The future of fitness
Mark Fawzy and Tyrone Lasarow are disrupting the training scene with the Flexi app. Here, they talk about their entrepreneurial journey, partnership and the future of fitness
GQ: As a co-owner of Thirst Bar Services and co-founder of the Flexi app, to what do you attribute your success? Tyrone Lasarow: Perseverance, hard work, goalsetting, and having two great partners with whom I can share ideas, brainstorm and problem solve. Thirst, based in Cape Town, has been growing steadily since its inception 10 years ago.
We’ve chosen an incredible team to drive our business, who believe in the company’s values and vision.
GQ: What’s your approach to entrepreneurship?
TL: Finding something that doesn’t work and fixing it. I always start by asking why? Why am I building this business or product, and why should customers and consumers trust it? The answer to which
I combine with my business values – make sure you believe and live by your values. We started Flexi because we needed something to help us. I used to have to take out multiple contracts per month to enjoy different types of sport, which wasn’t sustainable. The solution? The Flexi app allows you to do all the sports you enjoy under one contract, pay for sessions and earn cashback while you train.
GQ: Describe your working relationship with Mark.
TL: Mark and I are not only great friends; we’re each other’s motivation and psychologists. We start every day by asking each other how we’re doing, whether our kids slept well the night before, how our wives are coping – and only after that do we talk business. I think we’ve both realised family and health come first, and if those are successful, our business will follow suit.
GQ: Let’s talk about each of your roles in bringing the Flexi app to life.
TL: The process from concept to investment took time to develop, and each of us played a significant role in it.there’d often be times when we’d want to give up because things weren’t going our way or we’d been let down. But we’d always pushed each other. Mark has tech experience and good relationships with local gyms, while I know a large network of people in the fitness and tech worlds, which means we each had something unique to offer the business. Where one of us is weak in a particular area, the other is usually strong.
GQ: What’s your approach to disrupting the fitness scene?
TL: The app isn’t contract- or subscription-based. We only charge its users when they either purchase a session or physically attend a gym session.
GQ: What is it?
TL: It’s a pay-as-you-go loyalty rewards app that allows you to find studios in the fitness and lifestyle space, through a seamless linking of your card. Each time you scan and pay for single or multiple sessions, you earn cashback, which sits in a loyalty wallet and can be spent at any store in our network.
GQ: What are some of the biggest leassons you’ve learnt about business?
TL: Never burn your bridges, always prioritise your relationships before business, hire the right staff for the right position, based on their skills, have your employees’ backs and enjoy what you do, but ask for all agreements in writing because the idea of trust isn’t what it used to be.
GQ: What’s your advice to budding entrepreneurs? TL: It won’t be easy at first because everyone has to start somewhere. You have to work hard at it and persevere. Look for a mentor to bounce your ideas off and seek advice from, and read about or listen to topics related to your area of business.
GQ: Why does everyone need to download the Flexi app?
TL: Without it, you’ll spend more than you should on keeping fit and healthy.
GQ: How was the transition from the corporate world to entrepreneurship?
Mark Fawzy: I never felt at home in a corporate career, so the transition felt natural.
I loved realising the problem I was solving was impacting an entire industry positively, and I found the process of building on this exhilarating.
GQ: They say the first 100 days of launching a new business are the toughest. How did you weather the storm?
MF: Based on the first 100 days of my entrepreneurial journey,
I’d have to disagree. I had lots of fun building the brand, dreaming big and setting up the foundation of what I believed would be a game-changer. In my opinion, business (even in the tech sector) is all about people, so in the beginning, we built relationships with many different people who played a crucial role in the product’s evolution and eventually became our clients. I found this process exciting and motivating. The only significant challenge I faced was that I was building a tech business without prior software experience, so the learning curve was steep. When we were developing the software, we had to be agile enough to meet clients’ needs, without exceeding our budget. As we built our company from the ground up, cash-flow challenges forced us to be creative.
GQ: What have you learnt? Is there anything you wish you’d known before you took the plunge?
