every day, every chance you get to daydream is replaced with a scroll.”
A deep desire for digital disconnection can be felt across industries, including with the advent of buzzy new devices like Brick, which locks the user out of social media for an extended period of time, or Meadow, a dumb phone loaded with just music, maps, text, phone and Uber.
Weeks believes that being disconnected from technology, especially to work on your brain health, a few nights per week will soon become “the flex” that being busy was in the 2010s. “The pendulum is swinging the other way,” he said.
Of course, it can be tough for some to imagine consumers paying money to meditate, daydream or journal instead of just doing it at home for free. But Weeks is convinced daydreaming may actually be the easiest ask he’s ever made of a consumer.
“Do you know how hard it is to convince people to do an all-out [sprint] for 33 minutes on a treadmill [or] get in a cold plunge for three minutes at 50 degrees? It’s really, really hard,” Weeks said. “Convincing people to come to a digital meditation for 45 minutes to rest their brain is a really low lift.”
Executive moves:
- Gayle Tait is the new CEO of oral care brand CocoLab. Tait’s CV includes 14 years at L’Oréal Group and six years at Google, and she is currently the board director of E.l.f. Beauty. CocoLab sells at Target and Walmart and is best known for its CocoFloss dental floss.
- Carl Loredo is the new global president of Orangetheory fitness, the workout chain with more than 1,300 U.S. locations. Loredo’s CV includes two years at Pizza Hut and eight years at The Wendy’s Company.
News to know:
- Jimmy Donaldson, known in the media as MrBeast, could soon be launching a wearable fitness tracker. According to Gerben Law, a legal blog run by Washington, D.C.-based attorney Josh Gerben, Esq., the creator has filed a trademark application for the name “Beast Band” for a wearable activity tracker and smartwatch band. MrBeast was ranked as the No. 1 creator by Forbes in 2026. His empire includes a Netflix competition show, candy and bottled beverage brands, and more than 519 million YouTube subscribers.
- Magic AI, the California-based maker of a smart fitness mirror by the same name, has taken on $11 million in Series B funding to scale its growth. The round was co-led by VC firms Beringea, investor in Moth cocktails and Sovato Health, and IW Capital, investor in Lucinda Medical and Simply Meds online pharmacy. The Magic AI Mirror offers personalized workouts led by digital instructors. It sells direct to consumer for $1,999.
- Move over, pickleball, padel is here. Often described as a mix of tennis and squash, the racket sport requires more athletic prowess than pickleball but uses a similarly-sized court with four players per game. According to the sport’s governing body, USA Padel, padel surpassed 1 million U.S. players earlier this year. According to new data released last week from Misitrano Consulting, operating courts increased 61.6% year over year, and active facilities grew by 65% YoY in the U.S.
Stat of the week:
Young people continue to prioritize fitness and wellbeing over drinking at bars. According to ClassPass, 53% of surveyed ClassPass users aged 18-34 said they booked a workout, class or wellness experience in the past year instead of going out for drinks or nightlife. This is compared to 42% of those aged 35 and older.
In the headlines:
How Unilever sees the line between beauty and wellness blurring [Modern Retail]. ‘Not hiring’ entry-level talent: Industry acknowledges runaway crisis brought on by introducing AI to the workforce [Digiday]. Can swapping out your plasma slow the aging process? [Self]. Biohackers are reaching for wolverine peptides [McGill]. Lelo Mona Spectra Review: My honest thoughts after testing the red light therapy vibrator [Women’s Health]. Wellness consumers embrace functional shots [FittInsider]. Study finds toxic ‘forever chemicals’ in many smartwatch bands [Athletech].
Listen in:
What does it take to thrive within the notoriously competitive world of Sephora? Ilia Beauty founder Sasha Plavsic joined the Glossy Beauty Podcast to share advice, anecdotes and more about 10 successful years in America’s biggest beauty retailer.
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