Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

FitFu (YC W11) is shutting down

blog.fitfu.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 59 posts

Re: FitFu (YC W11) is shutting down

#31

Post by JofArnold »

jackylee0424 wrote: post #29
JofArnold wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've posted a few things about this in reply to others, but my advice would be; don't make an app. That sounds really jaded, but if you look at the massive players in the fitness space (e.g. BodyBuilding.com, CrossFit, LA Fitness, QVC ;) ) they are all either selling a dream or selling a sport/lifestyle... and all with large recurring revenues. At the other end, you've got millions of exercise trackers and exercise v…

Could you elaborate on why not QS?

I'd love to have a really long debate with QS leaders because I'm uncertain of my views just yet. But here's a few thoughts:

1) Medical apps only track vital signs. Tells you nothing about chronic/progressing diseases yet

2) We don't need to obsess about stats to improve our lives. We don't need these kind of distractions.

3) Measurement is still highly manual for many cases. Won't hit the mainstream until people don't notice it.

4) What problems does it solve exactly? Withings is useful though, but only as a luxury/fun item.

It's too early. That's my only sure opinion. Far, far too early. But as this thread proves, I'm quite poor at predicting the future ;)

Re: FitFu (YC W11) is shutting down

#32

Post by JofArnold »

FireBeyond wrote: post #30
camz wrote: post #4

i thought the way they handled the shutdown was pretty great. they were thorough about informing everything they could, even in the appstore.

Disagree. "Informing everything they could"? That's why if you go to fitfu.com it's plastered with Buy Now, "Amazing Price Right Now", and not "Will be gone in six weeks"?

We still have more work to do. And in any case you can't actually buy it from the site - it directs you to iTunes which tells you not to buy it. If you do buy it you can get a refund from Apple. Furthermore, the site itself generates negligible traffic compared to iTunes for us.

We'll wipe out the site and point it to the blog in due course but it's midnight here in the UK and as you can imagine it's been a draining 24 hours.

EDIT: Oops, I voted you up. In any case I am neutral about your response ;)

Re: FitFu (YC W11) is shutting down

#33

Post by BenjieGillam »

jmathai wrote: post #2

First time hearing of FitFu but I'm glad to see that the company shutting doesn't doesn't completely make the app useless. I hope more apps think about this as they launch.

FitFu allows you to do a lot of stuff without even signing up for a "FitFu online" account, and even once you have signed up we built it to deal well with being offline or on a flaky internet connection. Effectively when we "turn off" the servers the app should just treat it as if it is offline and continue to function normally but without the network features working. I think this is generally a good approach to take on mobile.

Re: FitFu (YC W11) is shutting down

#34

Post by BenjieGillam »

georgemcbay wrote: post #7

Another example of a heavily web-based service I might have used but never tied myself to because of the likelihood of it disappearing. Creates a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy, I guess. At least in this case the native app continues to work... would be even nicer if it were reissued as a free app so users didn't have to be so paranoid about not losing their local backup copy, but I guess I can understand wanting…

The app will exist in your iTunes backup(s) if you've sync'd since buying it, and on your device(s) unless you delete it, so users shouldn't have to worry too much about accidental deletion. If they delete it from both places then I'd suggest they probably don't want it back anyway.

Re: FitFu (YC W11) is shutting down

#36

Post by JofArnold »

Domenic_S wrote: post #28
JofArnold wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Challenges --- I can't be transparent about all of these, but I'd say they were split into a few sections: personal challenges; user acquisition; crappy market/model choice; code/complexity. On the personal challenges front, both Benjie and I were pounded by one major unfortunate event after another (deaths, illness and so forth) right from the start of YC through to this year. It's hard not to get drained by that, e…

> P90X, WiiFit, exercise DVDs - those become $1b markets. Massive margin on buy-once items + insane marketing budgets = $$$. Even Billy Blanks Jr is having a hard time with his DVDs ( http://www.meettheblanks.com/ , watch the Shark Tank episode if you haven't already). Fitness is fickle. > CrossFit is a $1b company. Gyms make so much money because they hard sell you to commit, then you sign a contract you can't get o…

This ^. Your reply is way more succinct than mine - thanks.

