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This Breathing App Sold to Peloton for Millions

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App Masters10:08Open on YouTube
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The bottom line

Starting with a narrow niche and growing outward can lead to a real exit, as Breathwrk's breathing-exercises app did when Peloton bought it for about $2.2 million. Founders should build a focused base of downloads and revenue first, then move up to broader categories like meditation or wellness.

Key takeaways

  • A tiny niche app can still be sold to a large company. 0:00
    • Peloton's SEC filing shows $2.2 million used for the acquisition, announced October 1, 2025.
    • The app reportedly raised only about $200,000 in seed funding, so the exit was roughly a 10x multiple.
  • The app won by owning a narrow search term, not by competing as another meditation app. 4:01
    • It ranked well for "breathwork" (spelled with no O) and for "breathing exercises".
    • Early on it offered simple breathing exercises led by its own trainers.
  • Animated, interactive onboarding helps turn users into paying customers. 2:02
    • Subtle animations make the app feel more sophisticated, so it can charge more. Clients A/B testing animation in onboarding see higher conversions.
    • The flow has a lung test, goal and time-of-day questions, a push notification ask, then a paywall before sign up.
  • Peloton kept the product and the onboarding, but turned the app into an add-on. 1:30
    • Peloton All Access and App+ members get it free, which likely limits revenue from that group.
    • The home screen now shows Peloton instructors and daily classes instead of the founders' own trainers.
  • Starting niche and moving up the category beats starting broad and moving down. 8:59
    • After building downloads and sales, a niche app can expand to meditation, anxiety relief or wellness.
    • Not every niche app will sell to a company like Peloton, but it can still earn its own revenue.

Start with the niche. Build that foundation of downloads and sales and then go up channel instead of trying to start too broad and then going down channel.

Steve P. Young

Chapter summaries

0:00 The Peloton sale

The sale is documented in a public filing, and the app still earns steady downloads and revenue under Peloton.

  • The deal can be checked against a public filing. 0:46
    • Steve asked ChatGPT when and for how much, and it linked the SEC filing.
    • App Figures shows current downloads and revenue as pretty decent.
    • Peloton owned the app by September 30, 2025, a day before the public announcement.
    • The figures come from ChatGPT and the filing link, not from Steve's own research.

1:43 The onboarding walkthrough

The onboarding makes the user do something before it shows a price.

  • It opens with a health promise and a lung test. 2:29
    • The promise: five minutes a day lowers stress, improves sleep and boosts energy.
    • The test has the user exhale as long as possible.
    • Steve exhaled for 20 seconds and scored 70.
    • He called it a pretty cool interaction.
  • Personal questions build commitment before the paywall. 3:15
    • A loading screen says the plan is being customized, then the paywall appears.
    • Steve got a discount offer, then the sign up.
    • Steve says this is more proof that a paywall before sign up works a bit better.
    • Peloton members sign in, authorize, and skip the paywall. They may still see the onboarding.

4:16 Is a niche too small?

A narrow starting point is enough to build a business.

  • Breathwork started with only breathing exercises. 4:19
    • Steve answers developers who fear being too niche.
    • The app skipped meditation and targeted one use case.
    • The fear he quotes: I don't want to be too niche. Is it too niche?
    • Ranking well came from that one use case, not a broad wellness pitch.

5:04 Breathwrk's onboarding before the sale

The pre-sale app hooked users with playful interaction before it asked them to pay.

  • Onboarding was a string of small interactions that made users engage before the paywall. 5:44
    • The lung test asks users to hold down, exhale, then let go, and an animation shows a lung score.
    • Animations play as users tap through, and the flow ends with a high five.
    • Today's onboarding looks very similar. The main change is that it no longer asks whether you are a Peloton user.
    • The paywall is a hard paywall with a free trial, and the sign up can be skipped or completed.
  • The old home screen was built around simple breathing exercises. 7:15
    • Breathing exercises sat at the top, with other content below based on the user's goals.
    • Sessions were short, such as 6 minutes, and the founders' own trainers led them.
    • A relaxation section sat alongside the exercises.
    • The layout feels similar today, but the starting point was plain breathing exercises.

