The Latest Pivot From SoulCycle’s Founders? Selling Their Therapy Startup to WeightWatchers |
After a rough reception and a rebrand to support users of GLP-1 drugs, Peoplehood is selling its assets to WeightWatchers.
BY TEKENDRA PARMAR
Photo: Ajay Suresh, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
SoulCycle co-founders Julie Rice and Elizabeth Cutler are shutting down their therapy app Peoplehood and selling its assets to WeightWatchers, according to Fortune.
When Peoplehood first launched in 2023, it promised to help people better their relationships. Originally stylized as PPLHD, it retrained SoulCycle’s charismatic fitness instructors to lead group therapy sessions from a studio in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood, where participants dug into questions like “How are you really feeling?”
The reviews, for the most part, weren’t that good. “The prompts are corny, but I don’t mind — maybe they’ll open up the floor for deeper conversations? But they don’t really,” wrote Sangeeta Singh-Kurtz in The Cut. A reviewer for Business Insider was left similarly confused. “While I appreciate Peoplehood’s mission, I don’t think I’ll return,” they wrote.
Eventually, Peoplehood pivoted and became a support group for users of the weight-loss drug GLP-1. Studies suggest the drug can increase people’s risk of depression and anxiety, and even suicidal tendencies.
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Rice will join WeightWatchers as its chief experience officer, but Cutler will not be making the move.
Two years ago, WeightWatchers bought Sequence, a digital health platform, in a deal valued at over $100 million. Since then, it has pivoted to helping prescribe weight-loss drugs. Last month, it announced a partnership with Novo Nordisk, the makers of the GLP-1 brand Wegovy, to sell its drug through its telehealth platform.
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