Moritz Fürste
Co-founder and managing partner of HYROX, two-time Olympic field hockey champion
Who this is
Moritz "Mo" Fürste played field hockey for Germany: world champion in 2006, Olympic gold in Beijing 2008 and London 2012, plus bronze in 2016. While still competing he completed a dual-track degree, a bachelor's and a master's, and worked around 20 hours a week at an advertising agency. In January 2017 he sat down with his then boss Michael Trautmann and event expert Christian Toetzke, and in April 2017 the three founded HYROX in Hamburg. Mo and Christian run the company as managing partners; Mo is responsible for marketing, communications and brand, as well as team and HR.
Episodes
Numbers from the episode
FAQ
What is HYROX?
HYROX is a fitness competition that Moritz Fürste, Christian Toetzke and Michael Trautmann founded in Hamburg in 2017. A race consists of eight kilometres of running, broken up by functional fitness workouts such as the ski ergometer, sled push, burpees, lunges and wall balls. Mo calls it the modern fitness trail: exercises people already do in the gym, packaged as a competition. You can race solo, as a double or in a relay of four. To the episode →
How does HYROX make money?
The biggest revenue stream is tickets: in calendar year 2025 HYROX had close to a million participants at an average ticket price of 125 to 130 dollars. On top of that come partnerships, for example with Puma, Red Bull, Amazfit and Myprotein, merchandise and licences: around 8,000 gyms worldwide pay roughly 120 dollars a month on average for the right to offer HYROX training. To the episode →
How was HYROX funded?
For the first three years HYROX was fully bootstrapped, with the founders investing their own money. In December 2019 that was no longer enough for global expansion. A friends-and-family round didn't come together, and according to Mo neither the startup scene nor VCs were interested in an analogue event business. In the end Infront, a Swiss sports rights company, came in as a minority shareholder with a path to a majority stake. To the episode →
What does the name HYROX mean?
Not "Hybrid Rockstar", even though viral videos claim it does. According to Mo the name was a business decision: they needed a term that could be trademarked worldwide and is pronounced the same in every market. Because almost every phonetic term was already protected, they settled on this combination of letters. To the episode →
Will HYROX become an Olympic sport?
Mo considers it very realistic. HYROX doesn't yet meet all the criteria, but is working hard to be on the programme of the 2032 Olympic Games in Brisbane. So far he sees nothing against it happening under the HYROX name. It's quite possible, though, that it won't work out for 2032. To the episode →
Do the founders want to sell HYROX?
No. According to Mo, just about every investor has called by now, but he and Christian Toetzke don't intend to sell within the next five to ten years or to leave HYROX. The shareholder structure is complicated, though, because their investor is itself up for sale. To the episode →
Quotes
„Wir haben nichts neu erfunden, wir haben das Rad nicht neu erfunden, wir haben ja nicht Laufen oder Schlittenschieben erfunden.““We didn't invent anything new, we didn't reinvent the wheel, we didn't invent running or pushing a sled.”
„Wir wollten immer einen Wettkampf bauen, den keiner abbrechen muss …““We always wanted to build a competition nobody has to quit.”
„Ich halte überhaupt nichts von diesen Pay-Per-View-Ideen, Sportarten aufgrund von kurzfristigen Kommerzialisierungserlösen hinter irgendeine Paywall zu packen. Für uns geht es nur um Reach.““I don't believe at all in these pay-per-view ideas, putting sports behind some paywall for short-term commercial revenue. For us it's all about reach.”
„… jeder Sport definiert sich immer durch Messbarkeit …““Every sport is always defined by measurability.”
„Heute will ich eher als was anderes wahrgenommen werden, weißt du, das hat sich total gedreht. Ich bin der Gründer von HYROX und der ehemalige Nationalspieler.““Today I'd rather be seen as something else, you know, that has completely flipped. I'm the founder of HYROX, and the former national team player.”