M Club Spotlight: Lauren Foundos

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Once an athlete for Missy Meharg and Maryland field hockey, Lauren Foundos has become the CEO of a technology solution that changed how people can work out and stay active. 

Foundos attended the University of Maryland from 2002-06 and played field hockey for two seasons. She gave up the sport she loved in college to pursue a career in finance. But her journey ultimately led her to create Fortë, a business-to-business, software as a service solution that enables gyms, studios, influencers, sports leagues and professional sports teams to build an interactive live and on-demand video solution for its members.

Foundos was a two-time All-American field hockey player and played in the Junior Olympics in high school before attending Maryland. Still, her parents weren’t convinced playing a sport in college was the right career path for her. After all, they were immigrants from Albania to Long Island and devoted their lives to giving their children a better life. 

Even Foundos herself wasn’t set on playing field hockey in college. It wasn’t until Maryland began to recruit her that she knew she wanted to be a Terp. 

“My parents were definitely like, ‘This isn't a career, focus on school,’” Foundos said. “And,  then I was really good. They kind of were like alright, well a coach at the schools were calling and I could have gone a lot of places, but Maryland was No. 1. At the time, I wanted to just play on the best team.”

The Terps had finished first in the ACC in four straight seasons from 1998-2001 and even won a national championship in 1999. Foundos wanted to be a part of the already decorated program. 

During her athletic career at Maryland, Foundos was a part of two Final Four teams in 2003 and 2004 and was named Intercollegiate Athletics Honor Roll and ACC Academic Honor Roll as a communication major with a concentration in business. 

Foundos left the team to focus on her academics. However, she says she had an amazing experience playing for the Terps, and she believes being a part of the M Club was pivotal in her future success.

“Playing hockey at Maryland was really pivotal to my whole character of who I've become,” Foundos said. “I think it's like 94 percent of executive CEOs that are women played sports, and…I think it's like 56 percent of those are Division I athletes.”

Foundos graduated in 2006 and later began working on Wall Street as a U.S. Government bond trader. It was a lucrative career, but it was also very demanding. Foundos worked in the role for nearly a decade, but she began to lose a sense of herself, she says. Fitness has always been a huge part of her life and she struggled to allocate time to it. 

In a career that attracted many athletes, Foundos had a solution. She started to take her clients with her to the gym. Eventually, Foundos was leading large groups of people to the gym to work out, all while she was still working. It allowed her to get back to her athletic roots, and it also got her thinking about the future of fitness.

“I just was sitting at work and I was like, if I just keep thinking about it, it's gonna happen,” Foundos said. “And every time I drink a glass of wine, I'm going to tell somebody, I knew it. I knew that was gonna happen. I was like, I don't want to be that person that says that story. Like I saw it coming and I did nothing about it.”

Foundos began developing Fortë with no technology or startup experience and left her job on Wall Street in 2016 to fully commit to her lifelong passion for fitness. Fortë means strong in Albanian, a homage to her ethnic background. 

The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated her business as people looked for a way to stay active from home. Fortë then developed into a multi-million dollar business powering gyms and studios such as UFC Gym, YMCA, DanceBody and many others. They also work with organizations like the NFL Players Association and Under Armour. 

Foundos says her company has raised about 20 million dollars thus far and has investors such as Billie Jean King, Lance Bass, the Los Angeles Dodgers and others. One of her investors is the Dingman City Angels, which is an investment group with the Robert H. Smith School of Business at Maryland. Another group, SeventySix Capital, is managed by Wayne Kimmel, who is a graduate of the University of Maryland.

“We have two groups of investors that are from Maryland, so I think when you're at school you're just having a good time and a lot of those relationships have become important and really helpful to me, or even just the Maryland connection,” Foundos said. “When somebody sees that you're from Maryland it's the first thing they bring up.”

Foundos received the EnTREPreneur Award for Fortë in 2022 from the University of Maryland, recognizing her success as a brave and successful entrepreneur. She even appeared on the TV show Unicorn Hunters and was the first entrepreneur to get all of the investors to invest in her company.

Foundos has remained involved with the Terps field hockey program and even remains in contact with Meharg and her former teammates. She regards being a part of the M Club at Maryland as an experience that molded her into who she is today. Foundos believes it’s important to give back given everything Maryland has done for her in her career. 

 “Maryland was so impactful in my life and still continues to be to this very day,” Foundos said. “I want to pay it forward and for many students to come have the same, and even better experience than I have had.”