Build it and they will come: the rise of Zwift

We tracked down the virtual riding platform's top brass to find out how it all began, and where it's going

Zwift's London office
(Image credit: Zwift)

The loneliness of the indoor trainer. All great business ideas begin with a problem that needs solving. In this case, Eric Min – a tech entrepreneur in his early-40s who had just left behind a tight-knit NYC cycling community to live in London – had both the problem and the solution. "I wanted to get rid of the sense of loneliness that I felt when I rode indoors," says Min, the originator of what has long been a global super-success, Zwift.

It may come as a surprise to many that Zwift was conceived not in the airy offices of a California tech start-up, or even in New York City, but in London, England. That said, New York certainly inspired what was invented in part to solve a London problem. The original seed was planted for Zwift when Min was living in New York City, training in Central Park with the close-knit cycling community he relied on for regular rides and meet-ups. But then he moved across the pond.

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