Um ... what was it?
Serious question. The "about" page is vague and refers to documents which are now exclusively about the deactivation.
Context-free post is context-free.
FitFu (YC W11) is shutting down
41–50 of 59 posts
Re: FitFu (YC W11) is shutting down
#42Earlier 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…
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 mob…
You're totally right of course. I should clarify this (as I mentioned somewhere else on this page I think) by saying "I personally can't see a billion dollar opportunity in this space, but it doesn't mean there isn't one".
Re: FitFu (YC W11) is shutting down
#43Earlier 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 know this is ridiculously off-topic, but Crossfit doesn't work at all like that. To the best of my knowledge, Crossfit doesn't even sell contracts to people who haven't graduated from the six week intro class, which is a serious reality check for people who prefer to keep exercise in the realm of fantasy. Thus, they weed out the best potential absentee customers before they can even buy a contract. My instructor emails me when I skip class and then gives me shit about it (in a good-natured way, of course) when I show up for the next one. Gyms love people who don't show up. They only care who pays and who doesn't. At Crossfit, they get grouchy if you pay and don't show up. They literally complain about free money! It's unfair to lump them in with the big box gyms whose business model depends on people not getting what they paid for.
It's true that my current facility requires a one-year contract to get the very best rates, which was a shock since my previous Crossfit facility only had one-month and three-month contracts, but that's nothing compared to big box gyms selling five-year memberships, offering guaranteed low monthly fees for a big one-time "lifetime membership" fee, and making it ridiculously hard to cancel recurring payments. Also, there's zero sales pressure on contracts. I've never spoken to anyone affiliated with Crossfit except the instructors, and I've never spoken to them about money except when signing up at a new facility.
A better summary for how Crossfit makes their money would be charging high prices and being the dominant brand in a market they created.
Re: FitFu (YC W11) is shutting down
#44Another 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.
I haven't used an iPhone regularly since the 3G and I'm now an Android user, so maybe this is something that is different between the users of each platform, but I routinely delete Android apps from various devices without ever backing them up to a desktop or thinking about whether or not I'll be able to retrieve them again in the future (I just assume I can always grab the current available version in the Android Market/Play) and I often do this for apps I intend to use again in the future but don't want on a device right now.
Re: FitFu (YC W11) is shutting down
#45Love your mascot. Can I ask who designed your mascot, and how much a design like that costs?
"Follow your nose!"
Re: FitFu (YC W11) is shutting down
#46"We’d love to pass it over to someone else, but unfortunately that is not possible" Why isn't that possible?
We spoke to a lot of people who'd done the same (either as exits or just passing it on) and ultimately we concluded: 1) Handing over in any form would require too much documentation/effort. A clean break is more cost effective 2) A small exit wouldn't cover the time, cost, lawyers, due dill etc. 3) Open sourcing it will cost too much time too. In the end we felt like many people suggested that we should cut our losse…
Just curious, how many current DAU's do you have?
Re: FitFu (YC W11) is shutting down
#47Earlier 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…
[deleted]
Re: FitFu (YC W11) is shutting down
#48Would love to hear from the FitFu founders what went "wrong... - what was different from their expectations - what were the challenges - and why they weren't able to overcome the challenges they faced
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…
Why didn't you think you could take on P90X and/or exercise DVDs?
Re: FitFu (YC W11) is shutting down
#49Earlier 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…
Just watched the Shark Tank episode with Billy Blanks Jr. How do you know he's having a hard time with his DVDs?
Re: FitFu (YC W11) is shutting down
#50Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
I haven't used an iPhone regularly since the 3G and I'm now an Android user, so maybe this is something that is different between the users of each platform, but I routinely delete Android apps from various devices without ever backing them up to a desktop or thinking about whether or not I'll be able to retrieve them again in the future (I just assume I can always grab the current available version in the Android Ma…
iTunes stores the files I believe. But this can be an issue of course.