# I've spent $1mm+ building a fitness app. Now what?<p>## Situation Report:<p>- I've been bootstrapping a consumer-grade (native iOS + Apple Watch) fitness app for the past few years, and I've spent over $1mm (not including my own time; that's real post-tax cash money) getting to this point.<p>- I'm a solo founder with a ~20 year professional background in building + shipping enterprise software products, and the vast majority of my focus has been on building the app itself (with the help of a lean team of contractors and freelancers.)<p>- The app itself is fairly polished and perfectly usable. It's in the App Store right now, I use it daily, and there's a small trickle of users. However, there's no clear signs of PMF or traction yet -- and that's essentially the problem to be solved.<p>- If time and money were no object, I would love to continue working on this app indefinitely. I'm obsessed with human performance + fitness, and building this kind of product is fun. I believe in the longer-term potential to turn this into a viable business, though I don't have a line of sight to that yet. (And at the same time, I'm just getting a little exhausted trying to do so much for so long with so little support!)<p>- Practically speaking, I can't keep putting time + money into this forever, I don't think I can/should try to raise outside capital until I can show some clear traction with what I've already built -- and I'm increasingly starting to second guess myself and wonder if my current strategy for launching and monetizing a B2C app as a solo founder might just be a fool's errand.<p>So, I'm thinking about how to honestly assess the situation and determine what's the next best step for finding PMF...<p>## Considerations<p>Some of things I'm considering (which are not mutually exclusive)<p>- Start trying to recruit a co-founder with a penchant for fitness + legit passion for marketing to help find traction + go to the next level<p>- Go into code freeze (e.g. taper expenses to the lowest possible level), take a holiday break to freshen my perspective, and (at least temporarily) reframe this as a side-hustle in the new year with most of that energy going into marketing<p>- Start building a pipeline of potential acquirers who might be interested in picking up from where I'm at and frame an offer around the source code + registered trademarks. (e.g. increase my luck of getting acquired or acqui-hired)<p>In general, I'm leaning towards a strategy where I freeze the product for a while and put 99% of the time + money + energy into marketing for purposes of finding PMF.<p>(I don't think trying to raise outside capital right now makes sense given market conditions or the lack of demonstrated traction, but that might be a limiting belief?)<p>## Ask HN<p>Anything else you'd add to the list of possibilities, or any strategic advice you'd offer from prior experience?
All busieness and marketing advice aside, let me tell you the brutal truth from an average iPhone user, poor gym enthisiast and former b2c product manager perspective.<p>Your app looks like a weak vitamin, not a pain killer.<p>Looking at website, appstore screenshots and descriptions I got a relatively vague, generic and weak message "train smarter".<p>- What's in it for me?<p>- What exactly would I gain by wasting my time, focus and money on yet another AI gimmick?<p>- Who is this app made for exactly (professional athletes, lazy bums like me, weight loss enthusiasts, amateur bodybuilders, powerlifters, those dreaming of winning iron man...)?<p>I don't read any good and specific answers on these questions (even if I for a moment forget that 99% of amateur training success is just about consistency not "smartness") and don't want to even bother installing the app.<p>This is what b2c PMF is about - about the fit (the click) in user's head.
I'm very concerned that as a solo founder you've put this much effort, money, and time into something that <i>doesn't</i> have PMF. Validating ideas is basically the first step of a business, and if you can't validate demand and secure PMF, then it doesn't really matter how much money or time you put into the project.<p>Real talk: it's entirely possible that you've wasted $1MM on a product that nobody wants.<p>But given that you have an app that works, and given that you built the app for yourself first, I think it's fair to assume there are other people out there that are like you and would find this app useful. With that in mind, I think the absolute right thing to do is try and identify your target demographic, market the hell out of it (as cheaply as possible) to specifically those people, and get some recurring revenue to subsidize the costs as you expand from there.<p>Any work you're doing now is basically unvalidated work. You have no idea if people will pay for it, if people even want it, or if they are turning off users. You don't know what price point makes sense.<p>You need to get some humans in the mix and find out whether your product is viable and whether people will use it. Once you get that validation, you'll have more of a direction to head that will satisfy actual prospective customers, which you can then hopefully convert into paying users.<p>I wish you the best of luck and I'll be looking out for your app, as I'm also a bit obsessed with fitness. Good luck!
