Heather Andersen: Co-Founder of New York Pilates

Episode 794

On today’s episode, we welcome Heather Andersen, Co-Founder of New York Pilates — the cult-favorite reformer studio that helped define modern Pilates culture in New York and beyond.
Heather’s journey began as a professionally trained ballerina, where Pilates was first introduced as part of her classical training. After an injury shifted her path away from dance, she spent years teaching privately and deepening her expertise under industry leaders before identifying a major gap in the fitness landscape: the need for high-energy, results-driven group reformer classes that still honored the integrity of the Pilates method. That insight led to the launch of New York Pilates in 2013.
In this episode, Heather shares how she built a culture-driven wellness brand rooted in anatomy, precision, and thoughtful design, why the current Pilates boom has created confusion around the method, and what it takes to scale a cult-favorite fitness concept without compromising quality. We also discuss instructor training, leadership evolution, brand consistency, and where modern movement is headed next. This conversation is packed with insight for founders, operators, and anyone building enduring brands in wellness and beyond.

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Transcript

Kara Goldin 0:00
I am unwilling to give up that I will start over from scratch as many times as it takes to get where I want to be. I want to be you. Just want to make sure you will get knocked down. But just make sure you don’t get knocked out, knocked out. So your only choice should be go focus on what you can control. Control. Control. Hi everyone, and welcome to the Kara Goldin show. Join me each week for inspiring conversations with some of the world’s greatest leaders. We’ll talk with founders, entrepreneurs, CEOs and really, some of the most interesting people of our time. Can’t wait to get started. Let’s go. Let’s go. This episode of the Kara Goldin show is brought to you by LinkedIn. Jobs. Hiring can be one of the most important and time consuming parts of running a business. As you think about what your team needs heading into 2026 whether that means growing or getting more focused making the right hire matters more than ever. LinkedIn jobs helps take the guesswork out of that process. With LinkedIn jobs, AI assistant, you can identify strong candidates faster and higher with confidence. You’re not just filling open roles. You’re building a team that sticks. In fact, LinkedIn hires are 30% more likely to stay at least a year compared to the leading competitor, and that kind of retention really adds up. And finding the right hire doesn’t have to feel overwhelming with LinkedIn jobs AI assistant, you can skip the guesswork and jargon. It filters candidates based on your roles specific criteria and highlights top matches, so you’re not wasting time digging through endless resumes. When you’re running a business, you need a hiring process that’s fast and focused. Linkedin’s ai assistant delivers 25 strong candidate suggestions each day, giving you the chance to invite the right people to apply and keep the process moving. It’s a smarter, faster way to hire, and it’s why I rely on LinkedIn jobs. Hire right the first time, post your job for free at linkedin.com/kara Goldin then promote it to use LinkedIn jobs new AI assistant, making it easier and faster to find top candidates that’s linkedin.com/kara Goldin to post your job for free, Terms and Conditions apply. Hi everyone, and welcome back to the Kara Goldin show. So excited to have my next guest that I am just obsessed with the brand that she has built. So we have Heather Andersen, who is the co founder of New York Pilates, and it is the cult favorite reformer studio that helped define modern Pilates culture in New York City, and hopefully soon, far beyond. So Heather is a professionally trained dancer whose background in classical ballet and anatomy driven movement shaped a very different vision for Pilates. After an injury paused her dance career, she spent years teaching privately, and I cannot wait to hear more about the background. I’ll leave it at that about how this all started. But since launching New York Pilates in 2013 Heather has grown it into a multi location with eight locations, design forward brand with a fiercely loyal community, known as much for its precision and instructor training as for its culture, music and iconic abs, arms, ass, class, love it. Love it, love it. So I’m excited to dig into how Heather has built a movement brand that balances rigor with relevance. And without further ado, welcome Heather. So excited to meet you and hear all about the brand.

Heather Andersen 4:01
Thank you. Kara is an absolute pleasure to be here.

Kara Goldin 4:05
Super, super excited. So to start and you know, 30 to 60 seconds, what is New York Pilates? If you were to run into somebody on the street and they say, Oh, you run a brand. You co founded it. What is it? What is New York Pilates?

Heather Andersen 4:23
We are New York Pilates in a group performer class studio. We have, as you said, eight locations across New York City and the Hamptons. And our signature class is ABS, arms, ass. It’s a 45 minute class that incorporates advancements and modifications for every exercise so that it is all level friendly, but will always give you a kick ass workout.

