Q&A with Eric Meltzer, Founder and Owner of The Grit Ninja

Eric Meltzer is the founder and owner of The Grit Ninja, 'ninja warrior'-style obstacle-course based fitness. Eric worked at Goldman Sachs from 2004 to 2009 in Global Banking & Markets in New York.

1. How did you start your career at Goldman Sachs and what was your path at the firm? What did you learn during your time here that helped you in the next phase(s) of your career?
I joined GS out of college and spent five years at the firm. I spent two years working in an operations role within the Prime Brokerage business in NY and then three years on the Capital Introduction team. Overall, those five years gave me a great foundation for my subsequent career as I learned the importance of striving for excellence, taking initiative, and saw the benefits of having a strong culture. I was lucky to have some great bosses whose work ethic and management styles I have since tried to emulate.

2. Almost 10 years after you left the firm, you founded The Grit Ninja, ‘ninja warrior’-style obstacle-course based fitness. Tell us about what inspired you to start the business and about your journey from inception of the idea to now.
The Grit Ninja is a family business that my wife and I started and now run together. The inspiration to start the company came from our kids. We have four young boys and it was their interest in ninja warrior coupled with our passion to start a business that we thought could change people’s lives, particularly kids.

In general, I’ve always believed in the power of sports to change lives and build character, but have also realized, via my own kids, that traditional team sports are not for everyone. Our goal was to create a space and a program that (i) would be fun, (ii) would build physical and mental strength, and (iii) would help build self-confidence and GRIT (thus the name). It is no secret that participation in youth sports is declining and childhood obesity is on the rise, and we wanted to do our part to increase physical literacy in the community.  

After about a year of research, we ultimately settled on starting our own brand and concept. 

We opened our first gym in Westchester County, NY and now have four indoor facilities, including Long Island, Fairfield County, and Bergen County. In addition, during Covid we developed a mobile program (Grit On The Go! | TheGritNinja) where we partner with schools, camps, parks/recreation departments, and businesses to transform their fields and gyms into ninja warrior obstacle courses. We run this mobile program in many towns across New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and now South Florida as well.

In general, we run recreational classes, camps, team-building activities, competitions, birthday parties, and other private events.

3. How do you differentiate The Grit Ninja from other fitness companies in the market? What is your target audience and how do you attract them?
Most of our customers are 5–14-year-olds, however we also run classes for younger kids and adults too.

We are focused on a few key areas: accessibility, unique equipment, strong curriculum, and coaching.

We wanted our program to be accessible for a wide variety of ages and abilities and we’ve taken pride that kids that don’t have a home in traditional team sports have a home in our programs. Each of our facilities are custom built with a significant amount of equipment that our team designed and built. This gives us a big advantage because our equipment suits our curriculum and is easily adaptable. Additionally, we’ve spent a lot of resources developing a curriculum that helps kids progress as they face new challenges each week.

We strongly believe in the power of great coaching. Nine of our coaches were competitors on NBC’s American Ninja Warrior. More broadly, our coaches excel at motivating, challenging, and encouraging our ninjas, while also having fun.  

In terms of attracting customers, we try to promote the benefits of ninja in terms of improving balance, agility, strength, and problem-solving skills - these are skills useful for all young athletes! We also do a lot of group events (indoors at our facilities and through our mobile program), which is an effective way to introduce new customers to our space and program.

4. What was one of the hardest things you learned while building your own business and what was the most rewarding?
I think the realization we came to early on is that we had to go “all in” on this and endure those times of being uncomfortable. In theory, the decision to pour the majority of our net worth into starting (and expanding) a business that we had minimal expertise in AND leaving behind a successful career in finance was an irresponsible one! That said, my wife and I had an urge to take a shot at creating something that was uniquely ours. We had the view that we would rather try and fail than not try at all and we’ve tried to maintain that mentality.  

The most rewarding aspect is when we hear about the impact that our program has on our customers and their families. For example, a parent of a six-year-old recently told us that our program had changed her son’s life. During his one year of training at The Grit Ninja, he accomplished things that he originally thought were impossible, which gave him self-confidence. This confidence then translated to other areas of his life, including in the classroom, with friends, and during other activities. He became more of a leader versus a follower.

5. What are your future aspirations for The Grit Ninja?
Well, we have big dreams 😊. We believe in the sport of ninja, and we hope to be able to bring The Grit Ninja (and Grit on the Go) to communities across the country - whether that is through opening gyms, bringing mobile units, or creating leagues.   

We are thinking about the best path to do that and brainstorming whether we pursue a franchise model or the company-owned model.  

6. Have you leveraged your GS network since leaving the firm? If so, how?
I am still in touch with many former colleagues who have become good friends. My GS network was very important to me, especially during my next 10 years at an Investment Firm. Many former colleagues worked at similar firms and it was helpful to bounce ideas off of this network. Since I’ve been at The Grit Ninja, some former GS colleagues have been very helpful in introducing our programs to their communities. It has been fun to see GS colleagues register their kids for classes and/or bring us in for team-building and other private events.