Greetings from Ukraine, EUROPEAN country at war.<p>Though, we are in trouble now, but even at best times, we have so little wages, for $1M you could build OS in Ukraine, not just app.<p>Ukrainian developers, are among the best in the whole world, I think in top ten at technical skills.<p>For design Ukrainians are not so cool, but also good and much cheaper than other Europe or US.<p>And also we have powerful cinematography industry, with rich history, also very under-priced. So, good professional ad, or even AR/VR is also not a problem.<p>If you wish, we could talk about create remote command of Ukrainian developers.
This advice is about a million dollars too late, but... don't write a single line of code until you know who your audience is. Also, don't spend money on marketing until you know you have built the correct product.<p>At this point, all is not lost. But stop coding, start talking to people. Ask them what they do and do not like with what you have so far. Iterate and improve based on those conversations until people start giving you positive feedback, then and only then try to find more people to sign on. Once you have a decent initial audience who are all giving positive feedback... that is when you start marketing.
Ok, nobody want to say real truth, so I will. Real startup must enroll new MVP at least once per two weeks, better if weekly, and try to sell and gather feedback.<p>This is not must be totally different each time, but must be large enough differences, for different people.<p>So good startup will make at least 50 tries for first year.<p>Sure, need good accounting/statistics to gather adequate data, but I don't think, this is what need to discuss.
What is the break down of how that $1M was spent? No offense intended to you, but I'd have quoted $50K for the build out of the iOS app and the Watch companion app.<p>Curious how you spent that money?
As someone who spent close to $100k of his own money building a diet/fitness app that had to shutdown, I think I can add some constructive feedback.<p>The comments on the product being a vitamin and not differentiating enough are all correct. The messaging is vague as well.<p>Here’s the thing about the fitness industry: it’s incredibly saturated and fickle. There might not even be a way to differentiate yourself in this space. After all, it’s one of the most popular niches that entrepreneurs try to tackle. In addition, even if you find a good niche, it’s hard to <i>keep</i> those users, because people are just lazy by nature. So you’re always going to be facing the challenge of getting new users every single day to replace the ones that left.<p>There has not been many successful fitness startups recently. The one that got their marketing incredibly right years ago was Fitocracy, which built a community of millions of users. <i>Yet</i> even they inevitably failed and sold for peanuts to a PE firm.<p>As for my startup, I literally spent 1/2 of my time marketing before I even had a product. I built a list of 5000 users and emailed them when I launched. I actually had lots of buzz and signups in the first few weeks but it all died up because the churn is so bad in fitness. And it was hard to get writers/media to write about my startup because the concept wasn’t as new as it was in the beginning.<p>So there you have it. If a startup like Fitocracy got their product ANd marketing down pat and still “failed” (Dick, Wang, Cockem, correct me if I’m wrong and yes those are the actual last names of the team lol) what does that mean for you?<p>Just some inconvenient truths. I wish I could be more optimistic. If you want to learn more about my startup and what I did to market it, email me at ritagrohowski at geeeeeeeemail :)
1. Set up a features for your 1,000 true fans. [0]<p>2. Reduce as much onboarding friction as possible. Prefer passwordless login i.e Phone, OAuth as compared to "username" & "password" combinations. People have enough passwords to remember. Read "Alchemy" by Rory Sutherland.<p>3. Promote the app via Fitness oriented localities, Gyms, Fitness YouTubers, Running Clubs, Athletes (people serious about playing sports both professional & amateur). Read "The Formula" by Albert Laszlo<p>4. This is assuming that your app has any actual value it offers. If your app actually offers any value then achieving PMF is simply a Marketing/UX and distribution problem. 2 & 3 should help you with Marketing/UX & Distribution strategies.<p>5. Get on Android please it's 70% of the smartphone market share.<p>[0]: <a href="https://kk.org/thetechnium/1000-true-fans/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://kk.org/thetechnium/1000-true-fans/</a>
> In general, I'm leaning towards a strategy where I freeze the product for a while and put 99% of the time + money + energy into marketing for purposes of finding PMF.<p>Have you looked into cohort retention of your users? If your users continue using your app, then I'd say keep going. Otherwise, there's no point in spending effort in marketing IMO.