Kara Goldin 4:49
I love it, and you were a professionally trained ballerina. How did that background? I guess I’d love to hear the backstory of what. Happened and how that ultimately turned into New York Pilates,

Heather Andersen 5:05
absolutely so I always refer to myself as, quote, a baby ballerina. And my reason for this is that I was a very serious pre professional dancer, injured, pretty young, and kind of went on a a side track. So I started doing Pilates as cross training and also to help me manage and heal my injury. And I, as a young person, couldn’t afford Pilates because it was only really available via private session. And so I got a job working the front desk in a Pilates studio, and honestly, sitting there watching people have these really amazing personal experiences, people who weren’t just dancers, but from every walk of life, or who had maybe never had a profound movement experience before, and watching how impactful that was for them to learn about their bodies and just explore their joints and understand how strong they could be. I found it to be very powerful, and that is why I decided I wanted to become an instructor. So fast forward, I became an instructor, and I spent the first part of my career teaching private in New York City for about seven years, and in that time, I worked at a lot of different studios. I also spent some time working for myself in private practice, and I had a lot of ideas about what I would like to see in the Pilates industry, as a consumer, as a user of the product, I would say so my big vision was that I wanted to be able to take a reformer Pilates class any time of day or night, just like you could take a yoga class at the time. And I know this seems very insane in 2026 to say this, but in 2013 when we opened, this was not ubiquitous. You couldn’t just take a reformer class. The only way to do that, really was there were studios that had maybe like four reformers, and you could take a class, but it was in the same room where private sessions were happening. And it was not like a consistent experience, and it definitely was not yet boutique fitness at all. So that was kind of where the vision started is, I wanted to take a great reformer class, and that wasn’t really available. I know that’s similar to some things that you have said about your own insights and starting your brand too?

Kara Goldin 7:42
Yeah, definitely. And I always tell people, it takes sort of a crazy person to actually take an idea that you’re frustrated by and actually start a business, not to mention multiple businesses, because you went out and started New York Pilates, but then you actually opened multiple locations. And I know that that is not just you, right. You have to hire people and train people and deal with consumers and all of the things around it to create this consistent experience. But when you think about, you know, those early days before, as you were thinking about starting, what was the spark that said, I just need to open a location and have the belief and courage that people will come

Heather Andersen 8:39
well, first of all, I totally agree with you. I think that to open a business you have to be a special type of lunatic and also maybe a little bit naive. It would be the other thing, because without a little bit of naivete about what you’re getting yourself into, you might not start especially, I would say, for my situation where I was bootstrapping, I didn’t know what I was doing. I didn’t have experience in business operations beyond running the front desk of a Pilates studio, which at least was relevant experience. But I think it is a wild, wild ride that you go on when you open a business. And I think you have to just have absolute faith. And it has to be more than that. I think it has to be a compulsion. You have to have gotten an idea in your head that you can’t shake, and that’s what drives you forward.

Kara Goldin 9:38
This episode of the Kara Goldin show is brought to you by LinkedIn jobs. Hiring can be one of the most important and time consuming parts of running a business, as you think about what your team needs heading into 2026 whether that means growing or getting more focused making the right hire, matters more than ever. LinkedIn jobs help. Take the guesswork out of that process with LinkedIn jobs AI assistant, you can identify strong candidates faster and higher with confidence. You’re not just filling open roles. You’re building a team that sticks. In fact, LinkedIn hires are 30% more likely to stay at least a year compared to the leading competitor, and that kind of retention really adds up. And finding the right hire doesn’t have to feel overwhelming with LinkedIn jobs AI assistant, you can skip the guesswork and jargon. It filters candidates based on your roles specific criteria and highlights top matches so you’re not wasting time digging through endless resumes. When you’re running a business, you need a hiring process that’s fast and focused. Linkedin’s ai assistant delivers 25 strong candidate suggestions each day, giving you the chance to invite the right people to apply and keep the process moving. It’s a smarter, faster way to hire, and it’s why I rely on LinkedIn jobs, hire right the first time, post your job for free at linkedin.com/kara Goldin then promote it to use LinkedIn jobs, new AI assistant, making it easier and faster to find top candidates. That’s linkedin.com/kara, Goldin to post your job for free. Terms and Conditions apply. So the first location was where, and that first day that you opened, what happened?