MF: To be patient is one of the biggest lessons I’ve learnt. Initially, I wanted everything to happen instantly. But in five years, I’ve achieved more than I would’ve expected. It’s all about focusing on long-term outcomes and trusting the process. I’ve also learnt that as important as capital can be, building relationships and offering a service that’s as personal as possible is super-important when it comes to customer loyalty and longevity. Also, the software could break, and it’ll never be perfect.because it’ll never be complete, it’ll always be a work in progress. But that’s part of the fun.
GQ: How did you identify a gap in the market? What questions do Boxchamp and the Flexi app answer? MF: Both concepts arose from personal needs that weren’t being met by any solution on the market at the time. I used to use a logbook to track my Crossfit training because there wasn’t a comprehensive, digital platform I could use. This is why I created Boxchamp and later gym-management software. There was clearly a need for an all-in-one place where small gym owners could centralise all their admin: membership management, billing, lead tracking, scheduling, and communicating with their members. My businesses enjoyed a successful trajectory because this was where the real market opportunity was. Flexi now gives users access to over 400 gyms in over 25 countries. As a Crossfit enthusiast who likes to supplement my training with yoga, this is the app for me.
GQ: What does fitness mean to you?
MF: For me, fitness and a healthy lifestyle correlate directly with a healthy state of mind and, ultimately, success in other areas of my life. When my routine’s healthy, my mind’s clear and I’m more positive and happier. I love competing against myself, trying to better my personal bests – it’s living proof of input versus output, the results of which are motivating. This where my passion for performance-tracking, a key feature of the first version of Boxchamp, comes from.
GQ: With the Flexi app, you can train at any gym without having to sign up as a member. How does that work?
MF: It’s a free app that gives you access to our network of fitness and wellness studios on a pay-as-you-go basis. We reward you for training by giving you cashback in your Flexi wallet, which you can use to pay for your next session. Or you can accumulate your cashback to pay for something bigger. The idea is that Flexi supplements your training. You can use the app to do a yoga session once a week and when you travel, or it can replace your old gym membership entirely, giving you full “Flexi”-ability.
GQ: The fitness space is constantly evolving. How will you stay relevant?
MF: I live the brand. I spend a lot of time in gyms, observing behaviour. We also analyse trends and analytics on our platforms. Boxchamp’s a great platform with 60 000 users locally, so we can use it to track peoples’ fitness behaviour. Then, we use the data we’ve gathered to speak to people in the space and ask them the right questions, so that we can tailor-make solutions and problem-solve. And because Boxchamp is available in over 25 countries, we can even follow global trends.
GQ: Hefty fees are a concern for most gymgoers, especially if they’re not attending regularly. How does the Flexi app address this?
MF: The answer is pay-asyou-go: you pay when you train, but don’t pay when you don’t. We make a transaction fee when someone purchases a session. We only make money when you train, which incentivises us to get you to be active. The opposite can be said of commercial gyms, which make the bulk of their revenue from unused gym memberships.
GQ: How have users responded to the app?
MF: As a start-up with a completely new concept, we’re happy with the the number of people who’ve downloaded the app so far. We’re finding that once someone uses it for the first time, they end up using it again and again. So our challenge is educating people about the concept and how the app works. Once they understand that, they love it. So far, so good.
GQ: In your opinion, what does the future hold for fitness?
MF: People are moving away from big commercial gyms in favour of smaller, boutique studios due to the personal experience they’re more likely to receive there. Like many other industries, people are heading more in the direction of on-demand, pay-as-you-go, tailor-made solutions. I believe our app caters to them.
GQ: What’s your advice for budding entrepreneurs? MF: Don’t wait too long for the perfect idea or product. Create a minimal, viable product and launch it as quickly as possible. Then, adjust it to suit your customers’ needs. You never know what people want (even if you think you do) until you launch a live product, and then observe how people behave around it and ask for live feedback.
DOWNLOAD THE FLEXI APP From Google PLAY or THE APP Store.