Real founders. Real stories. Real impact.

Meet the foundersshaping thebusiness of yoga.

Behind every yoga business is a founder with a vision. Explore their journeys, lessons, and strategies to build, grow, and make an impact.

Shawna Krueger, yoga founder featured by Yoga Founders Magazine
Simon Borg-Olivier, yoga founder featured by Yoga Founders Magazine
Kimi Hajian, yoga founder featured by Yoga Founders Magazine
Eddie Arpin, yoga technology founder featured by Yoga Founders Magazine
Sage Rountree, yoga teacher and founder featured by Yoga Founders Magazine

83+Founder stories

WorldwideFounders across borders

Business insightsLessons that drive growth

Built forYoga entrepreneurs

Portrait of Amy Landry, Teacher Training behind The Ocean of YogaTeacher Training

How Amy Landry Turned Life’s Transitions Into The Ocean of Yoga

From a lifelong spiritual yearning and a career in professional dance, Amy Landry found her path through yoga, Ayurveda, and India’s classical traditions. Injury and an accident ended her dance career, but unexpected teaching opportunities opened a new direction. Over two decades, her work evolved through classes, retreats, workshops, mentoring, and a 300-hour teacher training for teachers seeking greater...

Portrait of Cassie Chechile, Studio Owners behind The Self StudioStudio Owner

How Cassie Chechile Built a Studio Before Opening One

I’m Cassie Chechile, a wellness entrepreneur, community-builder, and former communications professional based in New Rochelle, NY. Before stepping into the yoga world, I spent nearly a decade in public relations and marketing, helping global organizations shape strategy and storytelling. I’ve also supported my husband in building a successful home-renovation business, which gave me a strong foundation in operations, client service, and small-business leadership...

Portrait of Sigmar Berg, Founder behind lovetuner.comYoga Tech

Inside Sigmar Berg’s Vision: Harnessing the 528 Hz Frequency to Inspire Global Healing

I am an entrepreneur, artist, photographer, and fashion designer who has always sought to bring wellness and balance into the world through art, design, and conscious living. My curiosity led me to study and explore every corner of human expression—from creativity to spirituality—and this lifelong search eventually gave birth to my most meaningful creation: the Lovetuner. After years of learning and gathering wisdom from people across the world, I became deeply committed to introducing the Lovetuner as a bridge between healing and modern life. We are living in a time of deep division and instability, but also one of great potential for transformation. My mission is to bring tangible healing through love and sound—to help people reconnect with themselves and with one another...

Portrait of Shawna Krueger, Author / Creator behind Leadership and YogaCommunity Builder

How Shawna Krueger Blends Yoga & Leadership to Shape a New Generation of Changemakers

I wanted to change the world when I graduated college. But I found myself sitting in a cubicle in a law firm doing work that made me question all of my dreams. I felt useless, and more than anything I felt sad. I used to sleep during all of my allowed breaks during the day, and I felt so low energy that I had to do jumping jacks in the bathroom to wake myself back up enough to be alert. I was no stranger to struggling with mental health, as I had for years, but not being connected to a feeling of purpose threw gasoline on the fire. One day, I stumbled on the yogis of instagram. I consumed their content with a crazed thirst. They made some part of my soul come alive like never before, and even though I did yoga growing up, I never realized how magical it could be until I saw it through their eyes...

Portrait of Kimi Hajian, Retreat Host behind alkimiapp.kimihajian.comYoga Tech

When a Yoga Teacher Chooses Consistency and Builds a Business Rooted in Authentic Study

I am a half Iranian, half Czech girl born in London and raised in the Czech Republic. At eighteen I moved back to London to study marketing because I loved creativity and psychology. That path led me into seven years of corporate marketing where I managed campaigns, worked with major brands, and learned how the digital world moves. Yoga arrived much earlier in my life when I was sixteen. My first class was Bikram only because someone told me it burns calories, and as a hypermobile teenager I was suddenly good at it. My ego loved that, but soon I realised yoga was much more than a hot room and sweat...

Portrait of Simon Borg Olivier, Teacher Training behind simonborgolivier.comTeacher Training

Teaching Yoga or Following Rules? Simon Borg Wants You to Rethink the Difference

I’m a father, a scientist, a physiotherapist, and (many would say) a bit bananas. I love to dance, party with younger people, play guitar, sing with my students, and share good energy. I’d say I’m just a guy who likes to live and enjoy my life and help others enjoy theirs. My journey into yoga was anything but typical. At age six, my father taught me advanced breath-holding techniques — unknowingly initiating me into the world of pranayama. By age eight, an Olympic athlete guided me through exercises that helped me control and massage my internal organs using breath. I didn’t know it then, but I was learning yogic kriyas and bandhas. At 17 I was introduced to a Tibetan lama, through which I started exploring tantric (not sexual tantra but essence of tantra) philosophy and practices and after suffering injuries from conventional fitness methods, I've found yoga which provided relief for that - after that everything clicked and I dove deep into practicing more than 6h daily for the next decade...

Portrait of Rowie Geraerts, Studio Owner behind spiritualpretzel.com & www.shizencollective.comStudio Owner

The Founder Who Found Freedom by Holding It Lightly: Insights from a Grounded Yogi

A life outside of yoga? For me, everything is yoga. That’s why my Instagram blurs the line between professional and personal. My dad brought me to my first yoga class when I was sixteen, a rebellious teenager who didn’t expect to fall in love with it. I’ve been practicing ever since. The rebellion is still there, but now it’s more focused, more useful. Part of me moving to Japan was rebellion too—it was probably the last place anyone expected me to end up, including myself. I’ve always been a traveler, and yoga has been my grounding force no matter where I go. I completed my first 200-hour teacher training in India at twenty-one, and since then, yoga has been part of my everyday life. Over the years, I’ve logged more than 1500 hours of teacher trainings as both student and facilitator...

Portrait of Sage Rountree, Studio Owner behind sagerountree.comYoga Business Coach

Sage Rountree: PhD Scholar Turned Yoga Entrepreneur with 13 Books, Strong Legacy

I come to yoga from a very different world. I spent seven years in graduate school and earned a PhD in English literature from UNC Chapel Hill. My professional life started in academic publishing, where I worked for a dozen years with Duke, Cambridge, and Oxford University Presses. Along the way, I spent six years as a public radio announcer at WFDD and WUNC, which gave me production skills I still use today for podcasts and audiobooks. Outside of work, I’ve always been an athlete. I’ve competed in everything from 400-meter sprints to ultramarathons and triathlons of every distance, even racing on Team USA for the 2008 World Triathlon Championships. I’m also a certified endurance sports coach through USA Triathlon, USA Cycling, and the Road Runners’ Club of America...

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