Founder & Chief Executive Officer
Rick began his professional career at the age of 14 in his father’s retail lighting store. In that small business environment, Rick absorbed the fundamentals of business and customer service, and knew that he was destined to have his own business one day. But before that would happen, Rick left the comforts of home and family to pursue a life of adventure on the high seas. Rick’s adventure began at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, where he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Political Science and Russian Language in 1987. Rick was commissioned a naval officer at the age of 21 and served as a submariner aboard the nuclear fast attack boat USS Chicago (SSN-721). Aboard the Chicago, Rick deployed multiple times to the Western Pacific, participating in several important national security missions and visiting dozens of foreign ports over six years of active duty service. Through these experiences, Rick gained an appreciation for other cultures and the interconnectedness of all peoples. He also formed a personal commitment to peace.
Leaving the Navy in 1993, Rick worked in engineering, sales and project management before discovering his life's calling in the summer of 2000. It was then that Rick connected with a friend designing desktop software for yoga and Pilates studios. Enthused about the power of technology and the transformational impact of the Mind and Body wellness community, Rick founded MindBody Software in Jan 2001 in his garage. The early team surmounted many challenges and achieved moderate success marketing their desktop licensed software, but soon realized that their product had inherent limitations. Their solutions could only realize their full potential if they were designed for and delivered over the Internet.
In Rick's own words,
“The Internet is the ultimate democratizer. Our early experiences serving the first few hundred clients taught us that we needed to fully embrace that democratizing power. Only a truly web-based “Software as a Service” could affordably deliver the tools our clients needed to prosper and grow. We believed that delivering this service to the rapidly evolving wellness, fitness and spa markets would enable the success of tens of thousands of independent business owners, and that millions of people around the world would enjoy greater access to health and wellness as a result.”
In 2004, that vision was forged into a simple but powerful MINDBODY Mission Statement: “Leveraging technology to improve the health and wellness of the world.”
The MINDBODY Mission Statement continues to inspire and motivate MINDBODY Team today, and forms the core of every initiative in which the Company engages. “When we consider new initiatives, we ask the question ‘Will this effort ultimately improve the health and wellness of the world?’ If it won’t, MINDBODY will not do it,” says Rick.
Several of the team members who signed on in the early days are still with the company. In 2004, one of MINDBODY’s first yoga studio owner clients, Bob Murphy, joined in as Rick’s partner. In 2005, after three years of arduous design, the MINDBODY Team successfully released the “MindBody Online Business Manager,” the world’s first entirely web-based, comprehensive business management solution.
What do operating a nuclear submarine and building a successful web-based software company have in common? Rick’s answer is simple: “The success or failure of both endeavors hinges on three key principles: Competent, principled and compassionate leadership, mastery of complex technologies... and a ton of hard work!”
Outside of his day job as primary futurist at MINDBODY, Rick practices Gyrotonics & yoga, and enjoys camping, waterskiing, dirt bike riding and spending time with his three kids. The family lives near San Luis Obispo, California, where MINDBODY is headquartered.