I have a few questions about your Apple Watch & app product. First, have you considered also customers with other smart watches like Samsung, etc, on whatever platform that is, Droid or whatever, is this financial or are you exclusive to Apple products? A lot of customers might be into a fitness package bundle with a less expensive watch and ability to keep their phone.<p>Any recommendation for diet or eating patterns? Meal prep, AI snapshots of a plate of food with general analysis of calories? Body type specific workouts, mirror selfie analysis? Fat % measurement ability?<p>Can the Apple Watch determine when the individual is eating from motions? Predict digestion or time glucose levels with accuracy?<p>Anyways hope to hear more abt product
I know nothing about this stuff, but as a bit of off-hand advice I'd guess leaning heavy into social media / influencers would be a good way to get traction for a fitness app. You could also organize local free workout events to help push the app.
There's no pricing on the website that I can find.<p>Are you really saying that you spent years of work and $1m+ of your own money building something that you love but that has no income and no path to income?<p>A free app?<p>You're very articulate and the comments have been interesting to read, but it all feels a bit like these: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folly" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folly</a><p>You need to go to your existing users and tell them that from next Monday the price is $x.<p>Unless you're independently wealthy and quite happy to continue building your perfect app and giving it away for free forever. In which case, carry on.
As an unfit person who doesn't work out, I was considering getting the Mad Muscles app because I got a ton of ads for it and it seemed to fit me well. I haven't pulled the trigger yet, but if you're looking for users like me, I suggest taking ideas from them because at a glance your apps seem very similar and I found their sales pitch very good.<p>As a tech consultant who dreams of quitting to pursue my own app business venture, you've opened my eyes a bit to the kind of pain that awaits me. I think you went way overkill IMO, but you did it, which is what counts in the end.<p>Congrats on developing your app! I'll try it out sometime and give you more feedback.
What's your financial standing? Are you doing this for fun and you already have enough assets to live on, or does this need to work financially?<p>If it needs to work, I think pausing development and focusing only on marketing, as you say, seems like a good path. And I'd try and do "high fidelity" marketing rather than low fidelity - e.g. approach people in person at the cafe at a gym or after their workout, rather than sending ads or emails into the void where you don't know what lands.<p>I'll note that it's kind of wild to have invested $1mm without a seemingly clear plan for distribution, but, it seems that you're taking steps to address that now at least.
I think it looks good, certainly polished and professional and good brand name. I'd focus on sales and distribution and less now on building (of course build based on what your customers are saying they need). Can you team up with gyms and personal trainers, or social running/lifting/ other exercise groups. I'd just start giving them a call, emailing, or showing up. I've certainly tried to sell products that were waaaaay less finished than what you have now. Good luck!
This seems like app for CrossFit that cannot legally use the name "CrossFit".<p>I like it, I used to do CrossFit but now all gyms are too far for me (and too expensive).<p>Do I _need_ apple watch though? I have just an iPhone.<p>edit: although most people that are into CrossFit will just go to a CrossFit gym...<p>edit2: and thinking about it more, I am not sure what will other "normal" gym people think when I do the AMRAP thing and jump around gym. Hm.
I've just checked your app and it's not even ranked for "workout tracker", " gym logger" etc. You're losing a lot of organic visibility from the App Store. If I were you I'd look into an experienced ASO specialist to level up your app store game, for example, @nickjsheriff (Twitter).<p>Also, $80-120/h for the iOS dev hour is a lot, I assume you hire in the US?
I find going to conferences helpful. I went to a few and found potential customers and more importantly other businesses that became new sales channels.<p>Depending on your personality you may or may not want to setup a booth. I’m a technical founder and not comfortable approaching people, so having a booth and people wanting to find out more about my SaaS helped establish new relationships and sales.
"there's a small trickle of users"<p>"take a holiday break to freshen my perspective"<p>Due to A do B now, as it will be easier than if you have lots of active users to support and is an opportunity.<p>The refresh might give you some distance to come to answers/direction etc.<p>Look after you first :)<p>Good luck!