Heather Andersen 11:35
So we opened the first location in Greenwich Village in New York City, and the I had a roster of private clients that I brought with me to that studio, so I already had a certain built in set of private clients, but my vision was classes, and initially I actually couldn’t afford all the Reformers for the reformer classes. So initially I had equipment on the private side, and we built like a big shelf, put it in the middle of the space so that it could be flexible, as we figured it out. And on the other side, I was running mat classes, because I literally couldn’t afford the Reformers or toward the ultimate vision, and it took about a year of operating, and then I was able to buy the reformers and start them. But I would say the people who showed up in that first six months were extremely kind and generous people who believed in what I was doing and were like this crazy girl, like, I’m gonna show up, and I am into what she’s doing, and this is a vibe, and that’s what I would say about those people.

Kara Goldin 12:51
So for those who aren’t familiar with what a reformer is, maybe they haven’t had an opportunity to see one. What is it and why? Why does it work for people? Why are people so obsessed with it?

Heather Andersen 13:07
The reformer is a piece of workout equipment specifically for Pilates, and it kind of people refer to it as a bed. Sometimes it is about six feet long and three feet wide, and it has a padded mat that slides back and forth. And then it’s connected to springs that create resistance. And then there are some straps. So it has these different points of movement. And what I would say is really wonderful about the reformer is the movement of it is really fun. It just like is a pleasure to be on it and to move and as a mechanism for resistance, it’s very fun. And that’s why it was my favorite of the Pilates equipment, because there are other pieces of Pilates equipment. And sometimes I’ll get that question, people will be like, Why didn’t you use the Cadillac or the chair. And honestly, I just personally liked the reformer the best, and that was my why it’s my favorite. One of its key attributes, I would say, is that it gives both assistance and resistance, which is a very Pilates concept about if you’re doing the same or similar exercise, laying down on the mat or on the ground, you don’t have any resistance. And then there are certain setups where it can also help you. So if you’re doing a roll back, you’re going to hold on to these ropes. It has a little bit of tension, and it can help you ease into the movement if you don’t have all of the strength available to do it by yourself.

Kara Goldin 14:39
So Pilates is everywhere now, and I think people hear about it, but it’s also deeply misunderstood. From your perspective, what do you think most studios are getting wrong that you felt like you could really, you know, nail right and make. Better, and ultimately that ends up bringing your clientele to you too.

Heather Andersen 15:06
So I think what’s happening in Pilates right now is that they’re the word, Pilates is hot. People are like, Pilates is cool. I should do it. My physical therapist told me I should do it, and my friend told me they’re doing it, and whatever. But I think what’s happening is a lot of things that are not Pilates are getting called Pilates, and that’s creating a lot of confusion in the market. So we were talking about mega former style studios, so the SLTs of the world, solid core body rock, these types of businesses call themselves Pilates, but also call themselves Pilates inspired, or Pilates adjacent, and it creates a lot of confusion, because they are on a machine that looks like a reformer. But the thing is that Pilates is not a machine. Pilates is a method, and what they’re missing is the method. So what they’re teaching in their classes are they have, it ranges, depending on which business. But in some of them, like a 16 hour training, and some of them maybe a 30 hour training. But if you come to New York Pilates or an actual Pilates studio. It is a 400 hour training, and what the teachers are learning in that 400 hours isn’t just a series of exercises. They’re learning biomechanics. They’re learning how the joints move. They are learning how to modify for people who have different issues, how to advance for students who have more strength and a ton of nuance about how to get more and deeper out of your workout, and that’s what the Pilates method is teaching, and that’s what you’re not getting when you’re at a not Pilates studio, but still on a reformer,

Kara Goldin 17:01
when and why did you decide to move from just one location to your second location and then continue on

Heather Andersen 17:12
after we opened the first location? At about the year point, I was able to buy the reformers and actually do my vision of the reformer classes, and it just exploded. I remember this very specific moment looking at the schedule, everything was booked out, and thinking, I knew that I wanted this, but I had never had an experience in my life where I’d had an idea and everyone wanted what I had to give. And that was that was crazy. It was wild. And we were like, we have to just run with this. Apparently, this is something that people really want. They’re really into. And you don’t strike gold with that kind of momentum very often, and we were like, we just we got to go. We got to ride this thing.

Kara Goldin 18:06
And your New York Pilates, also known as NYP, is known for being super high energy without being chaotic. How intentional was that when you first started? I mean, you’re obviously trying to help people get a great workout and results. But did you ever think that you would be known for being high energy without being so chaotic?