7:56 Why staying niche still pays

A niche app can earn on its own, may find an exit, and can widen its category later.

  • Founders should not fear starting or staying in a niche, even though few will sell to Peloton. 8:09
    • A bootstrapped app with little seed funding is unlikely to get this kind of exit.
    • An app does not have to be another meditation app to succeed through its own revenue.
    • Steve P. Young prefers a bottoms-up strategy, building a base first and then moving up the category.
    • Starting too broad and then narrowing, which he calls going down channel, is the path he would avoid.

In the growth library

Steve P. Young, Founder of App Masters, app marketing agency. A niche breathing exercises app, Breathwrk, started narrow with one use case, ranked for specific keywords and used animated, interactive onboarding before a paywall. It was reportedly acquired by Peloton for $2.2 million after about $200,000 in seed funding, which shows a niche focus can lead to a real exit.

Lessons that draw on this:

More from App Masters · The whole library, and ask it anything

Transcript258 lines
0:00

Coming up, we're going to break down a niche breathing exercises app that sold to Peloton for over $2 million. Stay tuned. >> [bell] >> What is up, App Nation? It is Steve P. Young, founder of appmasters.com. And if you're too afraid to be a niche app, well, I'm going to show you an app that sold to Peloton for over $2 million. And according to ChatGPT, it raised about 200,000 in seed funding, but eventually sold to Peloton for over $2 million in September 2025.

0:42

So, without further ado, let's get into it. All right. Here's the announcement. This is my ChatGPT chat. When and how much did Breathwork sell to Peloton? Peloton acquired Breathwork by September 30th, 2025, and publicly announced it on October 1st, 2025. Peloton's SEC filing says it used 2.2 million for the acquisition. So, this is according to ChatGPT, and there's that link to the SEC government as well. So, here's the app. Thanks to our friends from App Figures, this is the current downloads and revenues. So, pretty decent. Feels like a more of an add-on product to Peloton versus them trying to make this into its own bigger app. And if you are a Peloton user like I am, you get free access to the Breathwork app. So, there's probably limited revenues in terms of like, if you're not a Peloton user, you're not going to have to pay, but if you are, then you know, you don't have to pay. So,

1:40

keep that in mind. Now, let me show you what the app currently looks like. And then we'll show you the before, because currently, you'll see that Peloton has changed a few things. So, here's the app. Now, this is actually pretty similar to what it was before, but one thing I would do want to highlight, and we'll see this in the video that I'm about to share with you is there's some great animations here. And that's really important because these subtle little animations add to the sophistication of your app. So, it allows you to actually charge a bit more and we're seeing this play out with clients that we have that are AB testing this that having some animation within your onboarding experience does actually increase conversions. So, just keep that in mind. I wanted to highlight that.

2:29

The good news is just 5 minutes of breathwork a day reduces stress, sleep, and improves sleep, and boosts energy. So, really cool. Obviously, this is things that people normally do. What are your goals with breathwork? This is where the all the animation happens right here. What are your goals? Let's do a quick little lung test. I love this to try to get your users to engage with the app as well. I did try to do this and I try to hold it as long as I possibly could. So, I wasn't holding my breath, but I was exhaling my breath and it was a pretty cool interaction right here. So, 20 seconds of exhalation which only got me a 70 score. My goodness. I was giving it my all, right? What would you like to do?

3:14

When would you like to do it? Morning. That's what I selected. Again, some animation so I wanted to capture that screenshot. Great, we'll help you stay consistent. Great way to ask for push notifications here. Just a second, did you know? So, they're customizing your plan. It's ready. Go. Paywall, right? And then I was given a discount. And then sign up. So, again for those who have signed up before paywall, more proof that paywall before sign up works a bit better and then I'm into the app and then most of the stuff is locked up if you're not a current Peloton user. If you are, then you can just sign up right here. I signed up, I authorized it, and I was able to access the app for free.

