About Student Body
We started as students.
Student Body began in Porto. When we moved here, we found community through movement — and the instructors who bring those spaces to life became part of our daily lives.
Porto · where it began[Placeholder figures — confirm before launch.]
Why we started.
The classes that built our community here were never really about a room. They were about a person — and the people who gathered around them.
We noticed something once we saw it: students follow teachers, not venues. The instructor who inspires you might teach across three studios, move, or strike out on their own — yet almost every system around movement is built for venues and memberships, not the people doing the teaching.
And those people carry a surprising load. A schedule in one place, payments in another, students scattered across Instagram, WhatsApp, and spreadsheets — years of relationships that fragment the moment a venue or platform changes.
We think there should be a simpler way: a professional home that belongs to the instructor. Student Body was built for them.
What we believe
A few things we hold to.
Instructors are the throughline
Students may discover movement through a studio, but they stay because of a teacher. The people teaching deserve tools that recognize the role they play.
Relationships over transactions
A booking is useful. A lasting student relationship is valuable. We help instructors build continuity — not just fill the next class.
Technology stays in the background
The best movement happens away from screens. Our job is to reduce friction so people can teach and show up — not to maximize attention.
Local communities matter
We began in Porto, shaped by the people we met here. We want local movement ecosystems to be more visible, connected, and resilient.
How we're built
Not a social network.
Our focus is connecting you with the people you want to move with — in the real world, not on a screen. So there are things we will never do:
- Monetize your attention or engineer engagement.
- Sell your data.
- Run on advertising.
- Rank or hide classes with opaque algorithms — you can always see why you're seeing something.
We'd rather you close the app and go to class. The best thing we can do is get you into the room, then get out of the way.
The team
The people behind it.
We met building a beauty brand — and saw firsthand what happens when a platform chooses extraction over partnership. Student Body is our attempt at the opposite, for the instructors and communities that helped make Porto feel like home.
Kelly Cox
Co-founder
Spent a decade building beauty brands — amika, ghd, BioIonic — and learned how brands grow, where they break, and what happens when a platform puts extraction ahead of the people doing the work. She leads brand, strategy, and how Student Body shows up in the world.
Luke Ragno
Co-founder
A designer and builder trained at UIC and the Basel School of Design. He writes the platform's code and designs its whole visual system — because to him design is about systems, not decoration, and every detail should reinforce what Student Body stands for.
Where we draw the line
What we're not building.
- A giant fitness marketplace that turns teachers into listings.
- A subscription bundle wedged between instructors and their students.
- A replacement for studios — they play a role we're not trying to take.
We're here to help independent instructors keep far more of what they earn and build sustainable teaching lives — and to help the people who connect a movement community find each other.
Why the name
A student body is a community of people learning together. It's also, quite literally, a body that learns.
Movement is both physical and communal — growth happens through practice, repetition, and showing up alongside other people. That's the spirit we hope to support.
Where we're headed
We're not here to dominate movement — we're here to connect it.
Built in Porto, shaped by the people teaching here. Start with what's near you, and follow what feels right.
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