The Coach on Your Phone

One of the big changes I’ve blogged about before is the availability of reliable synchronous video. It’s definitely more reliable on desktops now than on phones, but it’s getting there fast. The main things that enables is to carry your coach around with you at all times. I mean a real human sitting there waiting for you to ask for help, or at least that’s the way it would feel. What happens behind the scenes is that networks of coaches are created and they field requests like in a call center. But with enough users and coaches, it feels instant, which is magic. This is what we built with Zeal, my ill-fated math tutoring company. That was a bit ahead of its time, but I’m seeing ideas all of the time for various forms of on-demand coaching through the phone. Imagine if you could set up a tripod, film your piano as you play, and have your coach come on periodically to give you tips? What if you could set up on the golf range and have your coach analyze your stroke when something goes wrong? How about a fitness coach that watches how you are doing your workout and gives tips. While people like Peloton have solved the group motivation of exercise, the individual attention is what people need to improve.