Tonal\u2019s team, pre-pandemic. Image Credits:<\/strong> Tonal.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

This week, founder Aly Orady stepped down from his role as CEO, effective immediately. In his wake, Tonal\u2019s president, Krystal Zell, is stepping into the top spot, nine months after joining the company. According to the company, her initial position put her in charge of \u201crevenue, sales and marketing, product, and content.\u201d Prior to joining Tonal, she spent five years as Home Depot\u2019s Chief Customer Officer, with a focus on e-commerce.<\/p>\n

Speaking with TechCrunch, Zell says her rapid ascension to the top spot was not Tonal\u2019s plan from the start. \u201cI was happy to take on the challenge,\u201d she says. \u201cI think a big part of it was just trying to figure it out as the market was shifting from a massive growth at all costs into a measured growth and path to profitability. I think it worked out really well, because the skills I was able to bring to the table are more about how to drive very disciplined, profitable growth.\u201d<\/p>\n

Orady is staying on at the company, but is shifting to a more technology-centered role as CTO \u2014 a desire Zell says was at the heart of his decision to walk away from the chief executive spot.<\/p>\n

\u201cAly and I have a very symbiotic relationship,\u201d she adds, \u201cbecause we really complement each others\u2019 strengths and capabilities. He missed focusing on technology, because the last two to three years of running the business took him out of that focus and had him focusing on dealing with all of the challenges that hypergrowth created.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shifting away from \u201cgrowth at all costs\u201d had some human collateral. Zell\u2019s role as president was announced the same month Tonal laid off nearly one-third of its staff. That, at least, is a familiar story. The most notable example in the category is, once again, Peloton\u2019s. The scale is a dramatically different one. At the time of its layoffs, Tonal\u2019s headcount was reported as around 750. Peloton, on the other hand, underwent four rounds of layoffs in 2022, with 2,800 cuts in February, 540 in July, 784 in August and around 500 in October.<\/p>\n

Zell says her primary focuses have been on marketing and channel. The company doesn\u2019t disclose the location of its manufacturing for fear of losing a \u201ccompetitive advantage,\u201d though domestic\/local manufacture and assembly have clearly been top of mind for many big-ticket home fitness makers, particularly in the wake of years of supply chain constraints.<\/p>\n

On the marketing side, that means casting a smaller, more targeted net. At the height of the connected fitness crazy, high-cost national advertisements were suddenly par for the course, in a bid to capture the attention of consumers who suddenly found themselves stuck at home.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were doing a ton of top line marketing, driving brand awareness and a lot of TV advertising,\u201d says Zell. \u201cWe did get great brand awareness, but we\u2019ve shifted into a bottom of funnel approach to marketing to really hone in on performance and reduced a lot of that top of funnel marketing, in order to be as effective as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n