Content: Why this platform and what is it exactly The Yoga industry was broken before the lockdown The lockdown made it worse for yoga studios and yoga teachers Live Yoga Teachers disrupts the market to democratize yoga Why we’ll succeed Milestones Roadmap

1. Media Kit
https://liveyogateachers.com/
Updated 13/11/2021 1

2. Media Kit
➔ Why this platform and what is it exactly
➔ The Yoga industry was broken before the lockdown
➔ The lockdown made it worse for yoga studios and yoga teachers
➔ Live Yoga Teachers disrupts the market to democratize yoga
➔ Why we’ll succeed
➔ Milestones
➔ Roadmap
Journalists : please do get in touch if you have any question:
hello@liveyogateachers.com, Photos are available in the folder for your article.
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3. Why Live Yoga Teachers
“I have been an Iyengar yoga student for more than 15 years, and I’ve never practised as
much as during lockdown, thanks to my favourite teachers who organised yoga classes on
Zoom.
I decided to create this platform to make it easier for yoga teachers to organise online
classes, and for students to attend them.
Sebastien, a developer I have worked with before, was happy to join me in this adventure”
Elodie Gythiel, Co-founder
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4. What is Live Yoga Teachers
Live Yoga Teachers is a platform connecting independent yoga teachers to their
students
➔ Independent teachers teach livestream classes of all types of yoga and all
levels
➔ Students book directly with teachers, and we take a small commission
➔ We promote the platform via online marketing to help teachers find new
students
➔ We keep costs as low as possible to be able to offer a low commission
➔ Teachers can display their studio classes for students to attend in-person
classes as well
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5. Benefits for teachers and students
Benefits for the teacher:
Teachers get a personal page that ranks on Google and a dashboard to take
bookings. The platform does all the admin (receipts, video links, class reminders)
Teachers decide on class prices, timings, duration, and they keep their student
details—no need for a personal website, no fixed costs, more students.
Benefits for the student
Students book, pay online and practice like in a studio from the comfort of their
home, without the commute. They can try the platform for free. They support their
local community by booking with a local teacher and by attending studio classes if
they wish.
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6. The Yoga industry was broken before the lockdown
Yoga is the only sport (and of course it’s more than a sport) that doesn't have any
kind of competition, race or tournament, and yoga is not featured in the Olympics.
As a student, you don't even get a reward when you reach a certain level!
No teams, no countries represented, no fans, not much merchandising, no
advertising revenue = no money to finance yoga practice centres.
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7. The Yoga industry was broken before the lockdown
Studio owners must invest their personal funds in their studio, making it hard to be
profitable. (£55K is the minimum you need to start a studio). Studio owners have
to find solutions to make it work:
● The studio owner is usually the teacher with the most classes at the studio to
avoid having to pay for teachers
● Studios often offer a high proportion of beginner classes to attract new
students, and only a few advanced ones.
● Studios make more money from teacher training than student teaching, so
they sometimes offer teacher training classes instead of student classes.
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8. The Yoga industry was broken before the lockdown
Teachers find it hard to live off teaching yoga
Teachers can’t find enough studios to teach. They spend a lot of time travelling
from one studio to another. They don’t always get paid well, making it hard for
them to live off yoga teaching. The lack of regulation in teacher training also drives
an overcapacity of yoga teachers.
High prices and limited choice for students
Prices are often high, and the choice of type of yoga, teacher and level is limited.
Students have to travel far away to find the right teacher and the right level - often
ending up having to buy 10 class passes in 3-4 different studios.
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9. Lockdown made it worst for yoga studios and yoga teachers
There was never as many yoga practitioners in the UK as during the pandemic. But
many studios had to close. All that extra demand went to fill free classes on
YouTube. Yoga with Adriene, based in the US, doubled subscribed members during
lockdown to 10 million!
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10. Lockdown made it worst for yoga studios and yoga teachers
Covid 19 lasted longer than the government's help:
When the full lockdown was required and for about one year, studios got help like
any other businesses: furlough scheme, bounce back loans, council help, and
other grants. Some yoga studios also made some substantial revenue from online
classes.
But recovery was too slow for smaller studios and many had to close, for example,
Yoga Base in Islington, Yoga Place on Bethnal Green Road, Life Centre in Islington,
or Tooting Iyengar Centre - in London alone.
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11. Lockdown made it worst for yoga studios and yoga teachers
Bigger studios managed to negotiate further with their landlords and investors and
are trying to stay afloat in the UK, but we can already see worrying trends:
● Yoga Works closed all their 60 locations in the US
● Tigre Yoga closed 5 out of 8 locations in France
● Our survey reveals that 9% of teachers have seen their studio close
permanently.
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12. A surge in dissolved yoga studios from october 2020
Source: Companies House website (any company with the word yoga or yogi in its name)
No “dissolved” data available from April 2020 til September 2020 12

13. Live Yoga Teachers disrupts the market to democratize yoga
Before the lockdown, you only had the choice between recorded classes and
studio classes. But now there is livestream yoga.
Our platform is unique. It’s the only livestream yoga classes marketplace:
➔ Teachers get from 80% to 95% of the class revenue (depending on the number of
students they teach to)
➔ We use the commission to cover the platform running costs (Stripe fees and video
provider) and invest it in online marketing to bring more students to the platform
➔ We keep the price paid by teachers below the cost of a personal website per year.
➔ We let teachers promote their studio classes (links to studio pages), so studios and
local communities can benefit from new students
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14. Why we’ll succeed
Live Yoga Teachers is self-funded to stay independent. We have the skills to drive
the project while keeping our costs minimal, and we both run it as a side business
of our freelancing activity.
➔ Sebastien is a web developer specialised in Craft CMS (the CMS used for the platform)
and has worked on many projects as a freelancer after a few years at JP Morgan.
➔ Elodie is an online marketing consultant specialising in search marketing (SEO and
Google Ads) after years of working as a marketing manager for low-cost airlines
(EasyJet and AirAsia).
➔ Elodie has been practising Iyengar Yoga for many years, first in Paris, then in London
and has an extended network in the Iyengar community
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15. Why we’ll succeed
➔ Yoga is ideal to practice in front of a
screen as you are bound by your mat
➔ No commute required. More time =
practice more often
➔ “I am less disturbed by other students”
➔ “I try harder than with recorded classes”
➔ “I can decide to go at the last minute”
➔ “It’ less intimidating”
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46% of students said they would like to keep practising online after the pandemic:

16. Milestones
➔ We’ve been working on the platform since July 2020, and created the
company on the 22nd of September 2020.
➔ We released the beta in April 2021, and the platform has been open to all
teachers and students since the end of August.
➔ There are now six active teachers on the platform and we are ready to take on
more.
➔ We are available in the UK, planning to open to new countries in 2022.
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17. Roadmap
➔ In-person teaching (rented studio, park, city hall, office)
➔ Private class booking
➔ Group booking
➔ 10 class passes per teacher
➔ Unlimited passes
➔ Site-wide class passes
➔ Deeper profile page customisation
➔ Class booking and class attendance analytics
➔ Sell recorded classes, playlists, books, pdf, podcasts, equipment
➔ More languages and currencies (French, German, Spanish, Italian)
➔ Retreat management
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18. Let’s keep in touch
Facebook
Twitter
Linked In
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Newsletter
Email Us
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