Weeks, who scaled the largest Orangetheory franchise group and founded SWTHZ, is launching Founders Row to give early-stage founders access to both capital and operational expertise
Jamie Weeks built Orangetheory’s largest franchise group and founded cold plunge and infrared sauna studio brand SweatHouz (SWTHZ). Now he’s building a platform to back founders in the hardest years of growth.
His new endeavor, Founders Row, is structured around a Founder Partnership Vehicle (FPV), a deal-by-deal model that combines the capital strength of private equity with the timing of venture capital. The idea is to back startups in years one through four, when founders often lack the operational support needed to scale their vision.
“I created Founders Row because this is what founders truly need – vision alignment, an operating partnership and a structure that finally puts GP, LP and founder on the same side of the table,” Weeks said. “As traditional private equity firms grow even larger, it becomes difficult for them to invest at the earliest stage of a brand’s growth cycle. This is exactly where the unicorns live — just as Orangetheory and SweatHouz once did.”
Weeks knows that stage well. After years advising family offices on Wall Street, he became a fitness operator in 2014 with his first Orangetheory studio. He sold the franchise group to private equity in 2017, and under his leadership, the business grew to more than 140 studios over the next four years, making it the largest Orangetheory franchisee in the world.
He then went on to found SWTHZ in 2019 and sold a majority stake in 2022. The brand now has more than 65 locations and says it’s tracking toward 100 by early 2026.
Founders Row is kicking off with three companies already under letter of intent and the backing of a private equity anchor partner. While its first investments are in health and wellness, Weeks says the strategy is founder-first, not sector-first.
An eight-person team with expertise in marketing, operations, finance, and development will provide hands-on support, and Weeks has tapped longtime colleagues to fill leadership posts, including Orangetheory veteran Mike Mehr as chief development officer and close advisor Tori Woodhull as chief of staff.
The firm also includes FR Advisory, a consulting arm that will incubate up to four brands at a time with the potential to move into the FPV.
“The key to what we are doing is not about fundraising and building a firm where we collect a 2% fee for a decade-plus — this is clearly becoming a problem for LPs,” he said. “We’ve proven our speed to exit over the last seven years with multiple brands. The FPV model and FR Advisory greatly increase the odds of success at the earliest stage of growth.”
