​​Walla Appoints Stephanie Moran as CRO to Bring an Operator’s Playbook to Every Studio It Serves

Walla, the leading studio management platform revolutionizing the boutique fitness industry, today announced that Stephanie Moran has joined the company as Chief Revenue Officer (CRO). This hire is aimed squarely at studio owners’ day-to-day reality: Moran has spent more than 20 years building the software and go-to-market strategy behind the industry’s biggest platforms, and she owns a boutique fitness studio herself. Stephanie has felt the retention pressure, staffing headaches, and margin squeeze that Walla exists to solve, from both sides of the software.

“Stephanie’s experience is unmatched in our industry, and it materially strengthens Walla’s ability to execute on our long-term vision of becoming the leading operating system for boutique fitness businesses,” said Doug Hecht, CEO and co-founder of Walla.

“Stephanie and I worked together for years, and I saw firsthand the way she leads teams, serves customers, and builds organizations. When the opportunity arose to bring her to Walla, it was an easy decision. She’s one of the most respected leaders in our industry, and just as important, she understands what it takes to help studio owners succeed because she lives it. Stephanie is a significant catalyst for Walla’s next stage of growth.”

Solving Real Boutique Studio Challenges

Most software companies fill executive seats with SaaS leaders from outside the industry. Walla went a different direction, and the difference shows up directly in how studio owners will experience the company going forward:

She scaled the platform this industry grew up on. At Mindbody, Moran spent over a decade building and leading global sales organizations, helping take the company from an early-stage startup to the category-defining fitness and wellness software.

She’s shaped go-to-market strategies from the inside. As Head of Growth at ClubReady, Moran deepened her expertise in customer acquisition, partnerships, and growth strategy specifically for boutique fitness software—the exact playbook she now brings to Walla’s clients.

She owns and runs a studio. Moran owns and operates her own boutique fitness studio, which means instructor scheduling, client retention, membership pricing, and thin margins aren’t abstractions to her; they’re what she manages every week. That operator lens is rare in a revenue leader, and it’s already shaping how she thinks about every Walla client relationship.

She’s elevating client support and strategic partnerships. As CRO, Moran leads Sales, Marketing, Revenue Operations, Professional Services, Pricing & Packaging, and Strategic Partnerships, so her studio-owner instincts inform not just how Walla sells, but how it onboards, supports, and nurtures clients long after the deal closes.

“I’ve spent my career in this industry, and I’ve also felt the specific frustration of fighting clunky, outdated software to run my own studio,” said Stephanie Moran, Chief Revenue Officer at Walla. “That’s why I joined Walla. This is software built by operators, for operators, and I get to help studio owners feel that difference every day, not just at the point of sale, but across their entire experience with us.”

Looking Ahead

Moran’s appointment is the latest signal of where Walla is headed: an operating system for boutique fitness businesses, built and led by people who understand the industry from the foundation. Moran will expand the Walla ecosystem, positioning the software innovator to keep closing the gap between what studio owners actually need and what legacy software has been missing.