3:56

So, in the beginning, sorry if you're getting dizzy. Right here, breathwork is free for Peloton all access members and app plus members. So, if you say yes, you'll have to sign up and they'll still I think, if I remember correctly, you might go through this onboarding, but then you get access to the app itself and no paywall. So, really cool. Now, that this is the now. Let me show you the niche. So, for those developers that are too afraid, "Steve, I don't want to be too niche. Is it too niche?" Breathwork actually started out with just breathing exercises and they were able to rank well for breathwork, the correct spelling of it, because there's no O in work, and then rank pretty well for breathing exercises.

4:40

Again, they didn't go after meditation, they went after breathing exercises. So, thanks to our friends from Screens Design. Now, if you want to get a special offer, use the link below in that YouTube description, where you can unlock a special offer through our link. I do get some kickback for it, but they do give me free access to their tool. So, I thank them for allowing me to do this, and I'm going to show off what breathwork looked like before they actually sold to Peloton. So, here we go. I'm going to play this video.

5:11

These are the animations that I'm talking about. Really cool. I'm going to speed this up a little bit, cuz I don't want to bore you guys. So, go 1.5. See these cool animations right here. You get get started. Boom. Here. These little fall. I love that. That's what I'm talking about. Go away. 5 sec. So, very similar. It hasn't changed too much. Obviously, it's not asking if you're a Peloton user right now. What are your goals? Really good.

5:42

Lung test. >> [laughter] >> It's a pretty cool interaction. So, you can actually see the interaction right here. If you hold down and then exhale and then you let go, boom, more animation, lung score. Next. High five. So, onboarding looks very, very similar to what I just showed you. But, here's the kicker and this is what's really interesting and I'll show you guys a little bit. All these cool animations, right? Really, really cool. Love it.

6:13

Paywall. It's hard paywall. Oh, they started free trial. Awesome. You can skip the sign up but or you can sign up. So, it looks like they sign up. So, look at this. Screens design. Pretty cool that they do all this for us. So, that we can see the premium stuff. All right, here it is. You can hit start. So, again, super simple. Super simple. So, they're getting you to really engage with the app. Super simple. I'm going to afford this a little bit to here to the main content.

7:06

Look at that. That's it. So, there was So, I'm going to scroll down. I'm not going to play this for you. So, you guys can actually see the screens right here. So, this was the onboarding. Some customization right here. Start, wake up, start, start and then here's some content right here. 6 minutes. So, they had some their own trainers. Now, it's all Peloton trainers, but they had their own trainers here, too. And you can do some relaxation. So, the main screen right here, the home page was dramatically different, right? You can see breathing exercises up top and then you can see everything else based on your goals right here. And here's what it looks like as of today.

7:47

See, you have all the Peloton instructors right here, the daily classes. So, similar UI/UX but look at where they started off with. Pretty simple breathing exercises and their own trainers. So, if you're afraid of starting in the niche or afraid of staying within the niche, this is a great example. Now, look, not every one of us is going to be able to sell to Peloton for a decent amount of change, especially if they've been bootstrapped and only raised a little bit of seed funding. That's a great multiple from 200,000 to 2 million. So, we're not all going to be that fortunate being that niche. That goes to show you that, "Hey, you don't have to be another meditation app. You can be a niche app and still find success through your own revenues and then potentially exiting to a pretty decent company. I'm a lover of Peloton, so congratulations Peloton. Congratulations to the team at Breathwrk. All right,

8:48

that's it. I love this story because I really wanted to show you guys that the power of the niche and not to be afraid of it. Look, if you're just starting in the niche, great. Build up those revenues. Then you can always go up to meditation, up to anxiety relief, up to wherever you want to eventually go to, like a wellness, >> [music] >> but start with the niche. Build that foundation of downloads and sales and then go up channel instead of trying to start too broad and then going down channel. You're starting too broad, I wouldn't do that. I like the bottoms-up strategy. So, that's what this video is all about. And if you got any questions for me, leave a comment below. And if you like this video, make sure you hit subscribe and like. Do all the things that YouTube loves, as well. All right, lastly, if you want to work with us, little plug for us, check out appmasters.com. We'll jump on a

9:42

call, see if we're a good fit for you and if you're a good fit for us, and then we'll go off and running. We try to be the most affordable, most effective app marketing agency out there. All right, until next time. I'll see you on the next video. >> [music]