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'When she is talking to that screen, she is talking to me,' Richards says. Sara Richards, 44, a medical writer and mother of four who lives in Los Angeles, tells CNBC Make It that she'd tried SoulCycle a few times, but 'was not very impressed with any of the instructors.' After she tried Peloton last year, Richards says, she felt more of a 'personal connection' with the instructors, especially Arzon. there's an intimacy there that doesn't exist most places, certainly not in a space where you're interacting digitally, and instructors are kind of breaking that fourth wall and in people's homes.

'So whether you're getting a high-five from a fellow rider or you're getting a shout-out on your first run. 'We've also built a socially engaging platform in the workouts themselves,' Arzon says. She calls Peloton's group of instructors 'a team of superheroes' whose job it is to inspire and lead the community. Arzon is known for her high energy, motivational style and her catch phrase, 'sweat with swagger,' which is also the name of the tribe of Peloton users who specifically follow her classes. Indeed, popular instructors like Arzon are one of the main draws, as evidenced by her the nearly 200,000 people who follow her on Instagram. 'The way that Peloton has built their instructors into their brand, with many of their instructors achieving a sort of cult status among the Peloton following, I'd say is definitely one of their biggest advantages over alternative at-home fitness equipment and gym and cycling classes,' Marisa Lifschutz, lead industry analyst at research firm IBISWorld, tells CNBC Make It. In particular, Peloton's instructors are part of the secret sauce. 'All of that is part of this, sort of, holistic member experience that our people have come to love, and that is such a core part of what we do and what makes Peloton special.' He says the co-founders realized 'we just had to touch so many different areas.' 'When you think about these game-changer companies who have this focus on user experience, that is where we looked for inspiration.' 'We did talk a lot about Apple early on, and we talk about Netflix and Amazon,' Tom Cortese, one of Peloton's five co-founders and COO, tells CNBC Make It.

PELOTON SPINNING BIKE SOFTWARE

Not to mention creating its own content and designing and building the hardware and software that lets you stream those fitness classes on a tablet affixed to a machine that was delivered to your home by Peloton's own 'dedicated team of professionals.'

In fact it's been dubbed the 'Apple of fitness,' but it could also be compared to Amazon, for the way it aims to control every aspect of your workout, from designing and building the bike or treadmill you're using to training the instructors encouraging you to pick up the pace and even the music playing in the background. If you ask Peloton's founders, it's actually a media-technology-retail-logistics company.

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