Heather Andersen 18:33
You know, that exact description I agree with, but I don’t necessarily think I would have applied to myself or to what we’re doing here. My original objective was really to create very high quality, thoughtful movement in a way that was also entertaining. So I think those have that’s the same route, which is, how do I give people what’s good for them with a little bit of, not sugar, sweetener, let’s say, on top, to engage them and keep them entertained and keep them coming back. So what’s really good for them is this really thoughtful, intentional movement. But what was happening so much in the marketplace is it was a little boring, and therefore people would maybe not engage. So I think that was the balance that we were looking really looking for, how do we give people transformational experiences while entertaining them?

Kara Goldin 19:37
Where do you think the majority of your patrons came from your the consumers that you’re serving. Where do you think most of them came from?

Heather Andersen 19:46
I would say our, our average member. I wouldn’t say average, our typical member in New York City is going to be a little bit different than our typical member in the Hamptons, just age demographic. Yes, are different, but typically we are about 90% female, and I think quite creative. Leaning in has has been something that I’ve seen over and over again, and I think that that is probably just matches my vibe and my partner’s vibe, we’re just sort of creative and love music and creating beautiful experiences. So I think we have very much catered to creatives over the years. Recently, I feel like every girl is a Pilates girl, so that has been really interesting to see how that has kind of shifted. And what we’re doing has become very mainstream, and I do think that that has changed the student in the room to some degree. And what we’re trying to do across the board is make sure that we are delivering a really thoughtful experience. Because no matter what your background is, everyone can benefit from learning about how to have good posture and aligning their spine and engaging in their core.

Kara Goldin 21:16
So the average person who comes into your studio. Is taking classes. How many times a week? What do you suggest outside of of NYP, that people are doing so nothing, or, or what? What exactly do you see people kind of adding, if anything,

Heather Andersen 21:42
yeah, so I see they’re kind of like two camps of people. We have people where they maybe didn’t love fitness, or have a type of fitness that they loved, and this becomes their main type of fitness. And those people are typically have a membership and come four or five times a week. So when we’re looking at it monthly, like 16 to 20 visits a month, and then we have another camp, I would say, who are using it more for cross training. So there are people who love running or cycling or maybe something less accessible, like horseback riding or ballet, or they have some other fitness love, but they need the cross training for building their core strength, lengthening, stretching out those, those kinds of things. So I really see the two camps. And I would say, for me personally, I think all movement is good. Movement you should do whatever brings you joy, and hopefully what this is doing is making so you can do whatever else it is that you love doing in your life without pain. Why has the

Kara Goldin 22:50
class that abs, arms and ass class? Why do you think it’s taken off so much? And can you describe that class to anyone who’s who’s listening?

Heather Andersen 23:02
Yeah, so it’s a full body strength class, and we do two rounds of ABS, two rounds of arms, two rounds of ass, and that’s how the class is structured. We do a lot of reps compared to more traditional Pilates, and one of the reasons for that is it gives students who are newer to the practice time to get into each exercise and figure out their alignment, and then also get enough repetition when they’re there. And also makes it so the teacher has time and space to really get around to all the students and give hands on or individual corrections. And then the class is structured where every exercise has a modification offered or an advancement offered. So they’ll give you, let’s say you’re doing a bridging exercise. Is your baseline exercise. They’ll give options for you to lift one leg off, if that’s available for you, if you want more challenge, or if that’s too much, give an alternate foot position so that you’re more grounded. So it makes it really personalized for each person in their experience. And I think that that’s something that people really love about it. And then there’s always enough challenge for someone who is strong or who comes all the time, they can take all of the crazy advancements and make it as hard as they want.

Kara Goldin 24:29
So you mentioned your partner in this. So you’re you’re a co founder. You have another co founder that’s involved in the business. How did you find that partnership?

Heather Andersen 24:43
So my co founder is my husband. Was my boyfriend at the time that we opened the business, and he was my de facto partner, because one he kind of got dragged into this, but also. So He’s a phenomenal partner, and I couldn’t be luckier. Brian has a background in branding and web and also retail, so he brings a lot to the table that balanced out my very specific and niche skill set of Pilates, and I think it’s really nice as like a subject matter expert, which is where I would put myself, to have someone who has a very different set of skills than yourself. So when picking a partner, sometimes I see people who pick partners who have almost the same skill set as themselves, and I think that that’s a missed opportunity.

