From inmate to CEO: Coss Marte transforms lives with CONBODY fitness empire in New York City [Video]

LOWER EAST SIDE, Manhattan (WABC) — This next story takes us on a journey from a prison cell to a successful CEO.

One New York entrepreneur is transforming lives through fitness, while tackling one of the biggest challenges faced by former inmates.

When Coss Marte left prison in 2013, he had just $40 in his pocket and a dream born in a 6×9-foot cell.

Now, he’s not just running a successful business, he’s created a model for second chances that’s catching the attention of lawmakers across the country.

In a small gym on New York’s Lower East Side, transformation happens daily, but not just the kind you’d expect.

“This neighborhood was very drug infested back in the ’80s and early ’90s, and I saw that as an opportunity when I was a kid, because we grew up with not much, you know, in a tenement apartment,” Marte said.

Marte is the founder of CONBODY, a fitness empire built on second chances, …