ZeSa® Inc. Visionary and Co-Founder Shanti Rainey and CEO, Co-Founder, & largest investor Cindy Vavra recognized a void in athletic, fitness, and rehab training for a system that effectively challenges and improves Balance-Strength™ capability, joint stabilization, and overall fitness for all ages and athletic abilities. ZeSa was formed to create and develop the Dynamic Balance-Strength Training System™ including software applications, equipment, and techniques to fill this void.
They organized ZeSa as a partnership in Minneapolis, MN in 2013 with friends & family angel funding to develop and refine prototypes of its core equipment products, the Activators, Stimulators, & Accelerators. ZeSa converted to a Delaware C-Corp in 2024. The angel funding was used for product development, creation of corporate branding, trademarks, patents, and sales for concept validation. In 2017 ZeSa began selling prototype products to select pro sports teams, fitness industry professionals, health care professionals, and fitness enthusiasts in target markets to validate acceptance of the concept and obtain feedback on their market potential. Acceptance by pro sports athletic trainers, strength & conditioning coaches, professional fitness trainers, and medical professionals was overwhelmingly positive, with over 600 sets of prototype products sold.
In 2016 ZeSa opened a downtown retail concept fitness studio at 1024 Washington Ave S, Minneapolis, MN as a showplace to test its products, present its concept to the public, and as a fitness center franchise model. The studio received excellent public and media attention and was set up to run regular membership classes and private fitness training sessions. It generated membership revenue, product sales, and a great deal of photo imagery for promoting ZeSa’s business. It also verified the concept of franchising ZeSa branded balance fitness and yoga centers as a business unit. The 2020-2022 covid-19 disaster unfortunately led to closing of the studio from mandatory government shutdowns causing too great a financial strain, and greatly delaying ZeSa’s efforts to raise funding and continue the growth of its business.
During 2017-2018, Jeff Diamond (ZeSa Sales Director, 1998 NFL Executive of the Year; NFL Minnesota Vikings General Manager; NFL Tennessee Titans President), led a successful effort of gaining acceptance and prestige for ZeSa products by focusing on professional sports teams, primarily in the NFL. Every pro team canvassed (26 total) purchased prototype products with all team athletic trainers and strength & conditioning coaches giving very positive feedback. Included in these sales were the Minnesota Vikings (NFL), Minnesota Timberwolves (NBA), Minnesota Lynx (WNBA), Minnesota Twins (MLB), plus universities and high schools. After personal meetings with many of these teams, some of the teams that became customers reached out to ZeSa to purchase products after learning of ZeSa by word-of-mouth from the other teams. This strategy confirmed and validated the ZeSa concept and the anticipated markets. Prestigious pro sports teams are key market opinion leaders, and their acceptance of these products is a catalyst to acceptance by other much larger markets such as orthopedic rehab, physical therapy, fitness centers, aging adults, and fitness consumers. Pro sports use of ZeSa products will build credibility of the ZeSa system and spread it to other industries and markets. This program will continue with commercial product.
Numerous pairs of prototype Activators, Stimulators, & Accelerators have been sold to sports medicine professionals, physical therapists, chiropractors, independent pro athletes, personal fitness trainers, and fitness consumers. A few out-of-state fitness centers have purchased products after hearing of their clients Minnesota experience with ZeSa Fitness Studio classes. These sales were made with essentially no direct marketing expenditures other than the ZeSa website and social media connections.
With the market validation effort very successful, ZeSa needs to convert to commercial device designs and manufacturing methods that yield reasonable profit at targeted price points, and finish development of its tech platform, the Balance-Strength Analysis™ and Balance-Strength Fitness™ apps. Commercial product designs and manufacturing processes have been developed by one of ZeSa’s angel investors, John D. Dockter (ZeSa COO), an engineer and career R&D Project Manager with over 30 years of product development experience in the medical device industry, and now one of ZeSa’s board members. The commercial designs, manufacturing processes, and a manufacturing contractor are in place to produce commercial devices with positive financials. Also, a highly experienced software developer with unique tech solutions has teamed with ZeSa to complete its software applications.
Commercial designs have been reviewed and confirmed to be easily producible via established production disciplines and methods with the planned US contract manufacturers, with solid quotes for all components, finished assemblies, and order fulfillment received from the suppliers. This will allow production of devices providing healthy direct sales gross margin. There is strong potential to further increase margins over time with manufacturing logistics improvements. ZeSa’s focus now is on raising funding to pay for production equipment and app development to launch production, marketing, and sales of its commercial products.