Real founders. Real stories. Real impact.
Behind every yoga business is a founder with a vision. Explore their journeys, lessons, and strategies to build, grow, and make an impact.
82+Founder stories
WorldwideFounders across borders
Business insightsLessons that drive growth
Built forYoga entrepreneurs
Studio Owners - Tokyo, Japan & Honolulu, HI
Movement helped Juri Ko navigate grief, personal transitions, and the process of reconnecting with herself. After discovering a deeper side of yoga in Hawaiʻi, she completed her teacher training and began building communities around movement
Studio OwnerDolly Reno’s journey to founding Noble Yoga began with yoga as a place of safety, grounding, and reconnection during profound personal change. After careers in restaurants and film, she became a full-time yoga teacher and eventually...
Studio OwnerI’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...
Studio OwnerA 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...
Studio OwnerI’m Carol Schoonhoven, 34 years old, born in Colombia. For as long as I can remember, I carried the weight of borderline personality disorder, depression, and anxiety. As a teenager, I tried to ignore it all, but over time the heaviness grew. I turned to alcohol and self-harm as a way to cope. Later, I entered a toxic marriage filled with emotional abuse. When that marriage ended in 2022, I hit rock bottom. The depression felt impossible to escape. At that point, I realized I had a choice to make—not just for myself, but for the family and friends who had stood by me. I finally listened. I went to therapy. My therapist encouraged me to try yoga again. I had practiced before but never truly committed. This time, everything was different. I embraced it fully. With every practice, I felt a shift inside me...
Studio OwnerI live in a beautiful village in the lap of the Bernese Oberland. For eight years I have made Switzerland my home, teaching full time and now project managing a not-for-profit Yoga Shala. Before settling here, I travelled extensively in India and spent several years in Mysore practicing with Saraswathi Jois and Dr MA Jayashree. Before that, I was a midwife and part-time yoga teacher in London. I first encountered yoga as a child through the television adaptation of Peter Brooks' production of The Mahabharata. I remember sitting, wrapped by the stories and characters. At 21, I practiced my first asana class and knew immediately that this would be my life. At 24, I began my first teacher training with the British Wheel of Yoga...
Studio OwnerI’m a proud mother to a beautiful three year old girl, a wife deeply loved by a wonderful man, and a daughter to the most supportive parents. I believe in lifelong learning and growing into a better version of oneself. Kindness, joy, and meaningful connections are values I hold close to my heart. Over the years, I’ve worn many hats: academic, technical writer, school teacher. But no matter where life took me professionally, yoga was always part of the picture. It began during university as a way to stay fit. But the more I practiced, the more it gave me — mental clarity, emotional healing, and spiritual growth. After nearly a decade of classes, I enrolled in a 200 hour training with INSPYA Yoga School. At the time, I had no plans to teach...
Studio OwnerI’m a truth-teller, boundary keeper, and mom to two incredible boys, Jayden and Jace. I also carry the love of our daughter Raleigh, who lives in my heart and beyond. I grew up in Amarillo, Texas, but it was in Northern California that I became a mother and began to grow into myself. We returned to Texas in 2006, and my work at lululemon reconnected me to community and to parts of myself I had tucked away. Yoga first found me at 19, but it became my lifeline after my mom’s two brain aneurysms left me running from my emotions. Years later, a goal to teach took me to Peru for a month-long training and sacred travel to Machu Picchu, an experience that changed my life. It was there I discovered not only my calling as a teacher but also a deeper purpose—to create spaces where others could heal...
Studio OwnerI’ve always been a curious soul, drawn to learning and trying new things while staying grounded in what feels meaningful. Over the years, I’ve worked in the fitness and service industries, as a flight attendant, in physical therapy, and in real estate and development. Each role shaped me into who I am today. Yoga entered my life in 2013 during a time when I was working long hours at a busy orthopedic clinic, competing in triathlons, and generally living out of balance. I was looking for something that could help me turn inward and reconnect with myself. I found that through the Ashtanga Yoga practice, and soon began seeking out every opportunity to learn from teachers both locally and beyond. In 2017, I completed my first teacher training in medically based therapeutic yoga while continuing to deepen my Ashtanga practice through travel, study, and mentorship with certified and authorized teachers. In 2018, I began teaching two Ashtanga classes a week at a local studio in St. Louis while still working in physical therapy...
Studio OwnerFrom the time I was five, I knew I wanted to open a studio. In kindergarten, I told my dance teacher I would one day run my own dance space, and I never let go of that vision. I studied dance and business in undergrad, then earned a Master’s in small business entrepreneurship, all with one goal in mind. Yoga first appeared in my life as a required class in my dance degree, then found its way back to me while finishing my master’s. Early in my practice, I sat in a large chain studio, surrounded by perfectly styled practitioners in matching sets, and felt like I didn’t belong. I wasn’t there for aesthetics. I was just trying to quiet my mind and body through post‑college transitions. That moment of feeling out of place sparked a new idea — a welcoming, space where people could show up exactly as they are...
Your next yoga website takes 15 minutes to build—and it’s made to help build visibility, trust, and trial bookings—while helping you appear higher in Google searches in your city.
Free DemoBusiness Library
Subscribe for founder breakdowns, business lessons, tool recommendations, and new story updates.
Launch a new yoga website or redesign your current one with a one-month free trial to test its performance. Continue afterward for $49 per month.
02Help your studio appear higher when people search for yoga classes nearby, or reach clients worldwide when you teach online.
03Grow an active presence with high-quality carousels, posts, reels, and stories created to earn attention from people who genuinely care about yoga.
Submit a founder story for editorial review and reach readers who care about yoga business, studio growth, retreats, teacher trainings, wellness products, and mindful entrepreneurship.
