Family & Fitness

Lavinia, Danny, and Vito Errico grew up in New Jersey during the 1960s.

They were siblings in a large Italian family - six kids total - that lived lived in Hackensack. Vito and Lavinia were twins, both a year older than Danny.

Movement was an early emphasis in household activities: who could run the fastest, jump the highest, throw the furthest?

Although the Errico children were competitive with each other in the backyard, their mother was highly nurturing and refused to compare any one of her kids to another. At one point in their teens, a teacher complained that Lavinia’s sister wasn’t living up to Lavinia’s example. Their mother heard about the interaction and warned the teacher to never make that comparison again.

Lavinia picked up dance, and it carried her to the University of Southern California.

USC taught her a lot of things, but the most important lesson came from outside of the classroom. Lavinia taught a dance class for a group of her friends, which turned into a few dozen students joining, and eventually, nearly one hundred students. She witnessed the beauty of impacting people positively, while making enough money to pay rent. That stuck with her

Lavinia stuck around Hollywood after graduation before gradually accepting that an acting career would not pan out.

She made her way back to New York to be closer to family.

Danny had been working in real estate with Vito.

The two brothers lived on the Upper West Side and owned a construction company that renovated apartments in Manhattan.

They knew the city like the back of their hands

And the one thing they felt was missing was a quality gym.

Lavinia, Danny, and Vito were the perfect co-founders:

• Lavinia had experience running the dance fitness class during undergrad, scaling attendance from ~10 to ~100 (10x growth)

• Danny was a young real estate mogul, and was able to find growing yet underpriced buildings in the city. Also a great fundraiser

• Vito was a craftsman and had been building beautiful furniture since he was a kid. He would do the interior design

• They were family; trust was never in question

The Errico’s first gym attracted New York socialites like a magnet. Lavinia marketed the gym as an alternative to happy hour

Gym goers raved about how clean the facilities were, which was surprising to the Errico’s… They thought that the amenities, design, and unique instructors would garner the most praise.

The year is 1989 and the team was brainstorming a name in Lavinia’s living room. Vito and his wife had just come back from Connecticut, where they stayed at the Equinox Hotel. Everyone loved the name Equinox; it had a mystical quality that left a lasting impression on the family.

On October 21st, 2004, Gordon Pennington spoke to Yale students in a public talk titled “Truth, Image, and Hyper-Media”.

He claimed:

• the opinions and values of people in Western society are manipulated by a barrage of 60,000 daily audio and visual promotions

• western culture has been desensitized by constant exposure to commercialism

• activities like watching television create artificial consumerist needs

• the public can resist temptation by becoming more educated as consumers and by valuing higher culture

Who is Gordon Pennington?

He is the former marketing director at Tommy Hilfiger, widely known for propelling the brand to the forefront of fashion relevance in the late 80s and 90s.

In 1990, Pennington happened to walk by an energetic group of young entrepreneurs posted on a porch in Manhattan. This was the second time he saw them there so he decided to stop and ask what they were working on.

Lavinia Errico told him they were working on a gym called Equinox.

Pennington explained that he was working for Tommy Hilfiger and was in charge of the re-brand taking place. He was interested in working with them on Equinox.

Lavinia said they couldn’t afford him.

He said not to worry - they would figure something out.

After that, Equinox spread through Manhattan like a forest fire and celebrities stuck to the brand like white on rice.

Fast forward to 1999, Equinox was five locations strong, with premium offerings and pricing power in the NYC area. The next year saw the chain grow to 11 locations in Manhattan.

The primary problem management faced was a capital constraint; the gyms found product-market-fit and now needed a war chest to expand.

Harvey Spevak was the CEO at the time, and after a year of planning and negotiations, Equinox was sold to private equity firms North Castle Partners and J.W. Childs Associates for more than $100M in December 2000.

The buyout left the Errico siblings with more money than they ever dreamed of and Equinox with the capital necessary to pursue nationwide expansion.

In 2005, the company was sold again, this time to Related Companies, for $505M.

Fun Fact: Related, a real estate company, was Equinox’s landlord at their flagship location.

Today, Equinox is an international brand, the face of upscale fitness, and a first mover among its peers.

In Barbells & Biomarkers, we talked about the Optimize by Equinox program that checks out at $40,000 per annum.

Optimize is designed to help Equinox’s most valued customers live longer through biohacking and white glove services.

• Equinox partnered with Function Health to run hundreds of lab tests and provide biohacking guidance for Optimize members.

• Membership includes 3 personal training sessions a week and 2 monthly sessions with nutritionists - 16 hours per month total

• Initial locations were NYC and Highland Park, Texas. The median household income in Highland Park is $250,000+

• Optimize is just the first of many initiatives in longevity that Equinox is working on

Longevity has been gaining traction over the past five years, and venture funding for businesses supporting this trend has increased accordingly.

Below are a few interesting concepts that got funded in the past twelve months:

Eternal

Overview: Eternal uses diagnostics and longevity medicine to help athletes live longer; they aim to marry sports science with longevity and healthcare. Will launch clinics in San Francisco and NYC in Spring 2025.

Founders: Alex Mather - co-founder of The Athletic

Key Investors: Lightspeed, Courtside Ventures

Amount Raised: $13M seed round

Superpower

Overview: Superpower wants to be the Tesla of healthcare by using a digital clinic to close the gap in longevity medicine between the 0.1% and everyone else.

Founders: Jacob Peters - CEO, Kevin Unkrich - CTO, Max Marchione - COO

Key Investors: Susa Ventures, Balaji Srinivasan, Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss

Amount Raised: $4M pre-seed round

Biograph

Overview: Biograph emerged from stealth in February 2025. The company calls itself the world’s “most advanced” preventive health and diagnostics clinic. It currently has a location in Silicon Valley with plans to open in New York City, and eventually expand globally

Founders: Dr. Peter Attia - longevity expert and influencer, John Hering - CEO

Key Investors: Vy Capital, WndrCo, Balaji Srinivasan

Amount Raised: $50M+ total

Headlines

• Private equity’s youth sports push continues with MaxPreps deal. FOS

• Teen who built viral AI app was rejected by 15 colleges. Techcrunch

• Goldman Sachs expands private equity access with G-PE fund. PBI

• Endeavor’s take private sparks hedge fund face off. Hollywood Reporter