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As I’m sure many of you have seen, Nike+ is built-in to the new iPhone 3GS! Very exciting stuff indeed. Nike was really onto something a few years back when they made the bet that people listening to their music while they run would also want to track their stats and engage in a broader community, making their solitary runs more social and competitive.
Nike is obviously a big, global brand. They also have an oversized marketing budget, to say the least. So, why on earth would we be happy about their arrival on the iPhone? For starters, Nike’s solution uses a sensor and accelerometer, and not GPS. This means that you need to go out and buy a separate sensor (and for best results, Nike shoes) to use the Nike system. With RunKeeper, all you need is you and your iPhone. Second, the lack of GPS also means that Nike’s solution incorporates no location data. It can track distance (sort of) by number of steps, but isn’t as accurate as GPS tracking and shows no path traveled on a map. It also assumes a set stride length, so for activities like interval training where your pace varies, it becomes inaccurate quickly. Third, with the Nike solution, it only works when you are doing activities involving taking steps, which means that it is useless for activities like cycling, skiing, skating, and others that do not involve putting one foot in front of the other. RunKeeper is much more versatile across a wide range of activities.
So, why doesn’t Nike just incorporate GPS? Well, according to Michael Tchao, the head of Nike+, “We really wanted to separate ourselves from that sort of very technical, geeky side of things. Everyone understands speed and distance.” If I may, I’m going to question his true motives on this one. Is that really why, or is it because Nike is a sneaker company that doesn’t want to untether users from Nike shoes since selling shoes is their core business? According to the Disruptive Innovation concept that was popularized by Clayton Christensen, almost all organizations that have “died” or been displaced from their industries (because of a new paradigm or customer offering) could see the disruption coming but did nothing until it was too late. I have a very hard time believing that a running shoe company (albeit an incredible one) is forward-thinking enough to build a community of users that has no need to invest in that company’s running shoes and/or technology in order to participate.
Now back to my initial contention that Nike+ coming to the iPhone is a good thing for RunKeeper. Here is this big mega-brand with deep pockets marching in and educating every iPhone owner on why they should be running with their iPhone. And, oh wait, there is little RunKeeper with a superior solution and no additional technology required, just waiting to capitalize on all of Nike’s hard work on the marketing front. Even better is that the RunKeeper solution is still so new, I can’t tell you how many improvements we have coming in the next several months. But please, I beg you, don’t tell Nike!
By the way, I am pleased to report that in the week since the new iPhone 3GS came out with Nike+ built-in, RunKeeper’s daily downloads (of both RunKeeper Free and RunKeeper Pro) have almost doubled and we have jumped from #11 to #8 in the App Store health/fitness rankings. Did I mention that we have several new features coming in the next few weeks?
I am not sure where exactly I have been hearing it (OK, I remember a few places), but it seems like there has been an undercurrent lately (and for a long time) about how innovation is dead in Massachusetts. Something to the effect of how our brand is suffering, and how all of the interesting ideas and entrepreneurs go elsewhere. I have also been hearing about how investors are too conservative, and how people are afraid to swing for the fences instead of a base hit or a double.
I have ‘grown up’ professionally in Boston for the past 11 years hearing about all of the reasons why the odds are stacked against me, and about why I shouldn’t even bother trying. And it takes a toll on you. I have found myself thinking over the years about how I should be in the Valley, and how everything would be different. How people on the east coast just don’t get it—people are too conservative here.
Well, I think I am just about done making these excuses and talking myself out of going for it and following my dreams. There are ALWAYS going to be hurdles. And there will always be doubters. This is not region-specific; it is true anywhere you go. Maybe the attitudes ARE different on the two coasts. Maybe the investors DO put bigger dollars more easily behind the dreamers out there. You know what I am starting to realize? SO WHAT!
That doesn’t mean it can’t be done here in the east. It just means you have to look at where you are, and the pros/cons of that environment, and then play to your strengths. If there are less consumer internet companies in the east, yes, finding good talent is more difficult. But there are also fewer exciting companies you are competing with, so hiring that talent is not as competitive. And what if investors DO put bigger sums of money behind earlier stage ideas? Well, maybe the fiscal discipline that a dearth of capital forces on an early stage company is quite healthy. Maybe it toughens you up, so when the capital flows freely down the road, you will manage your spending more efficiently.
