About Gorilla Gym
With rapid growth for consecutive years, Velex Corporation dba Gorilla Gym is one of the hottest consumer products companies in the Kids and Adult indoor fitness arena. Created by two Harvard graduates for their own kids, Gorilla Gym is helping parents tackle the growing child obesity epidemic by offering a versatile, action-packed product loved by children, which replaces screen time with active playtime. Within three years, Velex Corporation has grown from its successful crowd-funding beginning, scaled e-commerce sales of its patented home exercise system in the USA and Canada, and is currently in expanding in the UK and Europe.
Peter Velikin
Peter has over 20 years of experience in creating new markets and commercializing products in multiple industries, including consumer products, enterprise storage, virtualization, SaaS solutions for e-commerce and mobile devices, engineering and service software, and fiber optic telecommunications. Prior to co-founding Velex Corporation, the maker of Gorilla Gym, Peter was VP Marketing at VeloBit, Inc, a leading provider of enterprise storage I/O optimization software. There, he managed all aspects of marketing and new business development from the company’s inception through its acquisition by Western Digital Corporation. Prior to that, he was VP Marketing at Zmags, a SaaS-based digital content platform for e-commerce and mobile devices, responsible for marketing, product management, and business development. Peter has held senior management roles in sales, marketing, business development, project management and engineering. An avid multi-sport athlete and a USSA (US Ski and Snowboard Association) certified coach, Peter was the top scorer on our MIT-Harvard soccer team, leading the team to many championships and post-game celebrations. He has won the US national collegiate rowing championship and numerous medals as a competitive ski racer. With a Master’s degree in engineering from Boston University and an MBA from Harvard Business School, Peter’s incisive inputs gave life to Gorilla Gym and his focus on results helped make this project a reality. A devoted father, Peter enjoys exercising with his sons Christo – a multi-sport athlete and already a skiing and soccer champion – and Andrew – a future champion. Concerned with Christo’s and Andrew’s safety, Peter worked hard to ensure that Gorilla Gym is safe and fun to use for all ages.
Kiril Stefan Alexandrov
Kiril started his serial entrepreneurship during grad school by co-founding the national magazine The Boston Book Review which, in 1994, was the first national print magazine to also put its entire print content on the web. During that time period, he won the MIT $50K entrepreneurship contest & the Stanford Global Challenge while co-founding a biotech company Genigma (formerly Eyegen). Next, spinning the International Economic Alliance out of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government with co-founder Van McCormick kept him busy until he started designing the world’s thinnest wallets on the side. That led to the creation of the Big Skinny line of ultra-thin wallets for men and women. In 2010, Big Skinny set a Guinness World Record for the World’s Largest Wallet which was on display in Harvard Square for 1 month during the Holiday season and helped raise money for 14 deserving local non-profit organizations. He is even more excited about Gorilla Gym as it is helping him stay in shape while having fun with his 2 infant sons and wife.
Joel Charpentier
Joel designed the AirSpeed 11-11 Training Program and is in charge of the Gorilla Gym trainer certification program. Joel played basketball at Queens University in Charlotte, NC before he became the jackman for Juan Pablo Montoya in NASCAR. He worked with our country’s top athletes as a trainer at Athletes’ Performance and NBA basketball’s LA Clippers. He has a Master’s degree in exercise science and now works as the head trainer for one of the premier fitness club chains. In his career as a professional trainer, Joel has worked with hundreds of athletes and regular gym goers at all fitness levels.
