Charlotte’s Burn Boot Camp builds fitness empire

CHARLOTTE — Burn Boot Camp started in a Huntersville parking lot in April 2012.

The first week, 10 people showed up for class on a Monday. By that Thursday, the number had dwindled to zero.

“I’ll never forget it. It’s a fundamental fork in the road. It was like, you do one of two things,” says Devan Kline, who co-founded the company with wife Morgan. “You pack it in and decide you’re not good at this or you find the underlying problem. So, I did my own workout. I realized that we needed to become a marketing company whose product was to sell confidence, not a fitness company whose product was memberships.”

Today, the couple has built Burn Boot Camp into a privately held fitness empire, with 354 locations in 42 states serving 120,000 members.

Devan Kline says the company is valued at between $400 million and $500 million. Burn Boot Camp was No. 319 on Entrepreneur’s Franchise 500 list for 2024 — its fifth consecutive year making the cut.

The company’s quick rise may have the appearance of an overnight sensation. But that success has been built on two decades of hard work and gritty determination.

CBJ’s cover story this week takes a look behind the scenes on how the Klines have built a fitness powerhouse. Read it here.

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