St. Cloud Entrepreneur Creates Fitness Networking Tool

ST. CLOUD -- Fitness coaches looking for new clients, and anyone looking for a helping hand reaching their health and wellness goals, will soon have a new way to find one another.

Hustle is a fitness networking website created by St. Cloud entrepreneur Shelby Chollett. Website users filter their searches based on where they live and what they're looking for in order to be paired with the right trainer or student.

Surprisingly, Chollett isn't a personal trainer — she's actually PhD candidate in education at St. Cloud State University. She's also a weight lifter and Crossfit athlete. The idea for Hustle came about several years ago as a result of Chollett's own search for very specialized personal training.

“A user can go on Hustle and identify and find those specific specialists based on, really, anything. It can be, ‘I want to find someone right here in St. Cloud,’ and you could find and connect with an expert in a specific niche sport or methodology – right in your backyard.”

Hustle isn't strictly a personal training marketplace, Chollett says — it's an online support system. The site will feature discussion groups on topics related to nutrition and exercise, and blogs penned by fitness professionals.

“We want to crowd source all of the knowledge and expertise about health that’s already out there, and we want to make that accessible to everybody.”

Hustle went into beta testing at the beginning of December with a group of coaches and trainers. Chollett says, if all goes as planned, she'll launch Hustle to the public by February. A Hustle mobile app is a long-range goal, Chollett says, and both platforms are accessible to anyone around the globe.

There's no cost to sign up or use the website; Hustle generates a profit by taking a small percentage of each payment exchanged between trainer and customer.

Chollett hopes Hustle demystifies the process of finding personalized support for people at all fitness levels.

"I want everyone to have the opportunity to either take on a new passion, or tap into a new, healthy lifestyle, based on the people they connect with.”

This is part two of a five-part series on local entrepreneurs participating in gBETA Greater Minnesota-St. Cloud’s Pitch Night. Each participating company will give a five-minute pitch in front of an audience of investors, entrepreneurs and community members.

Pitch Night will be held on Thursday, Dec. 19 from 5:30 p.m.-8:30 p.m. at the Herb Brooks National Hockey Center at St. Cloud State University.

To learn more about gBETA, visit their website.