1. What made your start-up successful? Was it market knowledge? Vision? Understanding
the core customer? Or something completely different? The more detailed and specific
your answer is, the more helpful it will be to you and your classmates as we begin to
build our own (hopefully successful) start-ups!
Living in the NY city area, I chose the start-up company, Fitocracy which started in 2010
and has made rapid strides in the fitness app field.
It’s no surprise that fitness gamification network Fitocracy is thriving — the company
recently announced that it had surpassed 1 million users and has signed deals with
personalities like theGovernator, Arnold Schwarzenegger.
But the company recently received its latest honor as one of Time Inc’s 10 NYC
Startups to Watch.
1. We took the opportunity to speak to co-founders Brian Wang and Dick Talens
about why gamification seems to be working in the fitness world. At first glance,
gamification seems to make sense based on the fact that fitness goes with
athletics, sports or “games,” if you will. But devices like the Nike FuelBand and its
various counterparts have shown that users grow discouraged when they can’t
maintain steady progress, as measured by the quantified activity. (vision)
2. But Fitocracy uses gamification as a way to get users interested in and hooked
on the app, which lets you track your fitness and receive props from friends and
the community for advancing. According to the founders, users come for the
gamification but stay for the community, which becomes the source of inspiration
as opposed to getting encouragement from your own progress.( Reason for
success)
3. Talens and Wang, who are gamers at heart and came up with the idea for
Fitocracy as they tried to get in shape, also chatted with me about the new Xbox
One and the different ways Fitocracy (and companies like it) can leverage
the new heart-monitoring Kinect (Understanding the core customer)
4. Fitness app Fitocracy gives users a new workout routine to try.
Fitocracy was founded two-and-a-half years ago and launched as a video-game like
fitness app. Users earn digital points on the iPhone, Android, and web apps and “level
up” as they do exercises. That’s still part of the service, but over time it has evolved
from being an “RPG for fitness” to a network of people supporting each other on their
fitness goals.(measurable goals and rewards)
5. “People are using Fitocracy as a social network like they would Facebook,”
Fitocracy co-founder Brian Wang told VentureBeat. “It’s taken on a life of its
own.”
The social network aspect lets you post about your routine and compete with your
friends for badges. Fitocracy’s network has expanded into the real world with meetups
in New York, Toronto, Houston, Washington D.C., Philadelphia, and Indianapolis. Wang
also said he’s heard stories of people meeting through Fitocracy and eventually getting
married.(Growth in different fields of life/business)

2. Along with its growing network of users, Fitocracy wants to give you routines from
fitness experts that include advice about workouts and ways to keep hitting your goals.
Fitocracy calls these “Spark Challenges,” and they are each 15 minutes long. The
routines will start running in April.
“Very few people have someone to tell you what to do, and personal trainers are
prohibitively expensive,” Wang said. “We want to provide users with fitness routines and
goals they can actually accomplish.” .(market knowledge)
Schwarzenegger has offered up his own 15-minute “Spark Challenge.” Before he was
known for movies and politics, Schwarzenegger was a prominent bodybuilder and
fitness expert, winning the Mr. Universe title at age 20. So bringing his celebrity power
to Fitocracy makes sense as a way to interest new people in the service.
“From my first day of training, I’ve known the importance of counting reps to constantly
improve,” Schwarzenegger said in a statement. “Then, my only technology was chalk
and a chalkboard, but innovation has opened up endless possibilities to track health and
fitness. That’s why I’m excited to launch this challenge with Fitocracy, so that we can
inspire others to find the joy in doing one more rep today than they did yesterday.”
New York-based Fitocracy has eight employees and has raised “between $1 and $2
million” in funding to date from 500 Startups and several angel investors. The company
makes money by offering premium accounts with more features for $5 a month. Wang
would not reveal the company’s number of paid users or monthly active users.
Check out the app being reviewed on The Dr. Oz Show a few months ag
Read more at http://venturebeat.com/2013/03/26/fitocracy-1m-users-arnold-schwarzenegger/#vJiVijGEtyTfe4vP.99
General Information
Website fitocracy.com
Blog blog.fitocracy.com
Twitter @fitocracy
Category Consumer Web
Email brian@fitocracy.com
Employees 2
Founded 10/10
Description Social game for
fitness
Offices
New York, USA
New York, NY
USA
People
Daniel Roesler
Chief Technology Officer
Jared Cocken

3. Chief Product Officer
Vinicio Dy
Chief Technology Officer
Blake Commagere
Advisor
Alan Aragon
Advisor
Jen Yoder
Community Manager
Richard Talens
Cofounder, Chief Growth Officer
Nihal Mehta
Angel Investor
FUNDING
TOTAL
$250k
Seed, 9/11 1
500 Startups
Paul Singh
Nihal Mehta
Hadley Harris
Tim Young
Vikas Taneja
Jay Gould
Aman Thapar
Zachary Aarons
Krishna K.
Gupta
Eric Cantor
Cankut Durgun
Lawrence Chu
Neil Chheda
Peter Kuperman
Joseph Melohn
Michael De La
Maza
Michael Sheng
Kyle Eklund
Eric Cressey
Mike Serafin
John Romaniello
Expansion
Venture Capital
Ryan Melohn
$25