The grass is always greener, and it is easy to think we have a raw deal here in Massachusetts. I personally believe this is simply not the case. If we want to change our innovation brand, this IS NOT a marketing challenge—it’s an execution challenge. Let’s not worry about what other people think of us. Let’s just put our heads down and continue to do and build interesting things. We won’t have to worry about telling everyone. They will know. They will come. And so will the capital. As a naïve, ignorant first-time entrepreneur, I will put out there that capital follows dealflow, and not the other way around. And if it doesn’t, just go out and find another way to get it done. Isn’t that the definition of being an entrepreneur? Maybe it will make things tougher in the short-term, but ultimately, it will lead to the creation of a tougher, scrappier breed of entrepreneurs that will go on to build the next wave of truly disruptive companies.
What is even sweeter is that we absolutely blew our competitors away in the voting. With 49% of the votes, we won easily, with Nike being the next closest with 12%, and everyone else below that.
This contest was a powerful display of the increasing momentum that this RunKeeper community is attaining. If we keep building the product, fixing what is broken, and adding new functionality, and you keep telling us what is wrong and how to make it better, we are going to go on and do some amazing things!
I sound like a broken record, but this is really the beginning (near the beginning?) of an exciting journey. We can’t wait to show you what is next! And we can’t thank you enough for your support thus far, it makes all the difference.
I received the following email yesterday from a RunKeeper user:
Just an update on my progress…
Sent at: Fri May 15, 2009 1:24 pm
From: xxxx.xxxxxxxx
To: jason So I wanted to update you on my weight loss and running progress, so here goes:
Starting weight – 278.5 Lbs in August of 2008
Current weight – 194.0 Lbs as of today (May 15th, 2009)
I am up to running 6 miles and I recently competed in a Grand Prix 10K. My standings look like this:
I ran it in 48:15 in a torrential downpour (no kidding we picked up 3.5″ of rain during the race). I came in 98th out of 365 total racers. I was 81st out of 199 total men. I was 15th out of 28 men in my age group (34 – 39).
I had been hoping to run it in 46:00 but I had to stop and tie my shoe and I felt like I was carrying an extra 2 Lbs of water weight in my shoes alone!!!
Anyway, I wanted to again thank you for the RunKeeper application as it has given me the feedback I have needed to help motivate myself and push myself to where I am right now! I do not know if I could have done this without RunKeeper!
Keep up the GREAT work!
Sincerely,
Xxxxx Xxxxxxx
The above email made me really happy. Here is a user that is experiencing exactly what we hoped people would experience when we set out to build RunKeeper. And what is even more exciting is, if this is his experience today, we can’t wait to show him what will be possible as we get further down the path.
This is still the first inning of a long game. We know it. And we know all of you know it. Why else would our inbox be flooded with requests from users for features to add, problems to solve, improvements to be made, and general messages of support and encouragement? We know why! It is because all of you see the same opportunity that we do.
We have two things going that have me very excited as we enter this next phase of growth. One is the platform. We are getting to the point where this little tracking platform we have built is pretty solid. And it is only going to get better from here. I say ‘platform’ because tracking is only the first of many things you will be able to do as we grow, and without the foundation layer being solid, it would be much more difficult or even impossible to build all of the subsequent layers. More info to come on this soon (hint, hint).
Two is all of you! The community emerging around RunKeeper is our greatest strength. We love the interactive nature, we love the feedback pouring in, and we LOVE how invested each one of you has become in making sure that RunKeeper lives up to its potential! While we may have bags under our eyes from working so hard, we would not trade this opportunity for the world. We are breaking new ground here each and every day, and we could not be doing any of this if it wasn’t for all of you!
Expect big improvements from us in the coming weeks and months. We have a complete web redesign on the way that we think you will like a lot. And we are hard at work on new features, both on the device and on the website. Some of these you would expect, and some maybe you wouldn’t expect, but all of which we can’t wait to show you! With your help, we will continue on this exciting journey, and look forward to whatever the future may bring.
