She didn’t need another fitness tool. She needed one that could keep up.
Karen Harbour has spent more than two decades building a career at the intersection of food, fitness and entrepreneurship.
She coached more than 100,000 people across 10,000+ classes, taught nearly every style of group fitness, strength and conditioning, and eventually opened Bella Strength, her own strength-training studio for women.
At the same time, Karen was building a career in the natural foods industry—spending much of her life on airplanes, in hotels, visiting retailers and chasing the next opportunity.
Her fitness toolbox was overflowing.
But the tool she really needed wasn’t in it.
The workout had to travel with her.
Karen never liked hearing that people were too busy to move. She understood busy.
For years, she traveled with resistance bands stuffed into her suitcase and worked out wherever she happened to be—a hotel room, outside, or the road between meetings.
But eventually, the same workouts became too easy.
So she started making them harder through unilateral training: one arm, one leg, less support, greater stability demand.
That worked.
Until thousands of seated single-leg movements later, she was bored again.
She needed another way to progressively challenge herself without adding more equipment to her suitcase.
Then Shark Tank gave her an idea.
Karen saw the Simply Fit Board on Shark Tank and immediately thought she had found the answer: a balance tool she could take on the road.
She bought one.
One trip was enough to realize it wasn’t going in her suitcase.
Next came wobble discs. They were smaller, but she needed two—and together they took up even more room.
So in hotel rooms, she started improvising with pillows.
Better than nothing. Still not the answer.
Then, while camping, Karen inflated her camping pillow.
And something clicked.
What if the balance trainer could deflate?
It could be compact enough to travel anywhere and inflate when she was ready to use it.
Karen stood on the pillow.
She sank straight to the ground.
The idea was right. The structure wasn’t.
A simple inflatable cushion couldn’t provide the buoyancy, support and stability needed to stand and move on it.
But Karen now knew what she needed to build.
Approachable. Progressive. Versatile. Portable.
Years of coaching had taught Karen that not every fitness tool works for every body.
Some equipment is too intimidating. Some is too difficult. Some is too specialized. Some takes up too much space. And some works at first—but doesn’t offer anywhere to go as the person improves.
Karen wanted BALERO to solve all of those problems.
Approachable
Stable enough to meet someone where they are.
Progressive
Adjustable enough to keep challenging them as their abilities change.
Versatile
One tool for balance, stability, strength, mobility—and more.
Portable
Deflatable and compact enough to go from the gym to the hotel room, outdoors or wherever life takes you.
Durable
Built for real-world use by practitioners, athletes and everyday people.
She wasn’t trying to fill another space in an already overflowing fitness toolbox.
She wanted to build one tool that could do more.
The idea happened in a moment. Building it took a decade.
That camping-pillow realization was only the beginning.
Turning the idea into BALERO took nearly ten years of concept development, prototypes, R&D, engineering, testing, patenting and manufacturing—followed by packaging, logistics, messaging, positioning, sales and a go-to-market strategy.
Fortunately, Karen’s unusual career had prepared her for both sides of the challenge.
Fitness taught her what the product needed to do.
Decades of coaching taught her about progression, different bodies, different abilities and the importance of making movement approachable.
CPG taught her how to bring a product to market.
Years building and selling consumer brands taught her about product development, positioning, retailers, consumers, sales and scale.
BALERO brought those two careers together.
Built to keep life—and people—moving.
For Karen, BALERO was always about more than creating another balance board.
She wanted a tool that could help her stay physically challenged while navigating a demanding life—and help other people do the same.
A tool that could meet you where you are.
Progress as you improve.
Adapt to different ways of training.
And go where life takes you.
Because staying balanced isn’t only something you practice standing on one leg.
It’s something you work at—in your training, your career and your life.
“I spent years filling my fitness toolbox. Eventually I realized I didn’t need another tool. I needed one that could progress with me—and go wherever I went. So I built it.”
- Years Coaching
- 20+Years Coaching
- Classes Taught
- 10,000+Classes Taught
- People Coached
- 100,000+People Coached
- Concept to Market
- 10 YearsConcept to Market
- Inventor of BALEROboard®
- U.S. Patent 12,246,212Inventor of BALEROboard®
See it for yourself
The tool that was missing from her toolbox. Maybe it belongs in yours.
BALERO was designed to be approachable, progressive, versatile and portable—one tool that can adapt to the person, the purpose and the place.