MapMyFitness offers a suite of fitness apps that support an active lifestyle with tools to map routes, track activity, log food intake and connect with others for motivation. The company was founded in 2007 and has since grown to 15 million users, five distinct products (MapMyRun, MapMyRide etc…) and an MVP premium membership with advanced features. Over 300,000 thousand workouts are logged everyday.

The new look includes improved functionality that makes it easier to navigate around the app and access various features, a greater emphasis on social sharing, and a fresh design that unifies the various products. CEO and founder Robin Thurston said that the updates are the result of six months of research and analysis of user behavior and is the most extensive design update in the last three years.

“The biggest trend we have seen thus far is the amount of our community accessing our site through their mobile phones and tablets,” he said in a Q&A. “This was critical in our design process. Having a unified brand and design for is really important because users want a seamless experience when they work out. From day one, we recognized the importance of having an open platform where people can house all of their workout data, no matter what device they are using.”

The new navigation tool bar has three main components. There is Home, where your personal activity is documented; Improve, which has training plans and device integration; and Discover, which is the first phase of the Local pages which will help people find fitness options around them. These features are all easily accessible from the dashboard. Furthermore, MapMyFitness integrates with ‘hundreds’ of fitness devices and sensors and the sharing tools are enhanced so people can more easily engage their friends in their workouts.

Thurston said that MapMyFitness has made a strategic shift towards design over the last 18 months and hired a new creative team to build out the new look. The greatest challenge, he said, was finding the right team, but it paid off in a “cleaner,” “simpler,” and “more beautiful” site.

Quantified self devices, mobile technology, and activity trackers have had a powerful impact on people’s fitness habits. MapMyFitness is one of many in the fitness tracking space, including Runkeeper, Skimble, and Endomondo, and  Thurston said that in the next five years, he expects this space will see “rapid change and disruption.” By listening to user feedback and continuing to iterate, Thurston seeks to remain competitive and even dominant in the sector. His goal is not only to encourage people to be more active, but to use technology to actually change outcomes.

MapMyFitness is based in Austin, Texas and has raised $18.5 million to date.

Photo Credit: gareth 1953/Flickr

MapMyFitness rolled out an update today for its MVP premium subscribers that’s full of new and enhanced features.

MapMyFitness powers a suite of health and fitness tracking apps. Its flagship products, MapMyRun and MapMyRide, use built-in GPS technology so you can record your workout as well as search for new routes and monitor data like duration, pace, speed, elicitation, and calories burned. It saves all of this information so you can view your activity progress over time. Social elements provide motivation to stick to regimens and can make exercise more fun.

The business is based on a “freemium” model. The core set of features are free, but fitness enthusiasts can pay a monthly or annual fee for a more comprehensive experience. The MVP membership is $30 a year and comes without ads as well as tools like a Route Recommender, Customs Splits, Advanced Heart Rate, Training Plans, and Power Analytics.

“The new MVP is just a cleaner experience,” said CEO Robin Thurston in an interview. “People are gaining a fitness aptitude for data. They want content and analytics, and they are willing to pay for it if it will change their health outcomes and improve daily health.”

The Route Recommender is based on an algorithm that factors in desired length, travel mode, direction, rotations, and such and will autogenerate a customized route. For those trying to craft their own course, the app has a library of tools and icons to map it out. The heart rate tracking features are useful for people with target heart rate goals or restrictions, and the live tracking means friends can view each others’ activity. Thurston said that these product updates are a direct result of feedback from consumers about their needs.

MapMyFitness currently has 13 million users and hopes to grow to 20 million this year. Further updates are in the pipeline, including challenge/gamification features and more integrations with quantified self devices.

“There are encouraging trends around technology,” Thurston said. “People are adopting activity trackers and using mobile technology to be more active. This is a step in the right direction, but the next step is helping people change outcomes. The next five years in this space specifically is probably going to be one of the most exciting industries to be in, because of rapid change and disruption that is coming.”

