What happens when a serial entrepreneur and an arts-loving personal trainer join forces? An innovative business and workout craze forms.
Launched in 2016, H.I.I.P. Hype is truly one-of-a-kind in its ability to make New Yorkers sweat mentally and physically. A play on “high-intensity interval training,” H.I.I.P. Hype stands for “high-intensity interval painting,” where participants switch off between exercising and painting every 60 seconds. (And yes, you do get to take home your canvas afterward.)
We spoke with the company’s 26-year-old co-founder, Ashrant Bhartia, a WeWork West Broadway member “born in New Delhi, India, but lucky enough to be raised in numerous cities around the world.”
Others have referred to you as a serial entrepreneur. When did you start identifying as an entrepreneur?
It was at a really young age, like probably in middle school. I got the whiff of wanting to be somebody who fixes a problem—who has a solution to your need. I used to sell pencils and pens in middle school. I’m not motivated by the money. I’m motivated by just seeing people satisfied. That really gave me that kind of elation, and then from there, I’ve been running with it.
On the member network, your business comes up as Auster. Is that one of your other businesses?
Yes, it is. My family in India, part of their business is in tobacco, and I firmly oppose that industry. I decided if I am going to continue endorsing this product, it would be done right. So I created a brand, by the name of Auster, to figure out the problems that are in the vape industry and come up with creative solutions. And as a result, we now have this brand that collaborates with artists from all over. The worst thing to be doing, as a consumer, is be labeled as a one-dimensional person who only likes that one product. So we created something that draws upon music, art, culture, performance art, and brings about a more holistic reflection of today’s generation.
How did you and H.I.I.P. Hype co-founder Sayco Williams meet?
I basically serendipitously got paired with Sayco. I moved to the East Village. I wanted to get fit. I joined New York Sports Club and I was like, “You know what? Let me get a personal trainer—expedite this process.” I’m not the best at keeping to routine and schedule when it comes to working out. Sayco by chance happened to be manning the phones. He said, “Alright, I’m available. Why don’t you come down?” I met him, and then we instantly hit it off. I just was sharing my stories about Auster and what I wanted to achieve with the brand, and I think he really respected that. Also, it lit a fire under him to be entrepreneurial, and find what you’re really interested in, and go for it.
We just started talking over the course of two months, and he had so many great ideas about what he wanted to do. I just felt that passion and that promise with him. It’s almost like a one-man business because without Sayco, none of this would be possible. He was an artist to begin with, and then he decided to get really in shape and have the physique that he has right now. He became a personal trainer and always had artistic desire in him, but it was confined in the personal training community because it was hard making money as an artist. But I was like, “We have to leverage both of those attributes.” I’ve never met anybody who’s so passionate about fitness and about art. I trained with him every morning before work. And I was like, “Wow, how can we harness that energy and elation, or redirect it, like a self-reinforcing loop?”
It’s pretty intimidating going to art class and sitting down with artists, painting with them. There’s really no way a person today can get that experience elsewhere without having those intimidation factors of self-judgement and self-doubt. We want to eradicate all of that while at the same time stimulating and motivating them to continue working out. I was like, “I need to get more motivated, and painting is something that I normally wouldn’t think, but yeah—I need to be a bit more creative. I need to distract myself.”
Do you paint whatever you want? Or does Sayco tell the whole class to paint something in particular?
Whatever we want. It’s whatever we’re feeling—what’s going through our heads. What I’ve noticed about the class is most people either paint what they see in front of them, or people get really reflective about their own lives and paint in abstract ways what they’re going through. There is some kind of therapeutic component, I’ve noticed. You know how people say, “Oh, you should journal. You should meditate. You should do this. You should do that”? And you want to do it, but it’s just that layer of effort that’s prevented you, even though you know you’ll reap the benefits twentyfold.
Having this fitness component to it is kind of like a conduit, like a Trojan horse, that can work either way. If you’re not into painting or are intimidated by it, now you have this fitness component that will get you motivated. Or vice versa: You could be really into the art, but you’re not that fit—you can use the art as an excuse to get fit. Either way, you’re going to leave that experience feeling tremendously connected with the mind and body.