Cover Rianna Samtani and Pasha Mirpuri are the co-founders of Flow & Friends (Photo: courtesy of @flowandfriendshk/Instagram)
Rianna Samtani and Pasha Mirpuri are the co-founders of Flow & Friends (Photo: courtesy of @flowandfriendshk/Instagram)
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Twenty-somethings Pasha Mirpuri and Rianna Samtani have built Flow & Friends, one of Hong Kong’s most sought-after wellness social clubs—and they’ve done it in just ten months
In a city notorious for its breakneck pace, two childhood friends have created something Hong Kong didn’t know it was missing: a wellness community that feels less like a fitness class and more like coming home.
Pasha Mirpuri, 24, and Rianna Samtani, 25, launched Flow & Friends in April 2025 with less than HK $1,000 and a simple premise—that their generation was tired of networking over cocktails and craved something more meaningful. Ten months later, they’ve hosted more than 1,000 people at their events, built a 500-strong WhatsApp community, and caught the attention of brands like Lululemon and Fortnum & Mason, all without spending a cent on advertising.
Flow & Friends isn’t just about the Pilates and sound healing sessions—it’s about what happens in the second hour: the socialising, the connections, the moments when strangers become friends over matcha instead of martinis. In a global shift where wellness is replacing watches and handbags as the ultimate status symbol, Samtani and Mirpuri have tapped into the realisation that true luxury is community, accessibility and simply moving your body with people who get it; it isn’t bottle service—it’s belonging.
Both former corporate refugees—Mirpuri from a legal agency in London, Samtani from teaching primary school in New York and Hong Kong—they’ve built Flow & Friends into a movement, with a members’ programme and app launching in March, and a pop-up that’s about to make waves in Dubai.
Here, the duo discuss building community from scratch and what it really takes to start something from nothing in one of the world’s most competitive cities.
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Above Mirpuri and Samtani (Photo: courtesy of @flowandfriendshk/Instagram)
Mirpuri and Samtani (Photo: courtesy of @flowandfriendshk/Instagram)
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Hi ladies! You’re childhood friends who decided to build something together in Hong Kong’s wellness space. What was the specific moment that made you both realise that networking over cocktails wasn’t serving your generation anymore, and that there was space for something totally different?
Samtani: We always knew Hong Kong needed a [wellness] community and that it was a couple of steps behind in the wellness scene compared to other cities. If you go to London, Dubai or New York, there are so many communities like Flow & Friends. In Hong Kong, [workout] studios are a bit cold and there is no sense of community—you just get up and leave afterwards. In a city that’s as fast-paced as Hong Kong, burnout is so real, so having [a community] makes it feel more than about just fitness. It’s an experience that you can enjoy and keep wanting to come back to.
Mirpuri: At first we thought we’d open a Pilates studio—we thought since we do Pilates every day anyway, why not make something of it? But we realised we wouldn’t get to be collaborative by opening a studio. So we flipped the idea, and it’s worked so well because it’s given people a space to slow down away from their busy lives. Wellness is basically a non-negotiable now.
Above (Photo: courtesy of @flowandfriendshk/Instagram)
(Photo: courtesy of @flowandfriendshk/Instagram)
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Above (Photo: courtesy of @flowandfriendshk/Instagram)
(Photo: courtesy of @flowandfriendshk/Instagram)
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There’s a shift happening where wellness is becoming the new status symbol—cold plunges and sound baths are replacing bottle service and late nights. What are your thoughts on this?
Samtani: Sometimes people may feel like wellness is unattainable because of the fancier studios or expensive retreats—but with Flow & Friends, we’re trying to create a space where you can just move your body in a place that’s accessible to everyone. [Previous Flow & Friends events have taken place in parks and at Repulse Bay beach.]
Mirpuri: Wellness used to feel like an add-on, but now it’s just the standard. Everyone has become so health-conscious and they actually care about their bodies and mental health.
Walk us through what a typical Flow & Friends experience looks like.
Mirpuri: We are completely open to the public. We’re not a fitness class, but movement is the starting point. The first hour of our events include some kind of movement: yoga or Pilates; the second hour is where the socialising takes place. Here, we will collaborate with a brand or F&B partner. We launch our events ten days in advance on Instagram, then sell tickets via Eventbrite for approximately HK$350. At the beginning, we were doing one event every weekend—but we ourselves started to burn out, so now we host events two or three times a month. We’ve built a lot of momentum.
Above (Photo: courtesy of @flowandfriendshk/Instagram)
(Photo: courtesy of @flowandfriendshk/Instagram)
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Above (Photo: courtesy of @flowandfriendshk/Instagram)
(Photo: courtesy of @flowandfriendshk/Instagram)
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Who shows up to Flow & Friends events?
Samtani: Mostly girls aged 20 to 35. They work corporate jobs [or] many work in education. We’ve had people who just moved to Hong Kong three days [before an event] attend our events to make friends. It’s perfect because they come to our event and they automatically know the girls at this event are going to be people they align with. We also love when men come to our events—they’re trying something new, they’re getting out of their comfort zone and they’ve all been super awesome. The sweetest moment for us is when girls come to our events solo and then they leave to go grab coffee with new friends they made. Some of our attendees have become best friends now and they hang out every single weekend.
Mirpuri: People are not just coming to work out. They stay afterwards and talk. They meet people and they leave hopefully feeling better than when they came. In Hong Kong, people are so ambitious and work so hard, but they need to find balance—that’s where we come in.
Which wellness entrepreneurs or communities do you look up to?
Samtani: We love what the team at the Social Club Series is doing in Hong Kong. In Dubai, what Fred’s Coffee Club is doing is also so cool—partying with just pizza and coffee.
Mirpuri: There’s also this company in Miami called Coffee and Chill [that builds meaningful connections through wellness events]—it’s all community driven and they just do great work.
Where do you see Flow & Friends in five years?
Mirpuri: We really want Flow & Friends to become a global community. We want the brand to be recognised for making people feel good. There is nothing like this in Hong Kong; we had no blueprint. We just went with it, learnt a lot and we’re really proud of it.
Samtani: We are community-first, not studio-first. In the future, if we do an event in Dubai or Miami, we hope people don’t just come for the location, but for the feeling of belonging to a real community. For more information visit flowandfriends.com
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As Content Director at Tatler Hong Kong, Tara shapes the brand's editorial vision across social, digital and print, and reports on Asia's most influential figures — from CEOs and leaders across business, style and the arts. In her dual role as Head of VIP, she also drives the planning and execution of Tatler's flagship IPs, curating star-studded events and building the relationships and communities that define the brand. Born and raised in the Middle East, she honed her craft in Dubai, crafting communication strategies for luxury brands across the Gulf. Follow her on Instagram @tarasobti.
