When the pandemic hit and school went remote, Joe Titus worried about how to keep his kids active without gym class or sports structure.
He believed that his child's school did not have effective resources to teach physical education online. In fact, no such resource seemed to exist at all. Instead, the school had a patchwork of YouTube videos and online curriculum, but nothing like online resources developed for academic subjects.
Titus, who was working in finance at the time, saw an opportunity and in 2020, along with friends and parents, he began dreaming up Hiveclass, a company that would provide high-quality sports and physical education education through video.
He has a natural co-founder in Paul Suhr, a childhood friend who has had a long career in education technology and currently serves as Chief Product Officer at Hiveclass. Rounding out the launch team was Lisa Ezekiel, a physical education teacher and Hiveclass curriculum leader.
According to Titus, the company's CEO, physical education is one of the most missed classes in school. This is a big problem because in New York City, where Hiveclass is based, passing a physical education exam is a graduation requirement for public schools. “Physical education looks the same as it did in the 1970s, but it may actually be worse,” Titus says. “You can see that by looking at childhood obesity rates.”
Hiveclass's founders realized early on that they needed to target school districts, homeschool networks, and library systems rather than selling subscriptions to individual parents because the cost of acquisition was too high. I noticed. Hiveclass's main selling point is that it allows students to recover physical education credits and allows schools to expand their offerings.
The online platform officially launched in 2022, and its video library currently includes more than 2,000 videos in English and Spanish, ranging from traditional team sports to yoga, strength training, and self-defense.
Early indicators suggest this is a home run. The company reports that 97% of its customers renew after their first year. Less than two years after its launch in March 2024, the company reached $1 million in lifetime revenue. Titus hopes to reach $100 million in revenue by 2030. Earlier this year, the company signed a contract with the Department of Defense to provide its platform at more than 800 military bases.
Traditional marketing methods such as advertising and social media have not been effective in reaching purchasing decisions in the district. Instead, the Hiveclass team has just 11 full-time employees but participates in more than 40 conferences and offers professional development webinars that showcase the company's products.
Hiveclass raised a seed round of approximately $1.3 million in 2022 and is currently looking to raise additional external funding. “Not many companies are focused on sustainability,” Titus says. “We wanted to ensure that our business was not solely dependent on venture capital funding.”
For other companies just beginning to raise capital or bring a product to market, Titus says, “Speak from the heart.” “Growing up with immigrant parents who didn't really understand American youth sports culture, I learned a lot from physical education,” he says. “I felt that all children should have access to quality instruction.”