Entrepreneur of the Year 2024: How founder Dominik Desbois turned passion into reality with Spin Society

The indoor cycling studio has three locations in Metro Vancouver.

THE KICKOFF: After growing up in the Eastern Townships of Quebec, Dominik Desbois went off to McGill to study engineering. He became a bridge engineer and was working in the Northwest Territories in the early 2010s when he hit what he calls a brick wall. “I thought to myself, ‘What am I doing? I have zero passion for this. I don’t want to do it for the rest of my life.’”

He quit that job on the spot and moved to Vancouver to attend business school at SFU. Desbois met his wife there and, on a family vacation to L.A., she introduced him to Soul Cycle. “The entire way back she was complaining that we didn’t have anything like that in Vancouver and a lightbulb went off in my head,” recalls Desbois. “With the boutique fitness model, you’re almost pre-selling inventory before servicing it, because people purchase credits before coming to the studio.”

ACTION PLAN: Desbois opened Spin Society’s Downtown Vancouver location in November 2014, a couple of months after two competitors—Ride Cycle Club and the now-defunct Eastwood Cycle—were the first to offer spin classes in the market.  Ten years later, both everything and  nothing has changed.

“What we were at the beginning—the essence and the culture—is still there,” says Desbois, “but our brand looks nothing like it did then. Still, we know who we are—it’s consistent. It’s almost a rhythm-based athletic ride. We don’t do all the craziest moves you see on Instagram and stuff, but you still feel challenged and come out feeling stronger and sweatier and having had a great time.”

CLOSING STATEMENT: In an extremely tough post-COVID period for exercise studios, Spin Society survived and is on track to have its best year ever, to the tune of some $2.5 million in revenue. The company has three locations in Metro Vancouver and around 90 employees. “We’re not in the business of providing a service—anyone can do indoor cycling,” says Desbois. “We’re in the business of problem solving—anyone who comes in might be coming in for a different reason. We want to find out that reason and help them solve that problem.”

Q+A

What’s your most-used app?

Flipboard. My day gets so busy that I try to consume what’s happening in the world that way.