The Barstool Fund - Lyon’s Den Power Yoga
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Dave El Presidente and The Barstool Team,
First of all. Thank you. I know there are many businesses like ours that need help and you are one of the first groups I have seen actually put their money on the table to help. Regardless of whether or not we are a beneficiary, I acknowledge what you are up to am very grateful.
We are Lyons Den Power Yoga. You actually visited us for a skit where Big Cat and others ate Indian food and then came to practice yoga at our Chelsea studio.
My co-founder Bethany Lyons and I started Lyons Den Power Yoga in Tribeca in 2013 on the 3rd floor. We used our life savings to start the business. After 3 years and paying off all of our loans, we bet on ourselves again and doubled the size of our first location and leased out a second space in Chelsea.
In our first year we employed 3 people, in our most recent year, we provided paychecks to over 50 people. In February, a work crew on the fourth floor of our Tribeca location where we occupy the 2nd and 3rd floors, left rags in wood polish. They spontaneously combusted and we awoke to the news on February 15 that our studio in Tribeca had been destroyed by fire. We hustled our asses off to rebuild, clean up and get open. We invested the money we had in reserve to get his done, which we did. Then on March 15th, one month after the fire, the government of New York City shut our business down.
Despite having multiple plans of how to operate safely and effectively, we have not had the opportunity to reopen for over 9 months. We have never been given a timeframe or a set of criteria that would qualify us to open. We have not been presented with scientific evidence showing why group fitness poses a bigger risk than outdoor dining, target or the local grocery store. They just put a bullet in the head of our business, and walked away. While we have done our best to pivot to a digital format, that revenue cannot replace Manhattan rent. We have negotiated leases to the best of our ability. We took out a PPP loan and directly paid our staff as much as we could. We took out other loans in May thinking we would be able to open soon. And now we are in the endgame.
We have exhausted all of our savings, run out of the money loaned to us and still have no date from NYC when we are allowed to reopen as a group fitness studio. It has been incredibly frustrating to have bootstrapped and worked so hard to build a successful business in NYC only to have it destroyed by people who have never run a business in their lives. All we ever wanted was the chance to make our case to the public, show how we are safe, and let the consumer decide. Now, without a miracle, Lyons Den Power Yoga will close on Jan 31 and the hundreds of thousands of dollars we invested in build outs will be a total loss. We had a thriving business run and staffed by amazing, caring people and the only reason we failed is because the government decided it. We would be happy to share any additional information you may need to make a decision. This is also very hard for us, the asking. We pride ourselves on being self-sufficient. Having to ask for help in this way is not in our DNA, and we have nowhere else to go.
Thank you again for what you are doing to support small businesses.
John Murray