SL Founder in Focus: Laura Munkholm of Walla

Walla is a studio management platform build for the boutique fitness industry – yogo studios, pilates studios – everything from crossfit to dance studios. And the industry is booming. The Walla software platform does client management, scheduling, billing , and a host of other things required to run a business for a studio owner.

Launched right as COVID really hit the US, it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. While it presented quite a few challenges when it came to obtaining clients and raising capital, much of the work building a software platform goes on behind the scenes. Laura and her co-founders where able to spend a solid eight to nine months focusing on the software.

With somewhere between 50k to 70k boutique studios in the US, the future looks bright for Walla. But the industry outside the US is three to five times that size, with some 200k to 220k studios around the world. Laura and the team see tremendous opportunity from an international perspective. Quite a few countries struggle finding platforms to support their businesses. “We’ve built from the get-go with the idea of being a global company.” says Laura.