AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sep 29, 2026--
An open spot in a fitness class or wellness appointment has a short shelf life. Every day across Austin, businesses carry the same staffing, instructor, and facility costs even as spaces go unused. Once a session begins, both the opening and its potential revenue disappear.
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Meanwhile, someone nearby might have booked it if the price were right, booking were simple, and it didn’t require another subscription.
Goer, launching today in Austin, was built to connect those two realities.
The app lets people book last-minute deals on fitness classes, wellness services, and gym day passes without a membership, subscription, or contract. Participating businesses decide what to offer, when to release it, and how much to charge. Listings become available within 48 hours of a session and can be added until two hours before it begins. Businesses can also lower the price as the start time approaches.
The model arrives as consumers increasingly seek affordability and flexibility. According to the Health & Fitness Association, 61% of non-customers surveyed across 10 countries identify cost as a major barrier to purchasing a membership, package, or class. Additionally, U.S. fitness facilities served nearly 96 million customers in 2024, although 77 million held memberships.
“We built fitness industry infrastructure around the business owners, and necessarily so at the time. Focusing on consumer needs and habits is the next great opportunity,” said Blake Beltram, Goer’s co-founder and CEO, who founded Mindbody, which was acquired in 2019 for $1.9 billion. “The supply is there in abundance, and there is pent-up demand. We’re connecting them in a win-win-win way that benefits everybody in the ecosystem.”
Founder and COO Ryan Clarke conceived Goer after spending eight months traveling the world and repeatedly struggling to find simple, short-term gym access. The former professional Australian rules footballer trained in nearly a hundred gyms across five continents.
“The biggest competitor for fitness and wellness businesses isn’t the business down the street,” Clarke said. “It’s the couch and the device and the screen. Goer’s job is to get more people off of those things and through the doors of Austin’s fitness and wellness businesses. When we achieve that, and we will, everyone wins.”
Goer is limiting its app marketplace to 100 ‘ Founding Partners ’ for now, with dozens of owners listing fitness and wellness inventory on launch day, and more coming onboard daily through October. In the spirit of community, Goer has also partnered with 20 local instructors, studio owners, and community leaders who hold equity in the company.
Goer’s pre-seed round was led by Mike Gianelli of Athlon.vc, with participation from Ben Kaplan of Relatable.
Goer is available now exclusively in Austin, on iOS and Android.
About Goer
Goer is a last-minute deals marketplace for unused spots in fitness and wellness businesses, with no subscription required. Goer connects fitness-seekers, travelers, and wellness junkies to business owners burdened with otherwise unused spots in gyms, fitness classes, and wellness centers.
Goer significantly reduces three common barriers to staying fit and active: cost, commitment, and complexity. Consumers can easily search for dropped-price deals on nearby drop-ins and day passes and pay only for what they book, while business owners control the price, timing, and number of spots they release on Goer.
Founder and COO Ryan Clarke started Goer after struggling to find simple, short-term gym access while traveling. A former professional Australian rules footballer, he played eight seasons in the AFL for the Sydney Swans and North Melbourne. Co-founder and CEO Blake Beltram founded Mindbody as a solopreneur; it later became the industry’s leading fitness management software platform and sold for $1.9 billion in 2019. Visit getgoer.com for more.
Goer shows Austin fitness classes with last-minute prices and available spots, all bookable without a subscription. (Image courtesy of Goer)
Three news outlets President Donald Trump abruptly banished from White House grounds this month asked a federal court to block the ban until the case is resolved, saying the administration has “persisted in unpredictably and inconsistently implementing its ban” despite a judge’s restraining order — including selectively barring CNN from White House pool duties.
Meanwhile, the White House has spent days fiercely defending three taxpayer-funded advertisements that glorify Trump and are nearing at least $1.5 million in public spending, calling them public service announcements like those used in past administrations. But the ads attracted mounting criticism Monday, including from members of Trump’s own party.
Here's the latest:
The chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee is grilling the Trump administration about its recent spate of taxpayer-funded TV ads.
The Maine Republican has asked the White House and the Office of Management and Budget for “a full accounting of any expenditures” used to make the ads, a committee spokesperson said Tuesday.
