Juan Pablo Nebrera is the Co-founder & CEO of Brooklyn Fitboxing.
He studied industrial engineering at the Pontifical University of Comillas ICAI (Madrid) and began his career as a consultant, spending three years at Oliver
Wyman before deciding to change career paths. He left to pursue an MBA at INSEAD and then embarked on his first entrepreneurial venture with a classmate. As a former semi-professional football player, he was passionate about physical exercise, so he decided to focus on the fitness sector to begin his journey as an entrepreneur. They opened a gym for women, ‘30-Minute Fitness’, which became a system of 30 franchised locations throughout Spain.
This first business experience, and above all, the difficulties he encountered, were the best lessons he could have learned about what it means to start a
business. In January 2014, Pablo had a new idea for a fitness franchise that incorporated those lessons. After starting boxing classes, he realised the potential of this sport if a few changes were made to the experience of practising it. He remodelled one 30-Minute Fitness venue and began beta testing his new concept. This is how Brooklyn Fitboxing was born, combining rounds of non-contact boxing on smart bags with functional training. It was a totally innovative experience in which he also introduced music and gamification, awarding scores at the end of each session. He developed an operations manual for the franchise, his own business management software, and attracted investment from Argentine boxing champion Sergio Maravilla Martínez to help him develop the brand.
As Brooklyn Fitboxing grows, the experience of each session improves. Thanks to the sensors in the bags, a major international competition has been created,
the Fitboxing World Games, where teams from all over the world test their strength against the bag. In addition, solidarity has been added as a fundamental element of the company. Since 2019, 1% of the centres’ turnover has been donated to four charitable projects. It is the Fitboxers, everyone who trains at Brooklyn Fitboxing, who decide how this large charitable pot is distributed.
Brooklyn Fitboxing has almost 280 centers in 8 countries and 70,000 customers training. Juan Pablo has continued his training by becoming a certified CTI Coactive Coach, something he says has greatly helped him in the way he approaches his work and works with his team. In keeping with this spirit of helping others and sharing knowledge, he is also part of the team behind Ancla.life, a space dedicated to supporting entrepreneurs and business people in looking after their mental health, of which he is vice-president.
Juan is a speaker at Beyond Activ Europe in Madrid, Spain.
