MotivateU

MotivateU provides data-driven Enterprise SaaS and community-centered solutions. 

Simply put, fitness professionals lack the tools to fight back against direct-to-consumer A.I. Fitness, which is stealing their clients.

AI Fitness has been clawing away at the Traditional Fitness Market for years now; COVID-19 was simply the catalyst that pushed the market to the precipice of change (Koetsier, 2020).

Gym bankruptcies are at record numbers, prompted by declining membership (Business Insider, 2020).

Despite the fact that COVID-19 may pass, the underlying health issues will not. Plus, many individuals have come to enjoy the increased flexibility, convenience, and time saving of working out from home (King, 2020).

With 9 out of 10 Americans planning to continue to work-out from home, traditional fitness is getting left behind with pen & pencil or low-tech band-aids while A.I. fitness is removing the human element and bypassing fitness professionals altogether.

Solution:

MotivateU's platform includes integrated two-way live streaming that contains our motion tracking software, integrated on-demand video library that automatically connects with our motion tracking software, detailed during and post-session feedback available for both clients and coaches, integrated NLP-enabled messaging system, ability to host virtual, hybrid, and live classes, data-driven insights across clients, classes, workouts, coaches, and locations, integrated calendar and scheduling (individual and team), integrated payments, subscriptions, & reports, custom community (private, public, and combo options), branding (white label option available), APIs, personalized onboarding, customer success management, marketplace showcase for select trainers and coaches, and more.

Simply put, we provide fitness professionals the tools to fight back! Empowering fitness professionals to be able to offer the same level of convenience, flexibility, & data-driven metrics as AI fitness, without replacing them.

Think of a software version of Mirror that directly connects consumers to human fitness professionals. Our solution offers consumers the flexibility of being able to work out both in and out of the gym, while still tracking their performance, with nothing more than one's computer or mobile device (no additional hardware required). Plus, our solution is sold to fitness businesses, providing fitness professionals the ability to compete against direct-to-consumer A.I. fitness by offering the same level of data, along with true community engagement and motivation that comes from human connection.

Bridging the gap between data-driven AI fitness and human-driven traditional fitness, our patent-pending solution leverages the community and engagement with personalized metrics and convenience. 

Our easily accessible, mobile solution does not require any hardware and allows fitness instructors to provide real time, motivating feedback during remote, or hybrid, interactive classes, without having to stop demonstrating proper form and technique while saving countless hours on data analysis through A.I. generated insights and customized, actionable wellness plans. We use A.I. to enhance fitness professionals, not to replace them, because we believe it's time to put community back into community-based fitness.

“The most successful fitness apps offer community.” – McKinsey

For fitness users instead of working out in front of a bot and without having to commit to heavy, immobile, and expensive equipment, they can work out in front of a live fitness instructor while still receiving the data-driven metrics that are expected from AI fitness.

“As these at-home fitness service options become more popular amid an increasingly time- sensitive culture, gym, health and fitness club operators must adapt and leverage new technology.” (Roth, 2020).

Market & Business Model:

“During the current period, demand for personal trainers is expected to increase, as new fitness classes and workouts are brought to market and consumers need personalized attention. Many gyms have begun focusing on offering new workouts and classes previously not known to consumers, which not only increases demand for personal trainers to teach classes, but also consumers not previously engaged in this industry, due to at-home fitness trends or external competition. Demand from this segment is expected to increase during the current period, primarily as a result of time-strapped consumers wanting to achieve their fitness goals in as little time as possible.” (Le, 2020)

Team:

Founder Story: At age 4, I was given my first computer from my grandfather, I used one to teach myself math at age 5, to write my first screenplay at age 10, to develop my first webpage at age 12, to code a novel program at age 20, and to patent my first invention this past summer.

From over a decade of work experience as a counselor in the mental health field to gaining hands-on experience as a personal trainer and fitness instructor in the fitness industry, I understand the human condition and how both mental health and physical health are inextricably intertwined.

After the birth of my second son, despite my best efforts, I was still unable to find a local gym that suited the needs of both myself and my children. While I liked the convenience and flexibility of at-home solutions, they lacked either the human connection data, or both. I wondered, why should I have to choose between partial, inadequate solutions?

From the trainer's perspective I felt that the industry lacked any competitive technology. How could one reasonably live-stream a class while still providing feedback to multiple users at once? I could not even effectively focus on numerous people speaking during a video conference, and at least that technology highlighted who was speaking at the time, whereas fitness instructors did not even have any way to know who to focus on when providing virtual solutions.

Therefore, I am both the consumer and the end-user of our solution.

Competitive Analysis:

In terms of the competitive market, hardware, apps & web-based solutions exist. Direct-to-consumer hardware solutions provide users the ability to exercise in the convenience of their own homes. However, these solutions require both expensive equipment and memberships. The equipment is not mobile, but is bulky (e.g., large exercise bicycles, treadmills, and full-length mirrors). Individuals cannot link their application profiles and classes with their current gym/fitness center. These systems lack live feedback from human fitness instructors and in-group psychology. All current electronic solutions are individual based, which drives up isolation and loneliness. While the AI Fitness Industry claims to have a community, the community is virtual only and is comprised of AR bots.

“That’s a major pain point- making a place to be engaged, creating a community within your circle, especially now, is difficult….motivation and convenience are the two biggest things that hold anyone back from fitness.”
—Alex, Gym Operations Manager & former Personal Trainer Manager
​
“I started out doing Instagram live classes, and that was frustrating because I couldn’t see anyone, so you just run the class and hope for the best.”
—Anita, Pilates Instructor, Group Fitness Instructor, & Personal Trainer

Many traditional fitness gyms simply upload pre-recorded videos,
whereas others offer live streaming classes with original instructors, allowing
members a chance to engage with their local community gym. Overall
though, the trainers still lack an efficient and effective way to provide accurate and objective real-time feedback to their fitness members during remote or hybrid classes (Le, 2020).

Progress:

Additional Opportunities

Partnerships:

The potential exists to leverage the technology as means to incentivize and monitor employee and beneficiary participation in healthy activities. The resulting improvement in the health of employees presents an opportunity for health insurance companies to increase their margins through a reduction in poor health outcomes of the policy holders. Through the utilization of data analytics, health insurance companies can determine personalized approaches for patients based on health outcome combinations of various mental and physical health conditions with different exercise routine types, frequencies, and intensities. Additionally, the resulting improvements in health and wellness of employees directly benefits their employers through increased productivity in the workplace.

Market research supports that “employers may increasingly subsidize gym memberships for their employees” (Le, 2020).

Accordingly to Harvard Business Review, companies without employee wellness programs have “higher turnover, lower productivity, and higher healthcare costs” (Moss, 2019).

WHO research shows that $1 trillion in productivity is lost each year from depression and anxiety.

Licensing: 

A broader societal need will be addressed by the commercial opportunity present throughout this technological innovation. The potential ability to match numerous data sets from targets in various locations in real-time will allow for future development in areas of agriculture, search and rescue, environmental services, sports and recreation as well as a myriad of other applications.

Use of Funds:

Exit Strategies: IPO or Acquisition

*The above slide contains forward-looking projections that are not guaranteed.