Inspired by Aulet’s personal fitness journey, Ergatta is leveraging the fun of gaming to help more people stick to a cardio routine — whether on rowers, bikes or treadmills
For Tom Aulet, fitness should be addicting — in a good way.
Ergatta, the company he co-founded and runs as CEO, is leading the charge to make that a reality.
Founded in 2019, Ergatta makes premium rowing machines that come equipped with large touchscreens. On the screens, users can play interactive games while they row, including racing games, obstacle courses and immersive strategy titles.
Recently, the company has expanded the software arm of its business, licensing its fitness gaming content to other cardio machines and striking an esports-focused partnership with World Rowing, the leading international rowing federation.
Aulet sat down with Athletech News to discuss why he and his colleagues decided to create a game-based rowing company, share what’s coming next for Ergatta and give his predictions on the future of connected fitness.
The following conversation has been lightly edited for clarity and length.
Athletech News: Can you tell us about your background before starting Ergatta?
Tom Aulet: I was originally an economic consultant. I then spent almost a decade in enterprise software in the marketing/advertising space at the same company I started in an analytics role, and then held a series of different business development and partnership roles, and eventually ran their agency business. Rowing and fitness (were) very new to me.
ATN: What caused you to jump into the connected fitness world and start Ergatta?
TA: I always wanted to start a company. I find the process very intellectually interesting and challenging, and I’m highly motivated by impact and creating something out of nothing.
My two co-founders (Alessandra Gotbaum and Prasanna Swaminathan) and I came up with a bunch of new business ideas. A spark from my personal life led us to connected fitness and Ergatta. I struggled to maintain a regular fitness habit in adulthood — I played sports growing up all through high school, but then struggled to keep a regular routine thereafter. I used to run outside every morning before work, but when I hit about 30, my knees started to hurt. I ended up buying a rowing machine that stored upright and could fit in my small, New York City apartment. I’d row for 30 minutes every morning — it didn’t hurt my knees, and was an efficient, full-body workout.
That was such a great life change, but it was incredibly boring and really a struggle to get through. So we opted to build gaming software that would make working out much more compelling, less isolating and more addictive. We were off to the races from there.
ATN: What separates Ergatta from other connected fitness products on the market?
TA: First of all, our rowers are beautiful, much more so than any other connected fitness product. They’re made of wood, and they look like furniture.
The second thing is that it’s great for beginners. Rowing is an amazing workout, but most people don’t know how to do it, or they feel like they don’t know how to do it. Ergatta is designed to teach you how to row. We have classes, instructors and tutorials like everyone else, but we also have an AI-powered form feedback tool that surfaces specific drills or tutorials to fix your form.
But gaming content is our crown jewel. We do gaming better than anyone else in fitness. Our games are designed to entertain you, make workouts fly by and motivate you to want to work out hard. And critically, they deliver real fitness results.
ATN: World Rowing recently tapped Ergatta to be its gaming/esports partner. How did the partnership come about, and what does it mean for Ergatta to be aligned with the top international rowing federation?
TA: They reached out to us, actually. They want to promote the benefits of rowing, and they’ve (recognized) the power of games to spread the gospel of rowing. Through the partnership, they’ll host a series of esports events around the world in which athletes compete on indoor rowing, playing Ergatta games. They live-stream the events and produce compelling content.
Ultimately, the partnership helps us tell our story and promote the benefits of gaming content for your workout. That’s what gets me excited.
ATN: Ergatta is also now licensing its gaming content on iFIT bikes and treadmills. What’s the balance between licensing content to other brands and producing your own content designed specifically for Ergatta rowers?
TA: Overall, our goal is to get our gaming content in front of as many people as we can to help them work out more.
Buying a rower versus accessing our content through iFIT, they’re just different channels. So we’re going to continue to invest in both in selling rowing machines with our gaming content, as well as building and expanding partnerships like the iFIT one. The focus for content licensing will be bikes and treadmills, and then the focus for the rowing modality will be selling our own machines.
ATN: Connected fitness is still popular, but the market is struggling a bit post-pandemic. How do you view the connected fitness landscape in 2026?
TA: It’s still struggling and oversaturated with too many brands chasing too few customers, and we’re still experiencing some post-COVID demand hangover. I’m surprised more brands haven’t gone under or been sold. I expect more of that this year.
But I’m still really bullish on the concept. You can’t beat it — it’s compelling and addictive to have content combined with premium hardware. There’s no commute and you can provide a premium fitness experience right there in the home. You can see it in brands’ retention data. People like it, and they use it.
ATN: It’s been a busy and exciting past few years for Ergatta. What’s your long-term vision for the company?
TA: Our overarching mission and goal is to help people build fitness habits through games. More tactically, that means that we’re the gaming software content provider for cardio equipment. So when you hop on a treadmill, a bike, a rowing machine or an elliptical, you’re going to see a gaming offering under the Ergatta brand that’s powered by our software. That’ll be in the gym, on Ergatta machines, iFIT machines and other machines.
