A fitness group started to build friendships beyond nightlife and has evolved into a profitable event business, showing how community-driven ventures can generate revenue without charging people to participate in their core activity.
After moving from London to New York, Akhibi launched Peak and Pace to create a social circle built around running rather than nightlife. What began as a way to connect with people soon developed into a business, with ticketed parties, hiking trips, and ski outings helping turn the community into a revenue-generating venture.
Drawing on his experience running a real estate side hustle, the Gen Zer saw an opportunity to monetize the community without charging people to join the runs themselves. The approach resembles event businesses that offer free or accessible ways to connect before generating income through paid experiences.
How Does Peak and Pace Make Money?
Running with Peak and Pace remains free. The business generates most of its revenue through large-scale parties, for which tickets typically cost between $15 and $25.
According to CNBC Make It, Peak and Pace generated $640,000 in revenue in 2025, with almost all of that income coming from parties. The business also organizes hiking and ski trips outside New York, giving members additional opportunities to socialize beyond their weekly runs.
The model separates community-building from monetization:
- Free runs: Help attract new participants and build a regular community.
- Ticketed parties: Generate the bulk of the company’s revenue.
- Outdoor trips: Expand the group’s activities beyond running and nightlife.
- Social media: Helps promote events and attract new participants.
This structure allows the club to maintain a free entry point while offering paid experiences to people who want to participate in its wider social calendar.
From a Running Group to a Profitable Events Business
Social media played an important role in Peak and Pace’s early growth. By its fifth session, the group had attracted roughly 150 runners.
As participation increased, Akhibi began organizing paid social events, including a party at a Manhattan bar that charged $20 per participant. The business subsequently expanded its offerings to include larger parties and outdoor trips.
The strategy addresses a challenge faced by many community-based ventures: building an audience is only one part of creating a sustainable business. Organizers must also identify experiences that participants value enough to pay for.
For Peak and Pace, running provides the initial connection, while parties and trips give members additional reasons to stay involved.
What Are the Challenges of Running the Business?
Despite its strong revenue, Peak and Pace does not make money from every event. Akhibi acknowledged that some parties are unprofitable, highlighting the financial risks involved in organizing gatherings.
According to CNBC Make It, the company operates at an overall profit margin of 15%. At that margin, $640,000 in annual revenue would translate to approximately $96,000 in profit, assuming the reported margin applies to the full year.
Akhibi continues to work full-time as head of partnerships at San Francisco-based AI robotics lab Grounded Superintelligence. Rather than relying on the run club as his sole source of income, he reinvests its profits into the business.
Balancing a full-time job with event planning also means managing the operational demands of a growing community, from organizing gatherings to understanding what participants want from the experience.
What Can Other Entrepreneurs Learn From Peak and Pace?
Peak and Pace illustrates how a business can grow by solving a social need before introducing paid offerings. Its model does not depend on charging for every interaction; instead, it uses free runs to build relationships and ticketed experiences to generate revenue.
Akhibi told CNBC Make It that organizing events and working with people had taught him patience. That lesson is particularly relevant to community-based businesses, where trust and participation often develop over time.
The company’s growth also demonstrates the potential of combining an existing interest, social media, and paid experiences. Rather than selling a conventional fitness membership, Peak and Pace has built a business around the broader desire to meet people and spend time together.
Its continued success will depend on maintaining that sense of community while managing event costs and ensuring that paid experiences deliver enough value to justify their ticket prices.
For aspiring entrepreneurs, the central takeaway is straightforward: a community can become a business when its members have compelling reasons to keep showing up—and when the paid offerings support, rather than undermine, the relationships that brought them together.