MapMyFitness is headquartered in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 2007 by Thurston, who used to be a professional cyclist, and has raised $18.5 million to date. Competitors include Runkeeper, Skimble, and Endomondo. Read the press release.

Popular exercise app GAIN Fitness today launched its “digital trainer store” to provide professionally-designed, customizable workouts to people exercising at home. The company is taking an “iTunes for Fitness” approach by offering separate workout packs within the platform. Today, it features 8 options and plans to release a new one each month.

Always eager to test products that can mix up my usual regimen, I headed over to the GAIN Fitness office for a demo. They told me to wear my gym clothes and come ready to sweat. I initially thought that we would start off with an introductory chat, but CEO Gammell was ready to go. He opened GAIN on his iPhone and handed me the device.

I was prompted by a questions about my personal physical fitness and goals. I indicated that I wanted a 15 minute workout geared towards health & longevity, had no equipment, and wanted to focus on my core. The app then pulls up exercise plans that fit those criteria and the user can mix and match to build their own workout. Nick and I chose to start out with an intense “Road Warrior” set, followed by a core-strengthening pilates circuit, and ending with a yoga routine.

I like to think I am physically fit. I exercise almost every day and do a range of activities. However, 2 minutes into road warrior, I was already feeling the burn. I couldn’t meet my initial target of 20 push-ups, but I entered that into the system to adapt accordingly. For the next round of push-ups, the app cued me to do a more feasible, but still challenging, 15. GAIN provides tracking and analytics so people can see their work units, calories burned, and progress over time.

Data is a big focus for Gammell. After growing up as a tri-sport athlete, he struggled to maintain a regular workout schedule while working as a management consultant for Deloitte. He worked nights and weekends to build a product that leveraged exercise science, mobile technology, and data analytics to help people achieve their fitness goals. The app combines content created by technology experts with proprietary algorithms that pull up exercises that match your criteria. For free, users can access 350 different exercises that are able to build hundreds of thousands of different workouts and access data about their efforts.

“I wanted to build technology that takes away pen-and-paper aspect of planning a fitness routine,” he said, during our water break. “I wanted a fitness routine customized to my real time situation that considered what I did two days ago, what my overall goal is, and what I like to do. You can get a super efficient workout in a short period of time, as long as you know what to do.”

Today with the launch of the store, users can buy apps specifically developed and produced for GAIN with content that includes weight-lifting, bodyweight training, yoga, cross-training, sport-specific training, pilates, and even ‘circus arts.’ The app has audio cues, so you know when to stop, and includes useful features like scheduling and social sharing.

“Every fitness program out there wants to claim to be the end-all-be-all, but in reality, it is important to understand your own body, your goals, your lifestyle, and get a workout program tailored to that. How to do this is beyond the fitness understanding of a majority of people.”

Gammell said that technology is one of the contributors to America’s obesity epidemic because it encourages people to live sedentary lifestyles. He wants to turn that around and use technology to encourage healthy habits. With the popularity of the Quantified Self movement, consumers are taking an interest in their body’s mechanics and using that as a guiding force.

Devices like the FuelBand, Jawbone UP, and Fitbit monitor your physical activity, while apps like RunKeeper and MapMyFitness track your performance over time. Services like Wello link exercisers to personal trainers via live video feeds, and then there are apps closer to GAIN’s option like iPersonalTrainer and Skimble.

Needless to say it is a crowded space, but the first trainer apps were well-received by GAIN’s users. The company has seen significant growth and Gammell believes these partnerships with top trainers and fitness brands will help the company grow even more.

GAIN Fitness is based in San Francisco and raised $1 million in 2012 from Keith Rabois, Ben Ling, and InterWest partners.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

One of the best times to launch a fitness app is right after the holidays. In the aftermath of cookie exchanges, egg nog by the fire, Christmas feasts, and the constant snacking on festive treats such as chocolate-dipped caramel-popcorn-nut balls (that really happened), people are eager, nay desperate, for exercise.