Final blog post in what has been a seemingly endless Boston Marathon campaign! First, the good news—I was able to finish the race in 3:55:07. Not a personal record by any means, but given I had barely trained, had a nagging foot injury, wore a big iPhone costume, and tweeted 30+ times with commentary/photos during the run, I was pretty happy!
Here are some highlights from race day:
My route tracked beautifully using RunKeeper (shows a little long since I started it before the start line and doubled back a couple of times for photos). Battery held up easily with the 1.4.8 build, just hit the top lock to dim the screen and you are good to go!
Here is an action shot of me running in the iPhone costume. . .
Here are some loyal RunKeeper fans on the side of the course. . .
Proud mama. . .
Celebrating after the race. . .
Close-up of the medal. . .
And finally, here is the video footage from the third and final installment of our marathon footage (this one with race day coverage). . .
We had a blast putting all of this together, and also managed to generate a ton of press around our efforts. Here are some highlights since my last post. . .
I want to extend a HUGE thank you to all of the people who made this little project possible. We had extremely tight deadlines, and everyone really rose to the challenge. I am still amazed that we were able to pull it off, especially given all of the seemingly impossible hurdles! Special thanks to Professor Dave Gerzof and Team Emerson. The fact that these college students conceptualized, structured, and implemented an idea of this magnitude under such tight deadlines just blows my mind—-well done!
I also want to thank the team at eCast Video, Michelle Fournier, Tom Boates (who we HAMMERED with graphics work), Neal Cadogan/Hemlock Ink, Jackie Moldau/Velocity Screen printing, Candy Ford/Blue Wave Marketing, Robin Zaragoza (she got me in touch with Spaulding to get my marathon number), and the whole team at Spaulding Rehab (including Liz Norris, my physical therapist). And of course, the rest of the FitnessKeeper team (Raizlabs included) who has built the product that I used to track my race so well!
Spaulding Rehab Hospital is the charity I ran through—in addition to being a world-class rehabilitation hospital, all of the people I have come across there happen to be great people as well. If you enjoyed our efforts and are feeling generous, think about a small donation to support a terrific cause. . .
Thanks everyone! Now it is finally time to get back to building the business. We have LOTS more in store, and will have some pretty cool things to show you in the near future. Stay tuned!!!
OK, so the cat is out of the bag. I’m running the marathon in an iPhone costume. But it’s not just any iPhone costume—it’s a really good one! Notice anything familiar on the screen?
We released the second video this morning, which takes you through how this little scheme/social media campaign/marketing event came to be. Here is the 2nd video for your viewing pleasure. . .
And finally, we’ve had some great coverage of our little campaign so far as well!
We hope that you are having as much fun with all of this as we are! We are still only partway through this little plan we cooked up. The good news is, the fish are biting! We are generating some pretty serious mainstream media interest, and we still have 2 full days before the race, an expo, an appearance by the RunKeeper Street Team, a 26.2 mile Boston Marathon in an iPhone costume, and a great follow-on video to go!
I’ll say it now, our goal for this campaign is to make the attention that the iPhone receives so great that it is comparable only to that of the lead runners. Think we can do it? We’ll need your help! Help us beat the war drum around this little campaign, and let’s show the world what we are made of! (Lycra with screen-printed fabric and a rope frame).
I can’t wait to see how this plays out! Fasten your seatbelts
Wow, it has been a long time since I’ve written a blog post. So much going on, I really need to make more time to share it with all of you!
Here are some quick updates:
Web
As you know from Mike’s last blog post, we pushed a new update on the web with splits, activity list icons, and the beginnings of some layout changes. As we move towards launching the site redesign (making good headway, coming soon), you should expect not only more features, but a better design and a more usable site. We can’t wait to show you!
Device
We also pushed a new device build a week or so ago (version 1.4.8). As of writing this post, the RK Free update has been approved, but RK Pro is still in the queue. A lot of this update was behind the scenes—more stability, better synchronization, better accuracy on device and web. The big one though is the top lock button! With the new release, you can now use the top lock to put the screen to sleep WITHOUT DISABLING GPS! This is huge, as it will increase the battery in a major way. Try it out, I can now proudly say that we are marathon-ready! For all of you long distance runners, cyclists, hikers, etc., this should be big news! We also added an “are you sure?” when you discard a run on the device, which will eliminate accidental run discards.
