You want to know where deals get done now? It’s not on the golf course. It’s not at the steakhouse. It’s not even in the boardroom.
It’s in a tub of 39-degree water while your nervous system is screaming at you to get out.
I’m serious.
The people running billion-dollar companies, managing hedge funds, making decisions that move markets—they’re sitting in ice baths. Together. Networking while their core temperature drops and their bodies go into controlled panic mode.
And before you ask: No, you can’t just show up. These aren’t public pools. They’re private clubs with membership fees, waiting lists, and the kind of access that money alone can’t always buy.
Let me walk you through what’s actually happening. Because this isn’t wellness theater. This is strategy.
THE CLUBS THAT DON’T NEED YOUR BUSINESS
Remedy Place opened in West Hollywood first. Dr. Jonathan Leary spent years developing it. Now they’ve got two Manhattan locations—Flatiron and SoHo.
This isn’t a spa. It’s what they call “The World’s First Social Wellness Club.” Which is code for: this is where people who matter go to optimize their biology while building relationships with other people who matter.
You walk in, and it’s not clinical. It’s designed. Aesthetic. The kind of place where you’d expect to see a $50 cocktail, except instead of alcohol they’re serving ice baths, IV drips, and hyperbaric chambers.
Membership-based. Not pay-per-visit. Which means they’re filtering for commitment, not curiosity. You’re either in or you’re out.
Then there’s WAVE Wellness in Southampton. Opened in May. First “social wellness destination” in the Hamptons. Cold plunge suites. Contrast therapy. Member events.
You know what that means? The summer colony—the people who own the compounds on Meadow Lane—they’re not just tolerating cold plunges. They’re making it social. They’re turning suffering into networking.
That’s brilliant. Because shared suffering builds trust faster than shared success ever could.
Othership in Flatiron. Multi-sensory environment. Sauna, ice bath, guided breathwork. Two-person cold plunge tubs. Tea lounge with a fireplace where you decompress after.
They’ve got this thing called the “Starter Circuit.” Fifteen to twenty minutes in the sauna. One to three minutes in zero-to-four-degree Celsius water. Ten minutes in the tea room. Then repeat.
It’s a protocol. And protocols are what serious people follow.
WHY THIS WORKS (THE ACTUAL SCIENCE)
Here’s the thing nobody tells you about ice baths: they’re not about recovery. I mean, they are—but that’s not why billionaires care.
They care because of what happens in your brain.
One cold plunge increases dopamine by 250%. Noradrenaline by 500%. That’s not a typo. That’s published research. Your reward system and your alertness system both get flooded.
You know what that does? It makes you sharper. More focused. Better at making decisions under pressure. Which, if you’re running a company or managing other people’s money, is the entire job.
But here’s the real move: When you do this with other people, you’re bonding through shared adversity. You’re in the ice together. You’re both dealing with the same discomfort, the same fight-or-flight response, the same moment of “why the hell am I doing this?”
And when you get out, you both feel like you just won something.
That’s when deals happen. That’s when trust gets built. That’s when someone decides they want to work with you, invest with you, introduce you to their network.
LinkedIn published a story about an LA entrepreneur who threw a cold-plunge party. One of the attendees ended up leading a million-dollar investment round.
You think that’s coincidence? That’s cause and effect. You suffer together, you bond. You bond, you trust. You trust, you do business.
THE NETWORKING SHIFT
Fast Company reported that cold-plunge gatherings are becoming “the hot new networking events” for what they called “movers and shakers.”
Let me translate that: The people who used to network at country clubs are now networking in ice baths.
Why? Because golf takes four hours and you can fake your way through it. An ice bath takes three minutes and you can’t fake anything. Your body either handles it or it doesn’t. Your mind either stays calm or it panics.
That’s information. Real information about who someone is under stress.
And in a world where everyone’s polished, everyone’s got a pitch, everyone’s got a curated version of themselves they present—ice baths strip all that away. You see someone’s actual nervous system in action.
That’s valuable. That’s why venture capital firms are paying attention to this trend. A VC fund called 27K Ventures published analysis in August about “the rise of social wellness clubs” and specifically called out Remedy Place and Othership as transforming saunas and cold plunges into communal rituals.
They’re seeing the hospitality and real estate potential. Which means they’re seeing the money. Which means this isn’t going away.
THE HOME INSTALLATION ARMS RACE
But here’s where it gets really interesting.
Fredrik Eklund—the guy from that real estate show—he’s been talking about what his ultra-wealthy clients are installing in their homes now. Cold plunges. IV drip stations. Infrared saunas. Hyperbaric chambers.
They’re not going to clubs anymore. They’re bringing the clubs to them.
Dubai residents are spending upwards of seventy thousand dirhams—that’s about nineteen thousand US dollars—on home ice bath installations. That’s not a luxury purchase. That’s infrastructure.
And there’s a company called Plunge that built a hundred-million-dollar business selling premium home cold plunge units. They basically defined the luxury cold plunge market. Their customers? Affluent consumers who want the benefits without leaving their property.
