GOQii

Recently, i came across a US based fitness tracking app called GOQii, which is rapidly expanding in China and India. It combines a wearable technology (own wristband) with an accompanying app and a personal instructor who structures a fitness regime for each individual subscriber and follows up on it through chats, telephone calls and v-con.

What is great though, is that the service and app is also compatible with competing wearable fitness technology devices like Fitbit, Jawbone and Misfit; so it effectively takes the hardware out of the equation, and encourages adoption by a greater number of people.

More importantly, GOQii is taking a shot at the most common problem faced by fitness apps worldwide, that after some amount of use by new enthusiasts, they are abandoned, that most people lose interest eventually. They are trying to get around this by doing two things:

1. Charging money (3 month subscription: Rs 3,999; 6 month: Rs 6,999; 12 month: Rs 11,999) so you might feel compelled to utilize the package which you have paid for without dropping out i.e. in Indian terms: "paisa vasool karna" (similar to a gym membership)
2. Providing a coach who will push, motivate and guide you (at a much cheaper rate than a personal trainer at the gym or outside)

Some gaps and challenges are still abound:

1. Need: For a fitness oriented person, who is driven and dedicated enough, the push, motivation and guidance of a personal trainer is immaterial, hence one may just use a free app like Strava, Runkeeper or Nike+  to track activities
2. Community: A major motivation factor for me, within Strava, is the community. The ability to follow rides and runs of friends and relatives, to like and comment, and interact with others within the app (similar to a Facebook feed, but for fitness) The GOQii community is currently an unknown factor
3. Portability: Having used Strava for the last three years, my history of activities and total kms run and cycled is a major moat which prevents me from switching to another app. If GOQii were to allow its import to their app, and sync activity history and usage between various apps, they would also take the moat out of the equation; while at the same time providing their personal coaches with a database of fitness history, much like providing a medical history to a new doctor
4. Marketplace and Network Effects: Apart from offering their own fitness trainers (who provide assurance of service quality) GOQii has also pivoted into a marketplace for trainers, where trainers need to be certified by GOQii before offering their services to subscribers. Alternately, it could gradually move to any user uploading their training routine, for others to follow, with the possibility of being rated by user feedback or number of followers. Charges could be pre-defined or auctioned, much like an an Uber for fitness, with GOQii purely being a medium for connecting fitness oriented folks, and retaining a part of the fees as their margin, and looking at alternate sources of income like advertising for fitness related apparel and accessories.

In conclusion, our lifestyle nowadays involves long periods of physical inactivity during the day, positioned at a laptop or a desktop, coupled with unhealthy eating habits, and elevated levels of stress on an everyday basis. I am a big proponent of allocating some time everyday for physical activity, either before or after work, be it something as simple as a half an hour walk in the nearby park.

It is really nice to see the technology and internet oriented support, apps and communities mushrooming around fitness, and catering to the growing mass of newbies and athletes alike, on their path towards a long term healthy routine and lifestyle.

References and additional information:

1. GOQii recently secured some funding, and here is a complete review of the product and service itself by the good folks at NDTV Gadgets
2. More on network effects here and here, by Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures. I am a fan of his investment philosophy, and if such opportunities were to emerge for a retail investor in India, i would go long on these scrips
3. I have used Strava for tracking my runs and rides over the last 3 years, and my Strava profile can be found here. It has been with me through 4 half marathons over this period, and through the ongoing preparation for a full marathon early next year

Year End Closing

Its been quite a while since my last post on 31st August 2013, and since then there have been only a couple of updates in my life, nothing major.

Work related first - I shifted from the Asset Finance Group to the Corporate Finance Group in October, within the same organization, and also managed to secure a promotion to go with it. Thus, all asset related posts hence forth are going to be pretty much nostalgia about what I did for the first two and a half years of my short three year career.

A change of vertical also meant a new team to fit into, new colleagues to bond with, and a change of the most important person in one's life (for unmarried people that is) - a new boss. Fortunately for you, i am not going to continue rambling on about work here, and by God's grace, the title of this post isn't related to work related targets at all.

So, on to the fitness front then. Since August 2013, I ran two half marathons - The Bangalore Midnight Marathon in December 2013 (in 2 hrs 7 mins 19 secs); and The Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon in January 2014 (in 2 hrs 0 mins 35 secs) (will definitely be a post on this soon) Here's an image from the Mumbai Marathon, courtesy the amazing photogs at Marathon-photos.com

Continuing the sporting achievements, we (the Metro Warriors) successfully defended our L&T Premier League trophy in February, becoming the only team in the LPL's six year history to qualify for the final four times and win thrice (a post is due on this one too) On the way to the trophy we also swept the Player of the Tournament, Batsman of the Tournament, Bowler of the Tournament and Most 6's trophies. Here's a photo of the winning team

Thus, all targets for the current sporting season were surpassed with flying colors and 'Exceeds Expectations'. Now the hard part, setting targets for next year after such a stellar performance.

