HYROX affiliated · Newington, CT · est. 2021
Fitness studio software case study: a HYROX affiliated strength gym that grew by keeping members longer and training them harder, not by chasing sign ups.
Sunset on Alumni Road. Valhalla has called this corner of Newington home since 2021, and the work inside rarely stops.
On Alumni Road in Newington, Connecticut, there is a gym that does not look or feel like the others nearby. The name is Norse, the branding is unapologetic, and the promise is plain: your training should leave you better, not broken. Valhalla Fitness has been coaching busy adults through structured strength and HYROX style training since 2021, and it has built a real community doing it.
What sets Valhalla apart is not a gimmick. It is the vibe, the community, and how seriously the team takes safety, technique, and coaching. Nothing in the programming is random. Every session is built on purpose.
That same belief, that structure beats noise, is the reason this case study exists. A gym built on deliberate systems found a software partner built the same way.
Valhalla is owned and run by Nicole Andreotta and her husband Ben, the head coach. Ben leads the floor and the programming, holding some of the most demanding strength credentials in the industry. Nicole runs the systems, the member experience, and the side of the business members never see but always feel.
The training follows a clear philosophy. Master the fundamentals. Build for long term strength, not quick wins. Put coaching first. Measure progress instead of guessing at it. Six class types, from lower and upper body strength to a dedicated HYROX training camp, run as one connected weekly system.
A business that runs on structure needs an engine that can keep up with it. For Valhalla, that engine is StudioGrowth.
“What makes us different is the vibe and the community, and how seriously we take safety, technique, and coaching. Our members are strong, in every sense.” Nicole Andreotta, Owner
Ben coaches a member through a heavy set. At Valhalla, every rep is watched and nothing in the session is left to chance.
Before StudioGrowth, Valhalla ran on Glofox. The interface was reasonable, but the support and the control were not there when it mattered most.
The real problem was money. Valhalla could not get direct access to its own Stripe account. When a payment dispute came in, the studio lost it, and the hardest part was having no real visibility into its own case or how the process was being handled.
“We had a payment dispute that we ended up losing, and the worst part was that we had no visibility into our own representation or the process at all. That stuck with me.” Nicole Andreotta, Owner
For a small team answering to members every day, being locked out of your own billing is not a small thing. It is the difference between running your business and hoping someone else runs it for you.
Nicole was not shopping for new software. The switch happened because the StudioGrowth founder reached out, and what he described was enough to change her mind.
“I honestly was not looking to switch. But once I heard what StudioGrowth could actually do, I was sold.”
What sold her was control and fit. With StudioGrowth she connects her own Stripe account, so she has full visibility and control over billing, and the integration still feels effortless.
“Now I have access to Stripe and full visibility and control over my own billing. The integration is seamless and I know it is going to work.”
Billing runs through Valhalla’s own Stripe account, with full visibility and control.
Lower fees on every transaction, savings that add up across a year.
An iPad check-in members actually use, where the old barcode scanning never did.
Clients create an account or buy a trial in seconds, not across a dozen pages.
Switching platforms sounds risky when you have years of members and memberships to move. In practice it was calm. The StudioGrowth team handled the setup alongside Nicole, and moving every client account and membership across took about a month. Her coaches adapted without friction.
“The team handled the setup with us, and the system was easy to figure out. Any time I got stuck, they came back quickly with simple instructions. Our staff had no issues at all.” Nicole Andreotta, Owner
Valhalla is an official HYROX affiliate, and that is not a label on the wall. It is where the members are going.
The studio runs a clear path that turns curiosity into commitment. A seven day trial gets someone in the door. The flagship six week challenge turns a trial into a habit. From there, a membership turns a habit into a routine. Every step of that path, the trial, the challenge, the membership and the payment, runs through StudioGrowth.
A week of unlimited classes gets someone through the door, booked and paid in seconds.
Structured coaching, HYROX-style conditioning and body composition scans turn a trial into a habit.
A routine that sticks. Recurring membership, billed automatically through their own Stripe.
All powered by StudioGrowth.
The result shows up in the numbers. By 2026, HYROX Skills and Run is the single most booked and most attended class at Valhalla, ahead of every other format. The brand promise and the booking data point at the same thing.
Plenty of studios grow by spending more to bring new people in the door. Valhalla did something harder and more durable. It grew by keeping the members it already had and giving them a reason to train more.
Across the last two full years, revenue has grown by roughly twenty percent a year, and 2026 is pacing ahead again. New member sign ups over that time stayed essentially flat. So the growth did not come from acquisition. It came from retention and from frequency.
Revenue shown as relative growth, not dollars. 2024 and 2025 are full years; 2026 is pacing year to date. Capacity climbed as the same members trained more.
You can see it in how full the room is. Class capacity filled has climbed from around 37 percent to around 55 percent, so classes are close to half again as full as they were. Members are also training more often, with average visits per member up about 24 percent. And because billing runs through Nicole’s own Stripe, close to 99 percent of revenue is collected cleanly rather than sitting unpaid.
“There is far less confusion now, and much better visibility into the business.” Nicole Andreotta, Owner
“It is genuinely easy to use, it is customizable, and the company is great to work with. The value is well beyond the cost, and they do not tack on extra fees. The support alone is incredible, I often get a response within minutes, and in a business where we have to answer our own members quickly, that is everything.”
Nicole Andreotta, Owner, Valhalla Fitness
Asked who StudioGrowth is best for, her answer is direct: group class studios like hers.
The Ragnarök Games: six weeks of prep, everyone fully bought in. The day was never about winning. It was about proving you could do something hard, surrounded by people who have your back. Photos via @valhallafit_ct
That is the thread that runs through everything here. People started from different places, with different goals, and stayed because the training had a point and the room had their back. Growth followed.
Valhalla is not standing still. Nicole is already weighing a second location, and thinking about how the next space might run, including round the clock access. The relationship with StudioGrowth is the kind where feature ideas get heard, which matters to an owner planning her next chapter.
For now, the proof is on the floor and in the numbers: a gym that grew by getting better, not just bigger, with the systems to keep doing it.
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