That’s the progression: First you join the club. Then you realize the club is crowded. Then you install one at home so you control the environment, the timing, and who’s in it with you.
That’s the ultimate exclusivity. Not just access to the club—ownership of the infrastructure.
WHAT THIS ACTUALLY COSTS
Let’s talk numbers because numbers matter.
Remedy Place membership: Unknown publicly, but membership-based model suggests $3K-$10K+ annually
Othership day pass: Roughly $50-$100 per session, memberships available for frequent users
WAVE Wellness: Membership model with unlimited access to cold plunge, sauna, events—likely $5K-$15K annually
Home installations:
- Entry-level Plunge unit: $5K-$7K
- High-end custom cold plunge pool: $20K-$70K+
- Full home wellness suite (cold plunge + sauna + hyperbaric): $100K-$500K
You’re either spending thousands per year on memberships or tens of thousands on home installations.
Most people can’t justify that. But if you’re making decisions that impact millions or billions of dollars, and a cold plunge gives you even a 5% edge in focus and decision-making—what’s that worth?
Do the math. The ROI is immediate.
THE UNCOMFORTABLE TRUTH ABOUT ACCESS
Here’s what nobody wants to admit: These clubs are designed to exclude people.
Not explicitly. They’re not checking your net worth at the door. But membership models, pricing structures, location choices—they all filter for a specific demographic.
You’re not getting into Remedy Place on a whim. You’re not casually dropping into WAVE Wellness in Southampton unless you’re already in the Hamptons for the summer. You’re not installing a $50K cold plunge at home unless you’ve got disposable income that most people can’t imagine.
This is stratification through wellness. And it’s accelerating.
The Grand View Research cold plunge market report projects continued growth through 2030. Luxury hotels increased their cold plunge installations by 15% from 2021 to 2023, tracking where wealthy guests are spending their money.
The market’s responding to demand. And the demand is coming from the top.
Which means the gap between what’s accessible to the wealthy versus what’s accessible to everyone else is widening. Again.
WHY THEY’RE ACTUALLY DOING THIS
Let me be clear about something: Billionaires aren’t doing ice baths because they read a wellness blog.
They’re doing it because it works. And because everyone else in their peer group is doing it. And because not doing it means falling behind.
This is an arms race disguised as self-care.
When your competitors are optimizing their dopamine and noradrenaline systems, when they’re using cold exposure to sharpen decision-making, when they’re building relationships through shared protocols—you either match that or you lose.
It’s not about health. It’s about performance. It’s about edge. It’s about showing up to high-stakes situations with a nervous system that’s been trained to handle stress.
And it’s about signaling. Because when you’re at Remedy Place or WAVE Wellness, you’re surrounded by other people who prioritize the same things you do. That’s your tribe. That’s your network. That’s where opportunities come from.
You’re not just taking an ice bath. You’re demonstrating that you’re the kind of person who invests in optimization. Who follows through on difficult protocols. Who values performance over comfort.
That’s a signal. And signals matter.
THE META-GAME
Here’s what’s really happening beneath all of this:
Cold plunges are the new golf.
Fifty years ago, if you wanted to network with powerful people, you joined a country club. You learned golf. You spent four hours on a course discussing business between swings.
That model is dying. Not because golf is bad—golf is fine. But because the kind of people building the next generation of wealth don’t have four hours. They need efficiency. They need intensity. They need something that delivers results faster.
Enter: three minutes in an ice bath that rewires your nervous system and bonds you with whoever’s in the tub next to you.
Same function—networking, trust-building, deal-making—but compressed into a format that fits modern schedules and modern values.
The billionaires figured this out first. Now everyone else is catching up.
THE CLUBS YOU ACTUALLY CAN’T JOIN
And then there are the clubs that don’t have websites. Don’t have public memberships. Don’t advertise at all.
Private cold plunge groups in Manhattan penthouses. Hamptons estates with custom installations that host invitation-only morning sessions. Wellness protocols embedded into executive retreats where attendance is by referral only.
These aren’t businesses. These are networks. And networks have gatekeepers.
You get in because someone vouches for you. Because you’re valuable enough that someone wants you in the room—or in this case, in the ice.
That’s the real exclusivity. Not the clubs with membership fees. The clubs that don’t need to charge because the value is entirely in who’s there.
THE BOTTOM LINE
Boardrooms are fine. Conference rooms are fine. Dinners and drinks and golf outings—all fine.
But they’re slow. They’re formal. They’re environments where everyone’s performing.
Ice baths are different. They’re immediate. They’re raw. They strip away the performance and show you who someone actually is.
And in a world where information is everything, where relationships determine outcomes, where trust is the most valuable currency—ice baths are the most efficient trust-building mechanism available.
That’s why billionaires are doing it. That’s why the clubs are multiplying. That’s why home installations are becoming standard in luxury real estate.
This isn’t a trend. This is a shift.
And if you’re not in the water, you’re not in the conversation.
Your move.