Marathon
As many of you know by now, I am running the Boston Marathon on 4/20. I am running to raise money for Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, thank you to anyone who supported my race! http://www.firstgiving.com/runkeeper. Training has been a bear—short notice, and my old heel injury has flared up making resting the foot before the race more valuable than getting the miles in to maximize my chances of crossing the finish line. Definitely not the ideal situation, but there are methods behind my madness.
I have hinted about some big plans around the marathon, which may help explain the seemlingly crazy decision to run on 3 weeks notice. It started when we partnered with a team of college students from Emerson College in Boston that are part of Professor Dave Gerzof’s social media class. The assignment was to help us put together a cool project around marketing/social media, and they had a really big idea around the marathon that got me pretty excited. In fact, it got me excited enough to try to scramble with 3 weeks notice, and find a number, train for the race, and try to conceptualize, plan, and execute a marketing campaign of pretty significant scale in an incredibly short timeframe.
Given the drama that surrounded this process, we decided to film our efforts every step of the way. We released the first in a series of videos documenting this process here. . .
Hi Everyone, Michael Sheeley here. I thought I would take this opportunity to introduce myself to the RunKeeper community and in doing so announce a few new features that we added to the RunKeeper site. I’ve been helping Jason out with RunKeeper and as some of you have already figured out, you can find me on twitter @michaelsheeley or you can email me at michael.sheeley@fitnesskeeper.com.
Now on to the important stuff! Tonight you’ll find a few changes to the site.
Splits
We know how important it is to be able to analyze your activities and get as much information from them as possible. So to help, we’ve added a splits chart to each activities page.
In the chart you can see the pace for each mile or kilometer (depending on your selected distance units) as well as the climb. No need to wait for your next activity to check this out, we’ve gone back and added the splits for all your past activities.
Activity List Icons
We have removed the horizontal distance bars and replaced them with two icon types that we feel provide more information.
First, we added an icon for each type of activity in the activity list. You no longer have to open up an activity to find out if the activity type is running, cycling, walking, hiking, skiing, or other. You can now tell the activity type from your activity list.
Also, we added a second icon to the activity list to let you know what activities you’ve made public and which ones you have left private.
Layout changes
We also changed the layout a bit to get ready for future changes that we have planned. But rather than reading about these changes, login and check it out for yourself.
So as Jason says, stay tuned there is lots more to come!
-Michael
I wanted to take a few minutes and write a post sharing some insight into how we have chosen to build the team here at FitnessKeeper. The more startups I talk to, the more I am finding that we have taken a somewhat non-traditional approach.
When I left my job in 5/08 to start FitnessKeeper, it was just me and an idea. Today, FitnessKeeper looks very different than that, and we are proud of what we have accomplished in a short time:
- 235K+ downloads of our initial iPhone application
- featured in TechCrunch (twice), Lifehacker (twice), Mashable, NY Times, TUAW, AppleInsider, and many others
- featured by Apple (at no charge, they picked us) in full page iPhone ads in WSJ, USA Today, NY Times, and on the walls of Apple Stores
- team of 9 of us involved, great team, complementary skillsets
- revenues that are fully covering our burn
- several big initiatives underway, and lots of exciting updates to come
One interesting stat in all of this is the total amount of outside capital we have raised: zero. How have we done that? The secret (shhhhh) is in our non-traditional team structure. 10 months in, and I am still the only one in it full-time. Everyone else is either moonlighting (nights/weekends with a day job) or freelancing (we are one of several clients). Because people have kept their day jobs or other paying clients, it has enabled a large portion of their compensation to be paid in equity, rather than cash.
But make no mistake, these are not “contractors”. We meet at least once, and usually several times a week as a team. We push aggressive goals and release cycles. Every team member is personally vested in and passionate about what we are building. This feels and acts like a founding startup team, it just happens to take a different shape than how most startup teams choose to go after it.
As a first-time entrepreneur, I have spent a good deal of time meeting with more seasoned entrepreneurs/executives/investors for mentorship and advice. As our traction has been increasing, I have heard two consistent rallying cries beginning to emerge: Time to raise funding, and time to really invest in marketing.
