A blow, but not the blow
we didn’t make ycombinator…but we’re excited for the future. really.
I’m sorry to say we have decided not to fund Fitbookr for YC’s summer batch. We think you are very talented and have built a strong team. Unfortunately we are not sure that you have honed in on the unique insight that will make a big impact in the training space. We see other companies that have built similar products. We encourage you to dig deeper and try to truly innovate in this space.
Cue picture.
YC would have been a great opportunity for us, and we’re bummed. We left so much unsaid in our interview! But we’re looking to the future. The future we want is having a hundred trainers on our platform by the end of the year, with full bookings of healthy, happy clients. That’s been our vision since day one, and that hasn’t changed.
Cue late night text message from Nate.
Is this a blow? Yes. Is this the blow? No. This interview motivated us to get our stuff together and to have a better idea of our product. That kind of feedback is invaluable. What do we need to do? We need to double down on getting users and getting trainers. We have a smart, capable team that I think cab [sic] crush it. I believe in us and you should as well. Let’s kill this together.
I wanted to take a moment to thank everyone who helped us get this far. I wish I had better news for the many people who took time out of their busy founder lives to help us! But I wanted to let them know how grateful we are.
Varun of SoundFocus: helped us with our application that got us in the door, and then took time the day before his hardware was shipping (!!!) to give us a mock interview at Phil’z. Just amazing. And then he took the time to give us a second mock interview.
Ivan Kirigin of YesGraph: Wow. Not only spent a full hour with us giving us advice, but sent us an email later that night listing fifteen concrete things we needed to fix. Really showed us an example of someone who just gets stuff done. (We got around seven of those things done, and are working on the rest.)
Mike and Humberto of CircuitLab: candid, encouraging, and smiley advice. Gave us our first real mock interview, but aside from all the great tips on what to focus on in the few days before our interview — they really seem like a great team. Their team dynamic is something we’ll aspire to!
Eric of Padmapper: gave us a killer idea on user acquisition that’s been working out really well for us. Goes to show that by trying to “prepare” for the interview, we reached out to really smart people, and got some really good ideas on how to grow our business. You rock, Eric.
Nora of Mirus Search: Put us in touch with so many great people! Really went to bat for us.
Michael of Riviera Partners: Put us in touch with founders *and* leads! An example of his eminently quotable advice.
The HowToX team: fellow interviewees. Our prep night Sunday was epic. Thanks for the earnest questions and space access, guys.
Melissa and Farah of Storylark: gave us our very first tough love interview to get the ball rolling. Also, gave us access to The Battery. That place is sweet! Got so much work done that day.
There are so many other people who have helped us along the way (Mike and Mike, Joe, Justin, Chris) but wanted to save the best for last: thank you to all the trainers and customers on fitbookr!! Hyon, Nick, Christina, as some of our first customers, thanks so much for trying this out. All of our trainers, thanks for believing in us this far.
We do it for all of you, and will keep on doing it for all of you. Let’s go out there and find your fit. (And possibly a new slogan.)
