He Rebuilt His Gym with a Better Foundation
Two Roles. One Academy.
Joey handles the business. Professor Santos runs the mat. It’s a partnership built on a clear handshake: Santos teaches, Joey pays the bills and makes sure everything runs. When his first academy partnership collapsed and his original co-instructor returned to Brazil, Joey didn’t quit. He found Santos, brought their two student families together, and relaunched as Roll Society.
Santos brings 13–14 years of training under multiple black belts and a teaching style that’s meticulous—every student, every detail, every class. The school has since added judo on Fridays through Professor Wayne, rounding out the standup game that pure jiu-jitsu schools often leave underdeveloped.
He Needed a System That Worked From Day One
Joey is the kind of operator who figures things out as he goes—Army, federal law enforcement, now running an academy. When he relaunched Roll Society, he needed a management system that wouldn’t become another full-time job to learn. Billing, memberships, student records: handled, without doing it on paper like the old days.
He tried Gymdesk. Paid the fee. Stuck with it. The early support response times weren’t perfect and the learning curve was real. But the team listened, acted on his feedback, and helped him rebuild his web presence through the transition. For a school restarting from scratch, that mattered more than features.
“You guys understood my situation and did everything you could to help me rebound from my last business to the new business. I appreciate that very much.”
The System Worked and He Never Looked Back
Billing runs automatically through Authorize.net—point A to point C, nothing in between. Members use the app to track their memberships, belts, and invoices. The website is included in the subscription and ties directly into Gymdesk, no third-party links required. Once it was running, Joey stopped thinking about it.
The Operational Shift
Without the Right Tools
- Billing and memberships tracked manually, “like the old school days”
- Support issues waited 24–48 hours for a response
- Website required outside help to build and manage
- Rebuilding from a failed partnership with no system in place
With Gymdesk
- Payments process automatically through Authorize.net, no follow-up needed
- Support responds quickly; feedback gets acted on
- Website included in the subscription, tied directly into the platform
- Members track their own memberships, belts, and invoices in the app
A Place for Everybody
Roll Society teaches jiu-jitsu and judo to kids, teens, and adults starting at age four. The goal isn’t to produce competitors—though they do compete—it’s to give every student something the mat uniquely offers: a place where a working parent, a nine-year-old, and a lifelong martial artist can all show up and find their reason to stay.
“You guys understood my situation and did everything you could to help me rebound from my last business to the new business. I appreciate that very much.”
“Whether you’re kids, seniors, adults—you might be doing this for fun, for exercise, maybe you want to be the next MMA fighter, maybe you’re just having a midlife crisis. There’s something there for everybody.”
Run Your Academy. Not Your Inbox.
Gymdesk handles the admin so you can stay on the mat.
