Alberto Perlman

Alberto Perlman was born to a Jewish family in Colombia in 1977, the great-grandson of an immigrant from Israel.[1][4] He has two brothers, Jeffrey and Joel.[4] His father owned a factory that made leather goods for export and operated a distribution center in the United States.[1] In 1994, Perlman moved to the United States.[1] In 1998, he graduated from Babson College with a B.A. in finance and information systems.[1] After school, he worked as a management consultant where he analyzed the effectiveness of its TV advertising for a bank.[1] In 1999, he and a partner organized a business conference in Miami sponsored by I.B.M., Telefónica, and others to bring together Latin American entrepreneurs with venture capitalists.[1] In 1999,[2] along with three partners, he then created a venture capital firm for Latin American internet entrepreneurs called Spydre Labs[1] which funded Spanish-language clones of U.S. dotcom businesses which they then sold to the cloned U.S. company.[3] They raised and invested several million dollars before the tech bubble burst[1] in 2001.[2]

Now unemployed, his mother suggested that he get together with fitness instructor and recent immigrant to Miami, Alberto "Beto" Pérez - with whom she had taken classes in Colombia - and start a business to market his fitness routine set to Latin and international music that was very popular in Colombia.[1][2][5] In 2001,[2] they partnered with Perlman's childhood friend, Alberto Aghion, and founded Zumba Fitness.[1] Initially, they were unsuccessful in marketing to the various fitness chains.[3] In 2005, they changed their strategy and pooling their last $14,000, they targeted fitness instructors using direct marketing via videos and TV infomercials; their effort was quite successful with 450 people signing up for an initial $300 fee and a further $30 a month to become licensed Zumba instructors.[3] The fitness routine became popular nationally and the Zumba Instructor Network grew; they then branched into direct video sales.[1] As of 2010, Zumba Fitness is in 50,000 locations in 75 countries.[1] In 2012, Insight Venture Partners and the Raine Group made an investment.[6][7] In 2013, Inc magazine estimated the value of the company at $500 million.[3] By 2015, according to Perlman, there were 14 million Zumba students in 186 countries.[8] Bolstered by steady fee income, they expanded the brand into music collections, clothing, footwear, and video games (altogether about 50% of revenues are from ancillary products).[3]