For Your Fitness - eChai With Piyush Jain
Fitness comes first in the mind when the weighing scale tends to lean towards the right side and you tend to realize that you have to hit the gym with vengeance. However, this comes with the problem of comparing the rates and the location of the gyms around you and also getting the right kind of facilities you need. Froyofit bridges this gap by helping people to get all the necessary information and at the same time also gets the fitness clubs and gyms to connect to the prospective customers.
Froyofit is an app developed by the team spearheaded by Piyush Jain who is the Founder of Froyofit. Hailing from Indore City, Piyush explained the nuances of why the need for this app was there.
eChai Ventures interviews Piyush Jain, Founder of Froyofit :
Q. How did you come up with the idea of ‘Froyofit' ? What problem are you solving? How does it work?
While I worked for close to two years managing the supply chain of an agrochemical company after passing out from IIM Udaipur, in 2015 my wife was trying to find a credible yoga instructor around our place and it gave her nightmares to locate somebody let alone the flexibility of choosing one over the other. That was the time when I realized that indeed discovery of right fitness options along with its credibility by reviews and ratings was the need of the hour.
So I carried out an exhaustive research in 4 cities, the results of which helped me figure out that its time I quit the job and pursue my dream of creating something which can really help common people and that is when froyofit.com was born.
In India it is very difficult to discover a fitness option like a yoga teacher, zumba instructor or karate guru which is a credible option and has all the necessary certifications to teach. We find these people, go through their profile, curate them, shortlist them and put them on our platform so that a user can take an informed decision by also reading the reviews that other users have shared about them. So, in short we solve the problem of discovery of credible fitness options around.
Q. What is your target market?
Our target user is a person in the age group of 18 to 35 years who are is about keeping himself fit and wants to avail fitness options with the best value for the money. Also, the users who find it difficult to get credible and certified fitness instructors around.
Q. What is your competitive advantage?
Froyofit is holding the fort in tier-2 market vis-a-vis other competitors who are active in tier-1 cities.
Also, currently our competitors are just listing the service providers on their platform and not keeping their database updated in terms of timings, amenities, prices etc. We manage to do that on the shoulders of a great on the ground team that we have. Also we pre-negotiate the rates from the vendors so that the users don’t have to go through the hassles of bargaining and can buy the services at a fair value by trying the services first.
Q. How much time did it take you from conceptualization of ‘Froyofit' to actually launching it in the market ?
The idea was conceptualized in May, 2015 post which we did our research and wire framed the product on the basis of UI, UX and important features. Our apps went live on android and iOS platforms in March, 2016.
Q. Tell us more about your team?
The team comprises of following key people:
1. Piyush Jain, Founder, Froyofit.com.
Froyofit is founded by IIM alumnus Piyush Jain who has 6+ years of rich experience in supply chain and operations domain. Piyush is a tech evangelist and mentors a lot of other startups for their processes and resources. In the past he has worked with brands like Reliance and PI Industries. Currently, he takes care of the overall strategy of the company starting from product, marketing, alliances, financial to legal and technical guidance.
2. Pallavi Jain, Digital Marketing Lead, Froyofit.com.
She handles marketing, content, and design aspects of the venture. She has hands on experience of building a digital strategy around the product ground up and has led from the front to take froyofit to 30,000+ fans and followers in a very small amount of time.
3. Smita Jain, Business Planning Manager, Froyofit.com
She is the backbone of the company. An ex-TCS and a keen eyed executor. Involved in mostly everything in some or the other way and has played a big role in testing and automating the processes at Froyofit.
4. Lalit Pawar, Business Development, Froyofit.com
Lalit is the field force of Froyofit. He handles all the partner tie-ups, field trainings, operational hurdles and keep all the ground staff motivated.
Q. What is your technology stack?
Froyofit is currently available on android as well as iOS platforms as native apps. We also have a website which is getting converted to a full-fledged booking engine soon. Every partner gets a backend to manage their bookings, trials and members.
Q. How do you plan to market your product? What are your customer acquisition strategies? What is the revenue model of 'Froyofit' ?
We target the product through innovative approaches because our target audience mostly are students and working professionals. You might find a tea cup or an auto near you carrying our branding. We also run a blog on which we carry informative articles regarding health and fitness. A lot of people get on board after reading these articles and tips.
Our revenue model at the moment is very simple, we take a nominal fee from the partners for every confirmed membership sold through us. In future, we are planning various other revenue streams related to the product.
Q. What do you want to achieve from this? What is your larger goal or vision?
We want to make fitness easily discoverable for anyone and want to give power of credibility to all the service providers so that it becomes easier for a user to try and book their services. And in turn they also get good and consistent experience.
Q. What sort of support and feedback are you looking from the community?
We are very passionate marketers and love to meet the people who are doing good work in the community. Every person of the ecosystem is important and carried goldmine of experience of their own and thus getting a chance to meet and discuss with them the challenges and achievements of their own gives a lot of courage, confidence and knowledge to everyone.
