CEO Corner: Serotonin Centers’ Eric Casaburi on the ‘Next Iteration of Fitness’

Retro Fitness founder Eric Casaburi launched Serotonin Anti-Aging Centers in 2021; the brand already has nearly 100 franchise units sold

Eric Casaburi grew Retro Fitness into one of the United States’ largest fitness chains, leaving a lasting mark on the popular low-price gym model. He’s now in the midst of doing something similar in the longevity space.

Casaburi founded Serotonin Anti-Aging Centers in 2021, inspired by his wife’s journey in undergoing hormone replacement therapy and his desire to help aging Gen X-ers feel better as they grow older.

Serotonin, which offers services including medical weight loss , hormone replacement therapy, red-light therapy and even Botox, to name a just few, already has close to 100 franchise units open or in development .

There’s likely much more growth to come; Serotonin has inked recent deals to bring locations to metro areas including Chicago and New York, and is actively pursuing more expansion. If all goes according to plan, Casaburi believes the brand can support up to 1,000 franchise locations in the U.S.

Casaburi spoke with Athletech News about his impressive background in fitness and wellness franchising, why he decided to create Serotonin Anti-Aging Centers, and why longevity services represent the “next iteration of fitness.”

The following conversation has been lightly edited for clarity and length.

Athletech News: Can you tell us about your background in the fitness and wellness industry?

Eric Casaburi: I’ve worked in gyms since I was a teenager. I started out pulling urinal cakes and cleaning out locker rooms, that was my first job so I could work out for free. I started my first business, a fitness center, when I was in my early 20s. We were very successful – I opened up a second and third gym, and then realized I wanted to scale a business.

I created Retro Fitness in 2000, trademarked it in 2004, converted my first store in 2005 and we launched franchising in 2006 (Retro Fitness now has over 100 locations). My target audience back then was Generation X, which is me. I just turned 50, but back then, I was in my mid 20s. Any guy who looks at a weight in their 20s puts on five pounds of muscle. If you stare at a treadmill in your 20s, you lose three pounds. You’re just an incredible candidate for exercise.

That Generation X target client has since aged. They’ve unfortunately seen a substantial decline in their hormones and haven’t understood why. These same people are going to gyms now and quitting, saying, “I’m not getting results anymore, I don’t feel the energy, I don’t have all these great assets that age gave me.” What age was giving you was really just optimized hormones.

ATN: What ultimately convinced you to step down as Retro Fitness CEO in 2019 and take the leap to start Serotonin Anti-Aging Centers?

EC : My wife, Kim, is the true inspiration for the Serotonin brand we see today. While we were growing Retro Fitness, Kim had multiple miscarriages between our second and third child. We finally had our third child, but that wasn’t until we went to a very smart doctor who told us Kim didn’t have a conception problem, she had a gene issue.

When Kim hit 40, she went into early menopause from all the pregnancy complications. She didn’t know what was happening, she thought she was having a nervous breakdown. We finally found a doctor who decided to test her hormones. She went on hormone replacement therapy and it was life-changing. If you see my wife now, she’s 51 years old and she looks like my daughter’s older sister. She can do more pull-ups than you and I put together, she does Pilates four times a week and she’s gorgeous. But if she showed you her picture at age 41 or 42, you’d be like, “Wow, who’s your depressed, overweight sister?”

We realized it wasn’t just Kim who was going through this heartache. Men go through it, too. As men get older, their testosterone and libido decrease. So I started spending more and more time at anti-aging and med-spa conferences. Serotonin Anti-Aging Centers is just the next iteration of fitness.

ATN: What types of services does Serotonin offer?

EC : We do hormone replacement therapy, peptides, medical weight loss – all these cool drugs you hear about on the news like Ozempic and Wegovy, we use the compounded versions. We do hyperbaric chambers, red light therapy, inflammation management, IVs, all these amazing things.

We also do aesthetics – I just got microneedling done on my face to make my skin look even younger. It’s amazing what we can do.

ATN: What services are most popular among Serotonin clients?

EC : Weight loss is always the lowest-hanging fruit, but there are so many underlying conditions that we uncover. We love using weight loss as the gateway because we know you’ll come in for that challenge, but what we uncover through your bloodwork is what’s really going on with you.

When we look at people’s bloodwork, we can say, “You have a substantial decline in your testosterone (if you’re a male). The reason you have this visceral fat is because your body’s kind of working in reverse right now.” People call that aging.

ATN: What are the typical demographics of Serotonin’s core customer base?

EC : We see a huge audience, and it’s getting younger. Gen X was originally our target audience, but it’s really shifted. For aesthetics, we’ll see people in their 20s; weight loss starts at any age. Our hormone replacement therapy audience is probably somewhere in their mid 30s to early 60s. But we also see people a decade after that and a decade before that.

ATN: Why do you think the market for wellness and longevity services has grown so much over the past few years?

EC : I think the pandemic was an incredible eye-opener. People became enlightened to how little control they’d been given over their health and then more enlightened to how much control they actually could have over their health when they started to do their due diligence.

I also think people are getting access to more information – and good information. We don’t really have to advertise much about why we do what we do because every podcaster in the world is talking about it, from Joe Rogan to those like Andrew Huberman, Peter Attia and Rhonda Patrick. You couldn’t find these people three years ago. Now they’re everywhere.

ATN: From a business perspective, what makes Serotonin Anti-Aging Centers stand out from other wellness and longevity franchises that are popping up across the country?

EC : One of the easiest things to point to is our experience. I’ve been in the franchising space for 20-plus years – this is not a simple business to be in. We’ve spent a ton of money and financial resources as well as sweat equity building out the model we use. We understand franchising, which means we understand supporting franchisees.

A lot of people get into franchising because they have a successful store or a widget. But when you’re in franchising, you’re in the education business. It’s not the business of running a hotdog stand or a coffee shop; it’s the business of teaching entrepreneurship, management and skills.

ATN: How big can Serotonin Anti-Aging Centers become?

EC: We’re a cash-based business because most insurance doesn’t cover this stuff today, unfortunately. Aesthetics and all those wonderful things are usually for more affluent (customers), so we’re not going to be in every single community.

I’d say we’ll get to 700 to 1,000 units in this business in the continental United States, and we’ll scale it and grow at a very good pace because we’re going slower to go fast, intentionally. We probably could have almost three times the amount of franchises sold if we were selling (one and two-unit franchise deals) in communities we don’t want to be in. But we say no to candidates more than we say yes because we want the right fit for our brand.

The post CEO Corner: Serotonin Centers’ Eric Casaburi on the ‘Next Iteration of Fitness’ appeared first on Athletech News .