Re: FitFu (YC W11) is shutting down

#37

Post by JofArnold »

prawn wrote: post #35

Has anyone made anything like this and then licensed it, unbranded, to gyms for a monthly fee?

I know someone who failed, closed the startup and joined another company if that answers your questions.

Probably wrong on this, but I've not seen any tech startup execute well (at scale) in gyms. Except maybe booking services or basic trackers.

Re: FitFu (YC W11) is shutting down

#38

Post by JofArnold »

Domenic_S wrote: post #28
JofArnold wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Challenges --- I can't be transparent about all of these, but I'd say they were split into a few sections: personal challenges; user acquisition; crappy market/model choice; code/complexity. On the personal challenges front, both Benjie and I were pounded by one major unfortunate event after another (deaths, illness and so forth) right from the start of YC through to this year. It's hard not to get drained by that, e…

> P90X, WiiFit, exercise DVDs - those become $1b markets. Massive margin on buy-once items + insane marketing budgets = $$$. Even Billy Blanks Jr is having a hard time with his DVDs ( http://www.meettheblanks.com/ , watch the Shark Tank episode if you haven't already). Fitness is fickle. > CrossFit is a $1b company. Gyms make so much money because they hard sell you to commit, then you sign a contract you can't get o…

I'll add that the gyms one is slightly subtle. It's not just about the contracts locking you in (those are becoming less common) but it's that in the eyes of many gym-goers the membership buys them an opportunity to get fit. They perceive value in holding a membership. They are also afraid to let it go because they would have to face facts about their commitment.

Re: FitFu (YC W11) is shutting down

#39

Post by herval »

JofArnold wrote: post #21
juniorer wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You mentioned in the comments "But in the end we made some bad decisions and Fate didn’t forgive us for it." What were those bad decisions ? And were the reasons you made them choices or circumstance? And if someone is relatively new in the fitness app market what would your advice/suggestions/cautions be to them?

I've posted a few things about this in reply to others, but my advice would be; don't make an app. That sounds really jaded, but if you look at the massive players in the fitness space (e.g. BodyBuilding.com, CrossFit, LA Fitness, QVC ;) ) they are all either selling a dream or selling a sport/lifestyle... and all with large recurring revenues. At the other end, you've got millions of exercise trackers and exercise v…

I'm not sure that's such a great advice... I have some friends who ARE doing a fitness app (gympact) and they seem to be doing pretty well there (it's an exercise tracking/incentive app)

For the record, I've been in your shoes before. Started a mobile games company back in 2002, struggled for 3 years with almost no sales at all and had to shut down. Met a first-time founder in 2009 who had this idea of "opening a mobile gamung company" and advised him wholeheartedly about not going there. He's now hiring his 30th employee, making millions every month (and didn't even take VC money to start)...

TL;DR: it didn't work for you, but it CAN work for someone else...

Re: FitFu (YC W11) is shutting down

#40

Post by orangethirty »

JofArnold wrote: post #24
orangethirty wrote: post #23

What is next?

Good question. We've been doing some serious (read: proper, this time!) customer development on a number of alternative projects. Ones we've rejected through extensive testing include: - Software to replace consultants in the process of receiving government funding. Conclusion: market for this product is too small. Plus it was so boring we found it hard to motivate ourselves. - A two-sided marketplace to match SMEs t…

Thanks for answering. Seems you've had time to de-compress and think things through. Isn't it wonderful? :) Something I've been itching to get into is conventional industries. There is a lot of things to do there, and companies with deep pockets to sell to. They rely on old and clunky software to operate, and it slows their productivity down. I'm working on a project to attack such problem. Let's see how it pans out.

Best of luck, and keep us posted. This is not a failure, but a pivot. :)

Post reply on HN