

How we raised capital one month after launching - michokest
http://8fit.com/story/seed-funding/

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e1g
They say each app install costs 30c, 10% of installs are active users, and in
June 13% of active users were paying members - so the total customer
acquisition cost was $23 for each customer paying $4/mo. They expect the
percentage of paying people will double in the coming months, although no
indication of why that would be the case or what the expected attrition rates
are (fitness clientele is notoriously flaky). Unfortunately I couldn't find
any Twitter chatter about 8fit so it's hard to gauge the sentiment of the
initial 10k users.

Look like a smart investment into a strong founding team, rather than the
product itself at this stage (not suggesting that the product cannot stand on
it's own merit - only that the "team" slide was the most impressive part to
me).

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bunkat
Exactly. How do you raise a funding round after 1 month? Easy - just launch a
successfully funded start-up first.

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wuliwong
I'm not mad at them or anything but it is probably the #1 reason for them
successfully raising money at this stage. Seems misleading not to have that
front and center.

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clarky07
Did the article mention if the investors were the same as earlier projects or
not? Not that it really matters, the fact that they successfully built a 50m
startup is likely enough to get 200k from a lot of people.

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steve_gg
Taking a look at your app, it seems a little disingenuous to tell people they
can see the same results without a gym membership. Maybe a complete beginner
will see the same results for a few weeks, but after that there's no way.

Also, fitness advice I can trust and nutrition plans that work? Why should I
trust you guys over anyone who has an actual background in exercise physiology
or nutrition? Do you have any evidence that your nutrition plans are better
than premade ones online? I'm blown away that people give Soylent so much
crap, but they're following the same principles as apps like this (an "if it
fits your macros" approach) but do it with consistency and accuracy that a
meal plan could never achieve.

It looks like you're off to a strong start, and I wish you the best of luck,
but the app so far looks like it's strongly overselling/under-delivering which
can be pretty offputting.

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trjordan
8fit is currently erroring out for me, but you don't need a gym to get where
you want to get.

Not all non-gym bodyweight routines will work, but there are a few that use
progressive overload and changing leverages to keep things "hard". This is
what builds muscle, and if you're doing it regularly and eating well, you can
shed fat (either through bulk/cut cycles or at the same time, albeit more
slowly). For instance, see the beginner routine on Fitloop:
[https://fitloop.co/routines/bwf-beginner-
routine](https://fitloop.co/routines/bwf-beginner-routine)

(I should probably mention that I'm assuming a lot here: specifically, this
applies if you're looking to replicate a weightlifting-centric routine.)

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jp1989
So, to get a little but off the whole deck/fundraising thing - but how do you
compare yourselves to say, Fitocracy. I just started using Fitocracy, and am
really enjoying it so far. As much as I hate the word, the "gamification"
elements are truly effective - definitely push me to want to workout more and
climb up that point ladder.

Other than that - the app looks solid, and nice n simple. My only feedback is
the tagline "for people who hate fitness". I am not a massive fan of fitness
(hence why I am interested in these apps), but want to become someone that
DOESN'T hate fitness - isn't that the entire goal of your company?

Congrats on raising the round and a great execution so far though :)

~~~
michokest
Fitocracy's great as well! But they're more centered in tracking and
gamifying.

We take a different "just tell me what to do" approach. Users sign up, enter
their stats and choose a goal: strength, weight loss, etc. With that, we
generate workouts and plans to help them get there.

We also offer meal plans and personal coaching, because the human aspect
matters a lot. That's why I believe most "fitness tracking" startups will
fail... people are looking for a plan, not for a pretty dashboard.

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BenC88
I'm about to head down the survey route to help validate an idea. Did you
target the respondents? Did you use a paid survey service?

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michokest
We simple used Google Docs and pretended the product existed. Here's the
original survey:

[https://docs.google.com/forms/d/18Se8QtvIKrGPWd8HEN4ILZz3Yyp...](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/18Se8QtvIKrGPWd8HEN4ILZz3YypiTfGv_4N8oT5pr6k/viewform)

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ma2rten
How did you get people to complete this survey? Google, Facebook Ads?

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michokest
I posted ads on craiglist advertising free coaching

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nnx
Inspiring post! Thank you!

Your numbers look truly amazing, low CPI and high conversion rate to paying
users.

Do you mind sharing what's your sustainability/breakeven point in terms of
monthly paying users? :) I guess it is around 25000, which you should be able
to reach pretty soon assuming a 50% split marketing/product for the fresh
funding.

Best of luck to you.

~~~
michokest
Glad you found it useful! I think it's working because the market is huge
(everybody has a "fitness" problem) and it's such a simple product.

Our expenses are at $10k with a 3 people team, some freelancers and a $2k/mo
marketing budget. We plan to break even in half a year, if things go right.

My goal so far has been to keep us profitable, as in +revenue and -expenses.

~~~
Permit
What do you typically spend the $2k/month marketing budget on? Is it mostly
online advertising?

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p3drosola
We're putting it on Facebook mobile ads at the moment.

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ryandetzel
What's the plan for the 200k? Are you throwing it all into marketing? Are you
paying yourselves a salary?

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michokest
We are a three people team of founders. Two of us live cheaply while
traveling, so we keep it very lean, and one of us is living off his savings.

Here's the breakdown of expenses:

\- $5.000/mo for paychecks \- $2.000/mo for marketing \- $800/mo for
freelancers \- $500/mo for software and hosting \- $500/mo for operational
expenses \- A 10-20% margin for things that come up

At a $10k/mo burn rate currently, and being on track to make $1k on our first
month, we only plan to go as low as $100k in our bank's balance.

We are being extremely cautious and saving money for future projects, because
we want to avoid raising funds in a need.

~~~
Lilme
What is the cost per user for hosting?

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michokest
From my experience with my previous startup, we'd be able to comfortably
support 50k actives without exceeding $10k a month in infrastructure.

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clarky07
So, I just downloaded the app, and I would love to know how you managed to get
this app approved by Apple. In app subscription not using Apple's IAP? It
seems to me this won't last long if you ever get a competent reviewer. Either
that or I'm missing something?

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ar7hur
If PG sees your chart without y-axis label on the top of the post, you're dead
man :) What is it?

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michokest
Haha, I left it out on purpose! It's the number of signups :)

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supercoder
Is the ios app meant to work ? I just get a white screen