Kara Goldin 25:47
Yeah, definitely so early decisions that sounds like it’s one of them that you made that really mattered most in creating the brand that you have. But was there anything else that you did just as a co founder that really, really helped you to build out the business. Was it, you know, waiting to to sort of make sure that you had a profitable business before actually scaling into other other locations. What else was it that you are? Maybe you’re telling your girlfriend who’s planning on starting a business like, make sure that you do X,

Heather Andersen 26:32
oh, there are so many things I could say in this moment. I’m sure you feel this way as well, kind of like two different directions on this answer. On one hand, I think we really focused on testing when developing the class, so spent a lot of time essentially doing product development, because there weren’t a lot of group reformer classes to just copy their format. So it took a lot of time and testing and getting student feedback about what was working, what people liked, what wasn’t working, and making edits and because it’s delivered by humans, then there’s a lot of change management that goes along with that. Every time you’re like, we’re doing this actually, that’s not working. We’re going to do this now. So I think a lot of like change management, which has been a journey all by itself, and I would say I’m good at now, and it wasn’t good at 13 years ago. I and then the other thing, totally different direction, is because we are bootstrapped, we had to be really creative with how we were getting financing. And one of the things I did really early was I went to my group of very loyal private clients and kind of pitched them the idea and pre sold them a lot of sessions, which is how I got my very first piece of seed money, and then I took that, got a lease with it, and then got an SBA loan. So the combination of those two things, so using those types of resources, getting an SBA loan is no small feat, but if you can figure it out and build credit with the SBA, it can be really helpful, and you continue to grow, if you want to maintain your equity,

Kara Goldin 28:27
yeah, definitely. And I think you’ve absolutely done that right. Would you say that the majority of the people who are coming to the studio for the first time are they hearing about it through other people, like word of mouth, online ads, what? What is working for you to kind of get the word out about how special your brand is?

Heather Andersen 28:51
I think it’s a mix of direct referrals. They’re hearing about it from a girlfriend, and I think Instagram has been huge for us, and this is actually I’m very interested to see as the social platform landscape is changing. I’m really interested to see if Instagram is going to stay as a really dominant place for us. But we were very early, and we were early in showing what Pilates was, what reformer Pilates was, because I feel like people 13 years ago really didn’t know what it was or what it looked like. So we did that very early, and just took beautiful videos of people on the reformers, doing the movements, so that people even had a concept of what they were getting themselves into. They had never tried Pilates before.

Kara Goldin 29:43
If you would look at your brand today and or think back, I should say, what’s been the hardest, hardest part of growing this brand that you didn’t realize? I mean, you had a bunch of private clients, and then all of a sudden you’re, you know, opening. Up, you’re hanging a shingle right and and opening up this location, and you know it’s working, but it’s still hard. There’s so much behind the scenes, I’m sure that you have to get right, right, and a lot of times, consumers don’t see that right. What? What do you think has been the hardest?

Heather Andersen 30:23
I think, sort of ironically, from a product perspective, I think we hit early and we were on target, and, of course, we listened to the students and made adjustments over time and incrementally improved what we were doing. But I actually don’t think the hardest part was the consumer side. I think the hardest part for me was learning like leadership skills and managing people, and especially because every class is the human in the room is the product really so it’s like that human individual being bought in, believing in what they’re doing, understanding it and being really psyched and on board is so Essential for that to be an excellent class and learning, I think, how to lead people in a way that really gets them on board and inspires them. And has been an incredible journey. And I think really making sure that people are inspired by the learning aspect keeps them engaged.

Kara Goldin 31:44
Yeah, definitely. Well, Heather, I’m so excited for you. And I love, love, love, everything that you’ve built New York Pilates has just, I mean, the cult following that you have, and everything about it is terrific. It’s so fun to meet the person, one of the people behind the brand. So you and your you, you and your husband, husband co founder, are killin it. So I love it. So thank you so much, Heather for joining us today, and everything that you’ve shared with us about growing New York Pilates. Everyone needs to check out what you’re doing New York Pilates.com, and also all over social at New York Pilates, and, of course, the locations too. So you’re speaking to us from the Bowery studio now, but it’s absolutely terrific what you’re what you’re doing. So thanks again, and thanks everyone for listening until next time on the Kara Goldin show. Thanks Kara, thanks again for listening to the Kara Goldin show. If you would please give us a review and feel free to share this podcast with others who would benefit and of course, feel free to subscribe so you don’t miss a single episode of our podcast. Just a reminder that I can be found on all platforms. At Kara Goldin, I would love to hear from you too. So feel free to DM me, and if you want to hear more about my journey, I hope you will have a listen or pick up a copy of my Wall Street Journal, best selling book, undaunted, where I share more about my journey, including founding and building. Hint we are here every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Thanks for listening, and goodbye for now.

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