By Deborah Doyle, Managing Director of Golden Seeds and member of the board of directors at hOM
How one CEO’s mission-driven meditation business is leveraging underutilized real estate and connecting neighbors:
The spark that ignited Francesca Loftus and her co-founders’ mission to create hOM began when two of their mothers were diagnosed with cancer. Both successful executives, the two women adopted a regular yoga and meditation practice as part of their treatment, increasing their level of happiness and quality of life. After witnessing that mindfulness can improve lives of cancer patients, Loftus and her co-founders Ryan Freed and Corey Loftus, were inspired to bring it to the masses.
I recently had the opportunity to speak with Francesca on how hOM grew from its beginnings to what it is today.
DD: Tell us about the origins of your company.
FL: hOM, located in New York City and Toronto, started as a brick and mortar meditation space with a goal to make meditation more mainstream. Our co-founder Ryan Freed’s mother was diagnosed with cancer and was told she had two years to live. With the help of yoga, acupuncture and meditation, she lived eight years. Her name was Hope, which is why the company is named hOM.
We first tested our concept in Brooklyn at luxury condo community, The Edge, whose tagline is, “If you can find a building with more amenities, we will give you a free year of rent,” and the class sold out in 20 minutes. After this, we recognized an opportunity to bring our concept into multifamily rental buildings. We decided we would try to bring this to other properties that want to engage their population, but don’t have a full amenity floor.
