This Philly-founded fitness startup is giving free services to Mount Sinai workers

Fitness startup LEON, founded in Philadelphia about four years ago with offices now here and in New York City, is giving all workers at Mount Sinai Hospital free services for 90 days while healthcare workers fight the COVID-19 virus.

New York City is currently hit hard by the health crisis, with more than 25,000 cases, The New York Times reported. A 48-year-old assistant nurse manager at Mount Sinai recently died from complications of the virus.

LEON, an employee wellness platform, usually works with companies or individuals to offer fitness and wellness services through its app, whether it be accessing online workout classes, a meeting with a dietician or a gym membership. (You may remember it from that time it hosted a free workout for the Philly startup community in February, along with Philly Startup Leaders and EverybodyFights gym.)

The app works with companies of all sizes — from five-person startups to corporations — which offer employee wellness dollars to book classes or services through the app, cofounder Bryan Smith said. Individuals looking for on-demand workouts or other wellness services can also use the app to find and book services.

But, with the closure of most gyms and fitness studios, “the company had to pivot pretty hard,” Smith said. And they wanted to focus efforts to those who most need stress relief and access to wellness plans right now: healthcare workers.

The 20-person company (about eight people in Philly, and the rest in New York or remote) was in the middle of launching its services with Mount Sinai when the health crisis started, Smith said.

So instead, the team decided to just give their services to the more than 40,000 people employed at the hospital. All provider partners decided to waive their fees for Mount Sinai, Smith said.  

The app holds somewhere around 10,000 live and on-demand classes, Smith said, all of which can be done on the app, on a laptop or streamed on a TV. It’s about being able to do a workout or wellness class wherever you are, he said.

“What’s important right now is that there’s a way for healthcare workers to keep some semblance of staying healthy, or have a way to relieve stress after long days of work,” Smith said.