Kristen Nicholson | Urban Sweat
Owner of Urban Sweat
Kristen Nicholson, founder of Urban Sweat, shares her path from corporate healthcare to entrepreneurship. Learn how she turned her vision into a successful wellness studio and franchise, and hear her advice for aspiring entrepreneurs about betting on yourself and embracing the challenges of growth.
A System That Wasn’t Healing
After more than 20 years in corporate healthcare, Kristen Nicholson saw the same pattern play out: patients being treated but not truly getting better. The system, she realized, was reactive—focused on symptoms rather than root causes. It was draining to watch, and even more frustrating to be part of. Kristen knew there had to be a better way to support long-term physical and mental health.
Creating Something Proactive
Motivated by her experience and a desire for change, Kristen took a leap of faith. After hearing the same phrase—“You’ve got to bet on yourself”—from four different people in one day, she finally did. In 2022, she opened Urban Sweat, a wellness studio offering proactive, holistic care. It combined recovery tools, mental reset spaces, and a culture of prevention instead of patchwork.
Growth That Stays Grounded
Urban Sweat quickly gained momentum. By 2024, Kristen expanded into a franchise model to meet growing demand without sacrificing quality. She compares growth to a cold plunge: “At first it shocks you, but if you breathe through it, you find your strength.” That same philosophy now shapes how she supports new franchisees—helping others step into wellness entrepreneurship with clarity, courage, and the tools to serve their communities.
“Sometimes slowing down in order to speed up is the right thing to do.”
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Hi, my name is Kristen Nicholson, and I am the founder and owner of Urban Sweat.
Urban Sweat opened in February 2022 with its first location in The Nations. Shortly after, we transitioned into a franchise model and had our first franchisee open in the Wedgewood-Houston area of Nashville in February 2024.
I spent over 20 years in corporate healthcare and found myself really burned out on the “band-aid” approach that U.S. healthcare often feels like. I knew there had to be a better way—a more proactive approach to both physical and mental health—so I took the leap.
I've literally said every day since opening, “I wish I had done this sooner.”
The mental toughness required to be an entrepreneur is a real thing. You don’t know what’s around the corner. As an entrepreneur, you want to fix things immediately and rush through them, but sometimes slowing down in order to speed up is the right thing to do.
In those ways, I believe it’s made me more resilient. And when I think about the modalities we offer in the studio, it reminds me of a cold plunge session. You get into the cold plunge, and you’re in fight-or-flight mode for the first 30 seconds. But you have to breathe through it.
Once you get to that 45-second or one-minute mark, you start to settle down—even though it's still uncomfortable. Then, during the next 30 seconds, you really settle in. You think, “Maybe I can stay another 30 seconds.” By the time you get out of that cold water, you feel powerful. You feel proud of yourself. You're energized. You feel stronger than ever.
That, to me, is exactly like being an entrepreneur.
I think some entrepreneurs fail where others succeed simply because they don’t have the right support group. That’s one of the hardest parts of being an entrepreneur—your friends and family aren’t always going to understand what you’re going through.
Taking the risk is uncomfortable. Jumping in and betting on yourself is hard—but it's also essential. Right before I started my business, I don’t know if I was just more open to hearing it, but four different people told me in a single day, “Kristen, you’ve got to bet on yourself.”
I've received two pieces of advice that have really stuck with me in my entrepreneurial journey. The first was to bet on myself. The second came at the gym while talking to another entrepreneur. I was telling him how nervous and excited I felt, and he said, “Good. You should be nervous.”
I asked, “What does that mean? Do you think this is a bad idea?” He said, “No, I think you need that nervousness to fuel you. You need it to make this work.”
Why We Share These Stories
We believe that celebrating Tennessee’s entrepreneurs will inspire the next generation of bold thinkers, risk-takers, and community builders. Entrepreneurs don’t forget where they come from—and they carry the power to transform not just their businesses, but entire neighborhoods, towns, and local economies. See more entrepreneur stories from the Patton Foundation.
