Elite coaching has always been limited by the coach's calendar. Dania Valladares, founder of Agora Fitness and one of the top 20 startups selected at the AI Powered Women 2026 conference at MIT, is building AI agents trained on each coach's own methods. Her aim is for that expertise to reach clients who would never get a slot.

Jen Halsall co-hosts with Nathan Hyland of The Collective. Their guest is a software engineering leader whose career began with a computer science degree in Havana. Dania traces her path from Cuba to Mexico to engineering leadership in the US. She describes how her father's terminal diagnosis, arriving as she was expecting her first child, led her to Ashtanga yoga, meditation and breathwork, and to the mission behind Agora.

The conversation looks at why static PDFs and pre-recorded programmes have been the only way coaches could scale. Dania explains why she sees AI as the next digital surface after websites, social media and apps. She describes how a coach's agent is built from their client notes, programmes and ebooks, and how the agent questions the coach to find gaps in the method. Training, nutrition and biometric data then flow back to the coach, so the method keeps improving.

Jen and Nathan put the questions coaches and operators are asking. What does this mean for gyms where most members never buy personal training? How is quality protected when so much general guidance underserves women? How does a client's context carry across a team of coaches? Where does the agent stop and hand over to a human or a medical professional?

Chapters
00:00 Introduction
01:10 From Havana to engineering leadership in the US
03:42 A turning point: family, yoga and the mission behind Agora
05:45 The calendar bottleneck for coaches and clients
08:00 Why coaches rarely treat their offer as a product
09:54 AI as the next digital surface for coaching
12:04 What the experience looks like for the client
13:57 Personalisation, cohesion and how a coach's agent is built
17:50 Closing the feedback loop when life gets in the way
19:34 Building a team of coaches with one shared client context
21:16 What it means for gym operators
24:01 Quality control and the gaps in women's health guidance
27:53 Early feedback from coaches
31:28 Rethinking the hours-for-income model and trainer churn
33:48 When you can't make your session
34:22 Adherence and daily conversations with your coach
35:56 Scope of practice, guardrails and handing over to humans
38:05 Building in AI as a woman and Latina founder
40:35 Collective spotlight
41:56 Closing thoughts

Resources
Dania Valladares on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dania-rosa-valladares/
Agora Fitness: https://agora.fitness
The Collective: https://wearethecollective.world
All episodes: https://wearethecollective.world/podcast

Connecting the Dots is the B2B podcast from The Collective, covering women's health, leadership and innovation across fitness, health and wellness.