Gen Z digital moguls building seven-figure – Business News
The most audacious startup accelerator in New York doesn’t have demo days, enterprise companions or a waitlist, nevertheless it does have kettlebells, treadmills and cold plunges.
The Flatiron location of Chelsea Piers Fitness has turn into an unlikely de facto workplace for some of town’s most notable younger tech entrepreneurs.
“We have an amazing community of absolute killers here,” Oliver Brocato, the 24-year-old founder of the viral aphrodisiac chocolate model, Tabs, advised NYNext.
The ‘Media Mafia’ is six sturdy — however one founder slept by way of the interview and shoot. Pictured right here, from left to proper, are Josh Suggs (22), Nathan May (27), Oliver Brocato (24), Shamus Madan (20) and JT Sarafa (25). Emmy Park For NY Post
Chelsea Piers Fitness in Flatiron is a luxurious gymnasium the place membership runs about $300/month. Starting in early 2025, a group of Gen Z entrepreneurs set up store inside the gymnasium’s coworking space. Emmy Park For NY Post
Brocato is one of half a dozen 20-something males who work out of the gymnasium six or seven days a week. They call themselves the “Media Mafia,” all of them run new media corporations producing at the very least seven figures per yr they usually’re pumped about working and figuring out collectively.
“I’d move to frickin’ Antarctica and back to be around this group,” Brocato stated.
If the “Mafia” had a godfather, it will be Matt Epstein. He’s the 23-year-old founder of Shown Media, which produces branded launch videos and is producing about $3 million in annual income.
He began the company in 2021, figuring out of his room in his frat home at Cornell. After graduating in 2024, he moved to town and began working from his condominium, however “Working [from home] got very depressing very quickly,” Epstein advised NYNext. Early final yr, he toured the gymnasium, signed up and began utilizing it as his workplace on daily basis.
The gymnasium bro-trepreneurs aren’t simply saving dough — as Nathan May, the eldest of the group says, “Being around each other dramatically increases our surface area of luck.” Emmy Park For NY Post
For related causes, Nathan May, 27, adopted go well with.
“Community is the most important thing [we get here],” stated May, whose publication company, The Feed Media, works with the likes of Arnold Schwarzenegger and does about $400,000 per 30 days in income. “Being around each other dramatically increases our surface area of luck.”
Besides the sense of camaraderie, there are sensible advantages to the association.
Nathan May, foreground, is the founder of The Feed Media, a publication company working with the likes of Arnold Schwarzenegger and doing about $400,000 per 30 days in income. Shamus Madan, left, is the founder of Dealroom Media, a LinkedIn ghostwriting service for tech founders. Emmy Park For NY Post
At roughly $300 a month, membership prices far much less than an workplace lease. The lounge space has fast WiFi, natural mild and a café. Plus, it’s nearly necessary to sneak in a few units on the bench between calls and strategizing classes.
“Working out of a gym, you feel like a piece of s— if you don’t work out,” stated Brocato.
After scaling Tabs to $11 million in income, he’s now operating Bustem, an AI-powered firm that takes down e-commerce copycats for 140 manufacturers. Brocato manages eight full-time workers and 20 contract employees in Africa and expects to generate about $5 million in income this yr. Some of the youthful members of the mafia look to him, May, and the tribe’s different elders for advice.
Oliver Brocato, proper, advised NYNext’s Will Zimmerman about beginning his first company, the viral aphrodisiac chocolate model Tabs, from his dorm room in Michigan. He’s now building Bustem, which makes use of AI to take down copycats for e-commerce manufacturers. Emmy Park For NY Post
“We talk about problems we’re facing — hiring, scaling, girls,” Shamus Madan advised NYNext. “Your typical 20-year-old dude stuff.”
Madan, 20, based Dealroom Media, a LinkedIn ghostwriting service for founders, from his dorm room at Villanova in November 2024. By early 2025, he was producing $8,000 a month and, as he tells it, spending no time finding out. He was academically dismissed from the college final June and began figuring out of the gymnasium the next month. Dealroom is now on observe to usher in $1.5 million in 2026, and he attributes his company’s success, partially, to figuring out of the gymnasium.
Shamus Madan, proper, stated annual income for his startup, Dealroom Media, jumped from much less than $100,000 to $1,500,000 after he began figuring out of the gymnasium. Emmy Park For NY Post
“It feels like the college experience I didn’t have,” Madan stated. “Like we’re in a frat but we all have some money.”
Indeed. On a current Friday morning, at the very least two of the bro-trepreneurs had been sporting Rolexes — and one stayed on during the afternoon raise. One dude had overslept and never made it into the pseudo-office. A single of pair exercise shorts was utilized by no much less than three of the fellows in a single day. Twice, a gymnasium employees member got here to the communal desk the place they had been all working and reminded them of the space’s quiet coverage.
Chelsea Piers Fitness boasts yoga, pilates and barre lessons, a full cardio flooring overlooking twenty third road, 4,000-square-feet of multi-functional turf with benches and racks galore and a suite of luxurious facilities. But figuring out isn’t actually the boys’ first precedence. As Brocato stated, “I don’t come here because I’m the biggest gym guy in the world … I come here because this is where my people are.” Emmy Park For NY Post
Fratty moments apart, severe work is being achieved, and there a tangible advantages to the exchange of concepts over berry smoothies. The guys help one another with all the things from gross sales calls to building decks and pitches.
“We all know the ins-and-outs of each other’s businesses and can provide instant feedback,” stated J.T. Sarafa, 25, whose TikTok store company, JTS Growth, has generated $30 million for purchasers and is on tempo for a $3 million run fee in 2026. “It’s like having your Board of Advisors around all the time.”
Epstein added, “There’s a ton of customer sharing. We all have our own niche but offer very similar services.”
Josh Suggs, proper, is the founder of Street Talk. The media company produces man-on-the-street fashion interview ads for over 100 manufacturers and is working at a $4 million run fee. Emmy Park For NY Post
Sometimes, the frat home incubator is so useful, its members out grow it.
Epstein not too long ago moved to an precise workplace space as a result of Shown Media has grown to roughly 40 workers.
He splurged on a barely greater than mandatory space, he stated, so “the buddies can roll through” once they need a change of surroundings.
This story is an element of NYNext, an indispensable insider insight into the improvements, moonshots and political chess strikes that matter most to NYC’s energy gamers (and people who aspire to be).
It’s simply seven blocks up and one avenue over from the gymnasium. And he’s saved his membership.
After all, Madan stated, “Gotta stay looking like a stud.”
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