Today, a startup from the snowy climes of Waterloo, Ontario has launched a personalized fitness app called PumpUp. Gluttons seeking redemption, or anyone looking for a work out, enter information about their goals, current fitness level, and preferred equipment and activities. The app then generates a custom plan with instructions, animated exercises, target rep and weight assignments, and break times. The workout adapts to the user every session, keeping goals purposeful yet realistic.

The app store is full of personal training programs like Fitness Buddy, iFitness Pro, iPersonal Trainer that make customized fitness regimens accessible and affordable. PumpUp is currently available in the AppStore, and the Android version is coming soon. It emerged out of VeloCity Garage, The University of Waterloo’s startup incubator that also bred Y Combinator startups BufferBox (just acquired by Google) and Pair. The founding team has a combination of technical, business, and fitness expertise, as well as a mascot named PumpUp Pat.

Instead of picking up a fitness DVD and watching the same video over and over, you get new fitness videos every week with Yufit for $10 a month. Each of the 10 classes releases two new sessions each week on Monday and Thursday nights, which can be viewed on-demand. The classes, which range from dance and yoga to kickboxing and cardio, are taught by popular San Francisco-based personal trainers.

In addition to its online classes, Yufit provides a social networking space that connects members with each trainer. Members can make suggestions for the classes and connect with other people who are taking the sames classes.

Yufit discovered that its competitors deliver either dated online videos or live streamed content that can only be viewed at a specific time. Even Netflix, which offers fitness video on-demand, only has a limited selection of workout titles. Yufit hopes to fill a void in the fitness world by offering fresh workout videos to those who can’t make it to the gym.

Yufit launched Tuesday, after about six months of development and beta testing. The company is self funded by co-founders Yu Hannah Kim and Dror Matalon and is based in San Francisco.

Today, the company announced on its blog that it has reached 5 million downloads and secured a second round of funding for $2.3 million from Seed Capital.

Targeting joggers, cyclists, walkers and just about any other sport that has people moving from point A to point B, Endomondo is available for smartphones running Blackberry, Android and iPhone operating systems.

Users launch the app at the beginning of their workout and can track a myriad of statistics, including total distance, speed and calories burned. Other Endomondo users can see your workouts, statistics and even ask to be a friend if you’re looking for a little good-natured competition.

Similar workout-tracking applications exist, such as Runmeter and Nike’s GPS+. These other applications allow users to track workouts and share statistics with other users, as well as the individual’s social networks, like Facebook or Twitter.

The Copenhagen, Denmark-based company, founded in 2007, previously raised a first round of funding for $800k.

The service itself is device agnostic — users download data from any application that tracks movement through a GPS function and upload it to the site. That information can come from actual GPS devices, like Garmin, or from any of the applications for the iPhone and phones running on Google’s Android mobile operating system. Strava also expects to release an iPhone application that will streamline the uploading process soon.

After that, the service gets a whole lot more technical than typical GPS-assisted applications that track exercise. It includes vertical distance traveled, like when riding up a hill, and more specific information about speed and power generated. The idea is to turn typical runs and cycling circuits into a type of meta-competition where users post their statistics online and “race” other Strava users.

“Nike+ and other apps are really doing a great job of showing what’s possible when you start collecting the data,” said Michael Horvath, CEO of Strava. “What we’re doing is trying to give an experience that’s really social fitness, that focuses on comparing and competing.”

Other applications, like the Nike+ iPhone application, can already synchronize run information with social networks online. But Strava’s highly technical tracking will hopefully attract the more hardcore crowd that cycle or run more often than your typical GPS exercise application user, Horvath said. The idea came after Horvath and his co-founder graduated from college — both missed competing regularly with their crew team and wanted to create an online service that mimicked the experience.

Strava in its current form caters to cyclists, but part of the funding will go toward developing a similar site and community for runners. The cycling community has attracted 10,000 users thus far and is growing by around 20 percent each month, Harvoth said. The rest of the funding is geared toward sales and marketing, which also includes recruiting local cycling clubs to help spread the word and sign up teams for online competitions.

The San Francisco, Calif.-based company was founded in 2009. This round of funding was led by Sigma Partners.

[Photo: musumemiyuki]