The sporting calender kicks off in September 2014 with Athlos 6.0, the annual sports meet of XIMB. Team XIMB Alumni made their debut in Athlos 4.0, finishing with a solitary gold and one silver medal. We fielded only a token presence Athlos 5.0 and this September, we return to campus to put right past wrongs.

On the running front, I could try a full marathon, the absolute definition of fitness in today's corporate world. After some contemplation, I've decided to give up on the superhuman effort and work on improving my half marathon timings with a 1 hr 45 min target. Although the midnight marathon was an interesting experience in itself, i'll probably try a new route this year. The Goa Beach Run next February looks like an attractive option.

On the cycling front, a week-long road trip to Goa remains the dream in winter, subject to leave from office. Intermediate goals on weekends include 100km in a day and then 130km (personal best currently is 62km - Thane and back)

Last but not the least (and probably the toughest) - I'm going to set myself a personal weight gain target of hitting 65 kgs by September, and 70 kgs next March. Going by my history of maintaining 55 kgs for the last 10 years, it does seem like a tall order. After all, what are targets if not impossible and un-achievable anyways. Cheers!

Pushing The Limits

After a three month monsoon break and a dislocated finger, and on barely three hours of sleep, i din't think doing a 40 km ride was physically possible, but we did it. Okay, so we've done longer rides before. We've been all the way to Borivali, Vashi (both 50k) and Thane (62k), and even climbed Malabar Hill thrice on a single ride. Okay, we had a pretty long break at our destination waiting for the rain to stop, before riding back. But, much to my amazement, even after deciding the return journey was beyond us on just the first day back in the saddle, after trying to get back by train (and failing miserably due to the crowd) and after promising to go easy on the pace, we still rode back in record time.

For much of the return journey, i was in the the zone. Head down, pedals kicking over as if driven by a mechanized motor, kilometers flying by. The zone, that amazing period of time when its mind over matter, pain is taken out of the equation, and all that is visible is the destination. When you don't realize how far you've come until you sit back and take a look behind, and when you take a moment to think about it, you can't quite come up with how you achieved it.

Which got me thinking.. are we really pushing the limits in our everyday life? Have we really explored how far we can be stretched? If we think about any of our past achievements, can we say beforehand that we had it in us, and the result was guaranteed? Isn't each milestone a new discovery of having been stretched beyond the limits we thought we were capable of, and setting a new benchmark for ourselves?

Loads of questions. Loads of unknowns.

PS. For those unfamiliar with the geography of this beautiful metropolis of Mumbai, a nice map can be found here.

I map my rides using an amazing app called Strava, a running and cycling GPS tracking app that automatically maps your rides, and provides analytics for speed, elevation and comparison against other online athletes.

Also, a photo of the beautiful Gokuldham abode of Lord Krsna from today morning. 

Hope you all had a safe and pleasant Janmashtami celebration couple of days back. Until next time, Jai Shri Krsna!

The Introduction

Having browsed through numerous online introductions and summaries of eminent and not-so-eminent personalities (the latter being friends and acquaintances :P) i have come to the conclusion that modesty is lost on the human race. So in the interests of following the herd, i shall do the same with mine own.

< Statutory warning > Many of the sentences in this post will start with an 'i'

I am currently pretending to be a credit analyst at a leading financial institution in India, which basically allows me to sit at my desk the whole day typing away at my laptop, whilst staring at spreadsheets and financials full of numbers.

On a more serious note though, the asset finance division where i work is concentrated on building a portfolio of niche equipment with specialized applications like heavy lift cranes, work-over rigs, aircraft pullers, trans-shippers and anchor handling tugs. Having grown up in awe of (and wanting to someday operate) all types of huge machines, probably explains why i love my job

The profile also gives me an opportunity to travel to sites where the assets we have financed are deployed. Somewhere along the short two year journey, I realized that any other finance professional (read i-Banker, hefty pay packet, BMW/Audi in garage, typing away at his presentation for 15 to 20 hours a day) would never get to experience the exhilaration i look forward to in my job. So, just to make up for the lack of those materialistic things quoted above, I will expand in great detail about the amazing trips and how these man made marvels work, in later posts.

Meanwhile, proceeding in reverse chronological order, the two years i spent studying for my MBA, before taking up a job in finance, have been the most productive years of my life. Luckily, i stumbled into an awesome set of friends who made life on campus an unforgettable experience. It is possible that they may, too, have a few posts dedicated to them somewhere down this road.  

Time off from work is generally spent in a variety of sports. Luckily i am quite good at very few sports, so there is always space to improve, be it badminton, football or cricket. Of late, cycling has entered my life with some regularity on Saturday mornings and also brought with it the beneficial side effects of cutting out Friday night binges. Of course, like almost every other person in this world, I can also be found on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. Until next time. Cheers.