That time you ran through a redwood forest
App opens virtual world for runners
Is that morning run around the neighbourhood getting a little monotonous? Are you lacking inspiration for another trot on the treadmill?
A pair of Florida entrepreneurs want to turn your routine run into a trip through the redwoods country of Northern California, a Dublin pub crawl or a fantasy jaunt with Alice in Wonderland via a software application that provides interactive fitness challenges.
Kevin Transue and Scott Parker founded Yes. Fit four years ago and now have 78,000 people participating in virtual runs through historical sites, fantasy literary landscapes or just plain beautiful scenery.
All it takes is a wearable fitness device or app and a computer screen — and a little imagination — to transpose participants from a city sidewalk to Maui’s gorgeous Hana Highway.
“Ultimately, at the heart of this, the theme is what gets people off the couch,” says Transue, 44, a former financial planner.
“Counting steps is boring. I can get to 13,000 steps, and then what do I do to get to 14,000 steps, and maybe I can join a challenge where there’s 5,000 other people in it and I can get to 15,000 steps. But that gets old real fast.
The whole idea is using themes that people are already very passionate about to get them off the couch.”
Runners, walkers and cyclists can peruse Yes. Fit’s menu of virtual routes at https:// yes. fit. Most races cost US$25.
Participants sync their fitness device, such as a FitBit, MapMyFitness app or Garmin wearable, with Yes. Fit. As they log miles, they can view on a computer or phone the scenery they are traversing, pick up trivia along the route, and share t houghts with t he company’s Facebook community. They move at their own pace, breaking down courses into as many outings as they want.
When they finish a prescribed run, such as the 69.1- mile Peace, Love and Music challenge through the Catskills from Woodstock to Bethel, N.Y., where the famed music festival occurred, they receive a race medallion. ( A stylized peace symbol for this one, of course.)
That recognition is what is bringing Audrey Kondelis, a 37- year- old homemaker in Springfield, Ill., back to more and more Yes.Fit races.
She had been diagnosed with post- partum depres- sion and was not only looking after five kids of her own, but also a sibling’s four children.
“I was lying there, saying ‘ God, please, lead me to something. I’ve got to have something. I’ve got to snap out of this.’ I just needed something to help me mentally.”
Then a Yes. Fit ad popped up on her Facebook feed. That’s the company’s go- to marketing strategy.
“I get no form of recognition for anything I do,” Kondelis says. “I spend my entire day taking care of other people. Now I’m getting my alone time, I’m getting my stress out. Everything is really so much better now that I found this. It’s changed my life 100 per cent.
“I get a medal at the end of the race,” she says. “It’s not a huge deal, but for me, it’s something I can hold and something I can be proud of, something I can physically see. I’m super excited about that.”
She started with the Race to Oz, a 26.2-mile trek across the plains of Kansas, down the Yellow Brick Road, and into Dorothy’s home. Now, Kondelis has five medals after a few weeks and has started her sixth race.
Seventy per cent of Yes. Fit’s clients are women.
Among them is Shannon Toler, a 47- year- old middle school teacher in Newport, R. I. “I’ve been a FitBit user, but exercise is a bummer,” she says. “I don’t enjoy it. I started reading about this and thought, ‘ I can exercise for bling!’?”
She now has about a dozen Yes.Fit medals.
Transue and Parker say they are particularly gratified by the community of Yes. Fit users. They encourage and praise each other on the “family” Facebook page, and the company also sends out witty motivational cards with medals — “If you see me collapse, please pause my watch,” reads one.
“Everybody says it’s the most motivational group they’ve ever been a part of,” Transue says.
That’s what sets Yes. Fit apart from the handful of other virtual fitness challenge organizers out there, the founders says, along with the technology that tracks a user’s specific progress.
The company expects to have 90,000 users by the end of 2016 and revenue of roughly US$2 million.
That’s growing 10 to 15 per cent monthly, the founders say, and projections call for US$7 million in revenue next year and US$ 32 million in 2018.
“They found a niche that’s terrific,” says Tom Binion, a director at the TEC Garage incubator and entrepreneurial centre in St. Petersburg, Fla., who has been coaching the Yes.Fit partners. “They’re really poised to grow tremendously. They’re in a good position right now.”
Transue and Parker did a friend- and- family round of equity- raising, but are now funding operations through cash flow.
Most of Yes.Fit’s race concepts are in the public domain.
But the company is now delving into licensing of established brands, with the Pac- Man imagery first in the fold. There are two PacMan races now on the menu, and Yes. Fit is working to secure licensing from film and other production studios. “I could sell a million Frozens if I had that licence,” Transue told the audience at a recent venture capital conference.
“That’s the thing that these themes and licences allow us to do,” says Parker, who previously sold insurance. “Somebody is not moving as much as they should be, and they love Pac- Man. They’re going to see it, and it’s a way to get them engaged. It’s the interactive, informational, motivational aspect.”
YES.FIT APP HELPS RUNNERS BREAK THROUGH THE WALL