Ryan Clarke & Blake Beltram

What we talked about

A travel problem became a business idea

Ryan Clarke did not start with a theory about fitness marketplaces. After professional Australian rules football, he went backpacking and wanted to keep training. Gym access was harder than expected: memberships, unclear drop-in prices and unfamiliar booking processes made a simple workout complicated. In this Making Names conversation with Aidan Evans, Clarke and Blake Beltram explain how that frustration became Goer. Their idea is to make unused fitness and wellness capacity easier to discover and book, without asking every customer to take on another subscription.

Flexibility matters as much as the discount

The founders describe a marketplace for last-minute gym visits, classes and wellness services. In their interview model, listings cover today and tomorrow rather than a calendar stretching weeks ahead. Beltram groups the barriers they want to remove into cost, commitment and complexity. Clarke emphasizes another benefit: trying different places without being tied to one studio. They are not arguing that every membership should disappear. A regular class, familiar instructor and established community can still matter. Goer is intended to complement those routines by opening up other experiences when a person's schedule allows.

A LinkedIn message turned into a partnership

Clarke reached out to Beltram for advice after starting the business in Australia. Beltram, who founded Mindbody, initially became an adviser. Their relationship developed into a conversation about joining full-time, followed by a trip to Austin to meet investors and studio owners. Both describe trust and shared values as central to the decision. For Beltram, Clarke's persistence and willingness to act mattered alongside the market opportunity. For Clarke, the partnership brought industry experience to a problem he understood personally. Neither presents their new venture as an outcome already secured.

Simple design should earn a user’s trust

Beltram connects product design with his background in writing: communicate what matters without unnecessary material. His example is onboarding. If an app only needs to establish that someone is over eighteen, why demand a full birthday before offering anything useful? He prefers asking for information when it becomes relevant, after delivering value and building trust. Clarke adds that feedback from potential users outside friends and family has been important. The shared standard is practical: does the product solve the problem someone actually has, with less effort than the alternatives?

Austin is a place to test, not a guarantee

Recorded ahead of their planned Austin launch, the conversation captures the work of building both sides of a marketplace. The founders need participating businesses and people willing to book. They see Austin's active fitness culture, personal networks and collaborative business community as reasons to start there. Clarke talks about dedication and being willing to fail; Beltram talks about creating value across the ecosystem. Their ambition is larger than a discounted class, but the immediate task is concrete: build relationships, listen to users and turn available capacity into something people choose to use.