It remains unclear what part of the administration is funding the three ads, which glorify Trump and are nearing at least $1.5 million in public spending.
Criticism against the ads has mounted, including from Trump’s own party. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., on Monday said they “shouldn’t be paid for with taxpayer dollars.”
The White House has defended the ads, saying they are public service announcements like those of past administrations.
Smith told lawmakers in his opening statement that he stands by the criminal cases he brought against Trump, saying investigators developed “proof beyond a reasonable doubt that Trump engaged in serious crimes against our nation.”
Smith said his team’s actions were “based on the facts and the law” without regard to President Trump’s political beliefs.
“If asked whether to prosecute a former president today based on the same facts, I would do so regardless of whether the president was a Republican or Democrat,” Smith told the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Republicans have accused Smith of bending ordinary procedures in an overzealous and politically motivated pursuit of the president.
The prosecutor who brought criminal charges against Trump is expected to be grilled by senators about his team’s access to the phone records of GOP lawmakers, among other things.
Smith has previously defended the subpoenas as “common practice” in investigations.
According to a copy of his prepared remarks, Smith will tell senators that he “will not be silenced by continued threats of prosecution” from the Trump administration and that he believes the rule of law is being threatened like never before.
U.S.-Canada relations, already tense, are likely to deteriorate further after the United States went ahead early Tuesday with a decision to ban nearly $1 billion worth of Canadian imports, including alcoholic beverages, dairy products and motorcycles.
The ban amounts to barely a ripple in $880 billion worth of annual two-way trade between the two northern neighbors. But it marks another ratcheting up of President Trump’s second-term trade war with America’s longtime ally and trading partner.
The import ban “certainly won’t do anything to help the trade tensions between the United States and Canada,″ said trade attorney Patrick Childress, a partner at Holland & Knight and a former U.S. trade official.
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Iran’s currency fell to a new record low Tuesday, with traders in Tehran exchanging more than 2.5 million rials to the U.S. dollar in a stark reflection of how the war in the Middle East has steadily eroded the Iranian economy.
The latest decline came just 27 days after the rial hit its previous record low of 2.2 million to the dollar Sept. 2. The currency has repeatedly reached new lows since the war began in February.
The Iranian economy has been under duress for years in the face of international sanctions. But a U.S. naval blockade on Iranian oil and new sanctions imposed since the start of the war have sent it into freefall.
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The White House has spent days fiercely defending three taxpayer-funded advertisements that glorify President Donald Trump and are nearing at least $1.5 million in public spending, calling them public service announcements like those used in past administrations.
“Don’t let the Fake News get away with their lies about our epic Public Service Announcements that have been running on tv,” White House communications director Steven Cheung posted on X on Sunday.
But the Republican administration’s ads attracted mounting criticism on Monday, including from members of Trump’s own party.
“It shouldn’t be paid for with taxpayer dollars,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., told reporters.
Multiple legal experts consulted by The Associated Press said the ads appear to run afoul of federal statutes, including a law against congressionally appropriated funds being used for “publicity or propaganda” and a law that limits the partisan political activities of government employees.
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Three news outlets President Donald Trump abruptly banished from White House grounds this month asked a federal court to block the ban until the case is resolved, saying the administration has “persisted in unpredictably and inconsistently implementing its ban” despite a judge’s restraining order — including selectively barring CNN from White House pool duties.
“The White House’s words and actions leave little doubt that it will immediately reinstitute a complete ban of CNN, MS NOW, and POLITICO if allowed the opportunity,” lawyers for CNN, MS NOW and Politico wrote in a filing late Monday.
”Because the ban is an unlawful assault on the most fundamental First Amendment freedoms and will inflict irreparable harm on Plaintiffs and the public if not restrained, this Court should preliminarily enjoin its enforcement pending the resolution of this case,” the filing said.
The filing came a day after the Trump administration made clear it was not backing down from its contention that the sudden ban, which began Sept. 19, was justified.
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President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office of the White House, Monday, Sept. 28, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
President Donald Trump listens during an event in the Oval Office of the White House, Monday, Sept. 28, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)