As much as I appreciate the advice and can understand this position, I can’t see it making sense for us at this stage of our growth. For better or for worse, the economy is in the dumps. The capital markets have dried up, and even if we were able to raise money, the valuation would suffer. Not to mention the time suck that goes into the fundraising process. And most importantly, I am just not convinced that we need outside capital to get over the hump and really scale this thing.
Now, if times were rosy, we would have tons of competitors out there. And some competitor that shared our ambition would go raise a boatload of capital and blow right past us if we kept this approach. In this economy, I believe that scenario is much less likely to occur. The startups that raised money before us and are out trying to raise their follow-on round—I hate to say it, but they are going to go away. And our potential competitors that are trying for the boatload of capital—they are going to stay on the sidelines because they aren’t going to be able to raise that round. Without funding, which is not the way they have launched companies in the past, they aren’t going to know how to build the business with non-traditional approaches like what I am describing (until reading this post, of course).
So, to all those who say, “time to raise funding”, I counter with, “focus on operating the business and don’t waste your time.” And to all those who say “invest in marketing”, I counter with “leverage free tools like SEO and social media, and give yourselves maximum flexibility and optionality by keeping your burn as low as possible.”
For entrepreneurs, it’s a new world out there. But in my experience, new is not bad, and in it’s own weird way, this new climate makes for a powerful barrier to entry that puts FitnessKeeper in a great position to ride this one through. When the capital markets do open up, we’ll have been plowing forward slowly and steadily all along, and we will be much further along than the companies who stayed on the sidelines and the ones who ran out of cash along the way.
We’ll see where this goes, but that’s my story, and I’m sticking to it! If you are an entrepreneur who is thinking about starting a company and unsure whether you could get the funding, the question is, do you need it?
While seemingly a minor release, there are some key tenets in here that we are introducing or expanding upon that I wanted to bring to your attention.
Individual Data
As we build the RunKeeper service, we hope we have shown you so far that we are doing so with the needs of the users first. Core to those needs is for the data tracked for your individual fitness activities to be solid, usable, and sortable as a user’s personal dashboard grows. As a runner and cyclist (and big fitness guy in general), I know how important this is. While there are so many other exciting possibilities for where we can take this service, we don’t earn the right to attempt any of those things unless we do a GREAT job with the individual stuff first. I just wanted you to know that we understand this, and plan on continuing to improve our performance in this area so the individual experience is second to none.
Community
There are a large (and growing rapidly) number of RunKeeper users all over the world that are pounding our servers every day as you track your activities. Yet, if you go to our site, all you see is your own data. Where is everybody? Well, they are all here, and we want to give you all greater insight into what else is going on in the RunKeeper community. Creating a user profile is the first step towards making that happen. While the profile doesn’t do much yet, it is the base from which we will be adding significant functionality, with the primary goal being to foster a greater sense of community and interaction on the site.
Sharing
In addition to your experience within the site, we have been hearing from many of you who are clamoring to have better tools to push your activities out to the social web—email, blogs, Twitter, Facebook, etc. This is important for two reasons: One, while you are doing the activity, if you know you are going to share it, you are motivated to perform better—faster, longer, harder, etc. since you will be “on stage” in that you know the world will see how you did. Two, just by using RunKeeper, you will be helping spread the word about it throughout the social web, which means more RunKeeper users, a more vibrant community, more resources to build out the product faster, etc. The Twitter integration is the first big sharing initiative, as you can now “auto-tweet” your activities to your Twitter profile. Try it out, and let us know how it works out for you! User feedback around sharing (and in general) is going to carry a lot of weight as far as how the product continues to evolve.
Finally, in addition to what we have been adding, there is also something we removed. As of last night, there are no more ads on the http://www.runkeeper.com website. That is not to say we will never have them (never is a strong word), but we did want to send you a message that what gets us most excited about this opportunity has nothing to do with crappy advertising. We are in this for the for the long haul, and have every intention of getting there. And it goes without saying, but we couldn’t do any of it without all of your incredible support!
By the way, check out this (blurry) pic of RunKeeper featured in Apple’s full-page iPhone ad in Sunday’s NY Times!
