Alyssa Laroussi’s path from coaching to ownership set the stage for one of MADabolic’s most successful openings, built on community, credibility and strategic positioning
When Alyssa Laroussi and her husband, Andy, opened their MADabolic location in Bend, Oregon, they went slow to eventually go fast. The couple began speaking with co-founders Brandon Cullen and Kirk DeWaele in 2021, but didn’t sign on as franchisees until two years later.
It then took another two before they even opened their doors.
“It’s been a crazy process due to the commercial real estate here in Oregon,” Laroussi said. “It took us a long time to find the right location — a space that worked well with the franchise guidelines and made sense for us from a financial standpoint as well as a small community standpoint.”
But that lengthy process wasn’t for nothing. What seemed like a slow build was laying the groundwork for a historic debut. Today, the Bend site continues to grow, representing a benchmark for success within an already thriving industry operation.
From Competitor to Member to Operator
As lengthy as Laroussi’s early franchising journey was, her success story begins before that. Laroussi initially pursued a career in advertising and worked for an agency post-grad. But in that experience, her concentration remained on fitness. Having grown up in an athletic environment, being a former collegiate soccer player and already working a side job for a group fitness brand, she found herself spending her free time at work writing workouts and planning classes.
Laroussi eventually recognized fitness as her passion and pivoted accordingly, quitting her job and becoming an Orangetheory Fitness coach. However, after three years, she was still looking for more. With a MADabolic down the street from her Orangetheory, she didn’t have to go far to find it.
“I fell in love with it very quickly,” Laroussi said of her experience at MADabolic. “After the second workout, I realized this was my jam.”
However, Laroussi’s longing for a MADabolic-like workout experience returned about a year later. She and her husband moved to Bend, and this time, there was no gym across the street for her to sneak off to. So, with no other options, and after recognizing the market opportunity, she created her own.
Early Wins
Laroussi opened her location this past June — and that’s when the pace picked up. The Bend site sold out of tier one memberships, which the brand puts on the market before opening to fill studios, within five minutes. The gym also opened with nearly 100 members and over 1,000 leads.
“It was wild,” Laroussi said. “I’m not sure what other franchisees have done, but I feel like we probably broke the record with that because when I messaged them and told them to take it off the website, they were all pretty shocked.”
Laroussi credits her gym’s early success to her pre-established network, which she created after working another role with Orangetheory after first getting to Bend and managing a locally owned studio.
“I got experience under my belt with day-to-day operations of running a gym,” she recalled. “In addition to that, I was being exposed to hundreds of people through members and new people coming through the door, which helped build up my credibility within the community.”
Finding the right location, which engulfed much of the lengthy build-up process, also paid dividends.
“Bend is separated into two parts by a river,” Laroussi explained. “Although everything is very close, a lot of people don’t want to go all the way across town for something, so finding something central was important to us. For a long time, we were focusing on parking space and smaller details like that, but I don’t think that mattered as much as finding somewhere super central, and that’s exactly what we got. We are right smack dab in the middle of town in the busiest area.”
Use Your Resources
Now past the rollout stage, Laroussi continues to run a humming operation, using the resources at her disposal, such as the accessibility of MADabolic’s executives.
“With Brandon and Kirk, it’s insane how easy they are to get a hold of,” she said. “I think it’s pretty rare in a franchise to be able to directly chat with the owners of the brand so easily. They’ll get back to me by the end of the day if I have any questions or concerns. I’ve even messaged Kirk about probably some of the most silly, ridiculous things, and he responds so quickly and laughs. It’s really great.”
Laroussi argues that gyms aiming to achieve a similar level of success should do the same. Looking for help in other places, such as fellow franchisees, resembles another key to success in her eyes.
“It’s great when you have an issue or a challenge that comes up,” she said. “If it’s something one of the other franchisees has gone through, you can brainstorm with them and just ask, ‘Hey, I’m going to try this. Did this work for you?’…I truly believe that having that network has helped aid us in our momentum as we’ve opened.”
Laroussi added that her location is “on a solid trajectory to break even soon.”
