The popularity of climbing is, well, climbing in America and around the world. It’s become a must-watch Olympic event, it was the subject of an Academy Award-winning film, and the number of indoor climbing gyms has doubled in America in the last 15 years.
One of the guiding forces behind the sport’s popularity and profitability is Anne-Worley Moelter, CEO of Movement, the largest climbing gym network in the U.S. I spoke with her about how she very literally climbed to the top of the male-dominated climbing industry, and to get her advice to all entrepreneurs looking to achieve great heights in whatever their passion-driven business may be.
How did you get started in climbing?
I graduated and went the tech route for a hot minute, and then decided that was not where I was supposed to be. And then got into the climbing and fitness industry and have never looked back. I moved to Boulder, Colorado and started working at the local climbing gym as the assistant manager at the front desk. From there, my husband and I acquired a competition series for bouldering competitions with a third partner, a friend of ours. That was called the American Bouldering Series. We merged that with what was at the time the U.S. Competitive Climbing Association and became USA Climbing, which is a national federation and the national governing body for competitive climbing in the U.S.
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So was opening your own facility an inevitable part of the path?
I was the team manager for the U.S. youth team and we traveled the country and the world, so I got to see a lot of different gyms. My husband and I realized during our travels that we had an unfair competitive advantage — remember, this was 20-plus years ago when there was no social media — so we got to see firsthand all of these facilities and what makes them amazing. When we came back to Boulder, we realized we could build something that was really state-of-the-art.
What were some of the things you changed from existing gyms?
And at that time, most gyms were still in warehouse districts and quite small. We found a piece of land here in Boulder and were able to work with an architect who is a climber and understands what these facilities can feel like. We focused on natural day lighting— there’s something like 22 skylights in that gym — and we have big open spaces. A lot of places were designed to get you in and out. We have a huge stadium seating area where everybody can sit and put their things down and visit with each other. When you’re climbing, you climb for 15 minutes, then you rest and hang out with your friends for 10 minutes. It’s a very social endeavor. Another key element is the yoga and fitness component. At that point in time, people would say that they’re into climbing and fitness, but the facility would just have some old exercise bikes gathering dust. So we built fully dedicated yoga and fitness studios.
Tell us about when you started to see growth start to take off.
Boulder started to gain traction, and we saw the opportunity to bring climbing to more communities — we knew the growth opportunity was there. In 2014, we opened our second gym in Denver, followed by our third gym. Then, in 2019, we merged with EL CAP, which had acquired Planet Granite and Earth Treks, further accelerating our expansion.
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What was that merging decision like?
We realized that by being a fully mom-and-pop type of company, we could keep growing, but it would be one gym every couple of years. But by joining with this larger group, we felt like not only could we grow at a faster rate, positively affect other communities around the country and provide greater opportunities for all of our team members. When we merged, there were three legacy brands and we realized we needed to come under one name and one umbrella. And everyone agreed that Movement was the best name, and we were flattered by that.
How has the climbing gym industry changed?
When we opened in 2009, there were probably 300 climbing and fitness facilities in the country. And today it’s more than double that number. Back then, it would be pretty incredible for a gym to get 500 or 600 check-ins in a day. Now some of our gyms regularly get 1,200 people on a single day. So there’s been a massive growth in the last 15 years.
Does your ability to deal with fear associated with climbing carry over to your decision to start your own business?
I was terrified of heights and now that’s what I do for a living! Yes, there are some scary moments in business ownership. We opened the Boulder location in 2009, right after the lovely 2008 recession. We opened in summertime, pretty much the worst time you can open a gym, in a place that already had two climbing facilities. There was a moment where I closed myself in my office and I was like, “What have we done? Are people going to show up? Are we going to be able to pay the mortgage on the building? What’s going to happen here?” It was a huge risk to do what we did, but we also had those 10,000 hours in the industry. So we knew what we were doing. And I think because we are climbers and this is our community, we were able to lead it to success. Being a business owner, part of the reality is you have those holy crap moments more often than you care to admit!
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What is something that you feel like people think that they need before they start a business that they actually don’t?
You’re probably not going to like this answer, but I don’t think you need a business plan before the light turns green. You do need the 10,000 hours of experience. And you do need the buy-in from whoever is going to support you both literally and figuratively. It is important to have the structure and the idea of your business, but sometimes things will occur where you need to make decisions sooner than you have that piece of paper that says, “Yes, I can do this.” So I would just encourage folks and say that if you have the idea, the experience, the heart and the team, move forward and then build things as you’re going along.
Have any mentors given you advice that you think about a lot?
An advisor once gave me some of the best advice that I’ve come back to time and time again. He said, “You’re going to get knocked down and you’re going to get knocked down a lot. And when you get knocked down that ninth time, you have to know what it is that’s going to motivate you to get up and try again for the tenth time.” And that’s something that stuck with me. For Movement, that thing is our mission is to improve the communities where we are and to truly help change people’s lives when they come through our doors. I believe at every level of my being that that’s what we’re here to do.