Englisch BHS, Maturatraining mit Audio-CD

68 Tapescript Class Pass (CD 01) Announcer: You are going to listen to an interview about ClassPass, a successful start-up business. First you will have 45 seconds to study the task below, then you will hear the recording twice. While listening, choose the correct answer (A, B, C or D) for questions 1–7. Put a cross in the correct box. „e…rst one (0) has been done for you. A‡er the second listening, you will have 45 seconds to check your answers. (45 sec pause, acoustic signal) Presenter: In our series today about successful start-up businesses we are going to see how failure needn’t necessarily mean the end of a project. Our business correspondent Shona Webster has met with Payal Kadakia the founder of ClassPass, a New York-based website that gives people easy, cheap access to local gyms and physical…tness classes. Shona … Shona: „anks Hugh. Ms Kadakia works as a management consultant. She’s been a dancer and choreographer since she was a child so her daily exercise class is important to her. She told me how frustrated she got by the amount of time she spent online, checking out reviews of gyms and studios, trying to…nd a place in a class at a time and location that suited her. „at’s how her…rst venture, Classtivity, was born. She got support from an organisation that provides advice and seed capital for start-ups – and topped it up with loans from friends and family. She hired programmers to create a search engine that let users browse all the physical…tness classes in New York, read their reviews and then book a session. „ey would pay on arrival at the venue, and she would get a cut. Presenter: So how did it work out? Shona: Not great. Unfortunately fewer than a hundred classes were booked during that…rst year. And then, while she was sitting in a co˜ee shop, she was mugged and almost lost her laptop. But strangely this mishap motivated her to give the business another go. Presenter: OK, using the same business model? Shona: No. „is time she made Classtivity into a monthly deal – users signed up for $49 and could attend ten classes in a month. But they could only go to any studio or gym once during any particular month. Presenter: And how did that work out? Shona: Unfortunately the problem with this version was that people signed up with multiple email addresses so they could go to the same gym more than once at the special rate. Presenter: Uh oh. „at’s a scam. Shona: Right, and it was annoying, but it did at least show Ms Kadakia that there was demand for her service – a‡er all people were prepared to pay for it. She just needed to get the operating model and pricing right. Presenter: So what did she come up with? Shona: Kadakia rebranded her product as ClassPass, and went round to gyms and studios with her new sales pitch, to match empty slots in their classes with people looking for exercise. Users pay $129 a month, but unlike a normal gym membership, they can sign up as o‡en as they like at dozens of studios, ranging from military-style boot-camp workouts to ballet sessions at the barre. However, they can visit the same venue only three times in one month, so that regular customers and pricing aren’t a˜ected. Presenter: And what’s in it for the venues? Shona: „ey get a payment each time a user attends a class,…lling slots that would otherwise be empty. ClassPass pays an agreed referral rate to each venue and takes the balance of the monthly subscriptions. Everyone bene…ts! ClassPass has grown really rapidly, mainly thanks to social media. It’s now available in three countries, including England, and has generated more than ten million class reservations. Presenter: „at sounds healthy. When is Ms Kadakia expecting the company to break even? Shona: She wouldn’t say, but she insists that the company is worth more than dollars and cents to her. She’s more interested in encouraging people not to let their work stop them from exercising. And she wants to help gyms pro…t from technology. ClassPass has already helped them to do that. Presenter: It’s obvious that the two years of struggling have made Ms Kadakian’s success all the more rewarding. I’m sure that she would never have built ClassPass without the lessons she learned from her early failures. And if you want to learn more about this story, you can…nd ClassPass at www.classp…[fade out] (15 sec pause, acoustic signal, track replays, 45 sec pause) Nur zu Prüfzwecken – Ei entum des Verlags öbv