Meet Jeong Kim | Gym co-owner & tech entrepreneur

We had the good fortune of connecting with Jeong Kim and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jeong, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
I have been an entrepreneur all my life and when presented an opportunity to open up the new gym by my best friend, I just could not refuse it. There are many reasons why I accepted this offer and decided to team up with my partner naturally.

1. I have been a very active person but as I got older, I could tell my level of energy is getting low and I felt now is the time to get back into fitness and get myself trained. When I took few crossfit classes, I immediately fell in love with the “sports”/”training” that I knew I would want to do this for a long time and I am passionate about.

2. I have two daughters who are in sports. While they are athletic, they lack strength that often times it is leading to lack of confidence in their plays. Felt crossfit would be a good opportunity for them to learn how to train themselves properly and benefit from both cardio and strengthening training aspects.

3. From business perspective, my lifelong friend and partner has been in the industry last 15 years and one of the few crossfit owner that survived. Success formula was there and I was confident my background and chemistry with him will make this brand better. Also lots of gyms closed down in the area that we knew we could capture those people who have lost their gyms.

4. I think of starting this business as I bought the lifelong gym membership for my family. As long as our family benefits from this special “membership”, there is no failure.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
We are excited about being part of crossfit and local San Diego Community. While we offer one of the biggest and best facility and the best knowledgeable and friendly coaches, we are providing the membership at a very reasonable price. One of the biggest challenges we face as a crossfit gym owner is that the crossfit is not for everyone and there is a higher barrier to entry because of its hardcore image. However, a lot of times, every work out is scalable and under the right directions by the coach, it is a great training that anyone can easily get started and get the best workout result. To do so, we offer the longest free trial period – a week. New members can not really see a value of crossfit from taking one or two classes. We felt that one week is the minimum period where new members come and go through several workouts, see what it feels to be a part of crossfit community and most importantly, feel the difference in the strength and conditioning.

While there could be so many formulas for making crossfit or any gym successful, our belief is in the community. We are doing our best to fit in the community and give back to the crossfit and local community as much as possible. All these efforts do not lie and that is one of the biggest reasons why we stay survived and got our names out in San Diego.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
La Jolla beach for surfing, Belly Up for entertainment and Pacific Coast Grill for dining. San Diego area has so much to offer but those three would be my recommendation.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My wife, Ally Choi. She has been biggest supporter and cheerleader in my every entrepreneurial journey. Good or bad, successful or unsuccessful, she has been there and given me all the support she could.

Website: www.crossfitfortius.com

Instagram: crossfitfortius_north

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vraykim/

Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/crossfit-fortius-north-san-diego

Image Credits
https://bcottonphoto.pixieset.com/ (Brittany)