What are your biggest business concerns surrounding COVID-19?
Prior to COVID-19, FitOn had great numbers such as over 1M monthly active users, over 3M+ registered users, and 30M+ workout minutes per month. In the past few weeks, we have seen significant growth in workouts (260% increase), signups (>200% increase) and friends working out together (3X increase). COVID-19 has created some unexpected growth in the digital fitness industry and has definitely impacted our business in many ways. Now that everyone is spending more time at home, FitOn is helping even more people stay active, healthy and less stressed during this difficult time and it has shown people that home fitness can be an amazing experience. That said, COVID-19 raises a lot of concerns around areas like consumer spending and the long-term access to capital. It is hard to know how long the economic depression will last and when things will rebound so it is a time to be more careful about balancing growth with spending.
The FitOn app.
What is your current business strategy for dealing with the situation?
In many ways, we are likely one of the few companies where our business strategy has not changed dramatically with COVID. We have the #1 free fitness app that helps people workout at home and use fitness as a form of self-care. While many competitive products have now offered extended trials, FitOn has always and will always be free. We have definitely iterated a bit more on the content side, for example, Gabrielle Union and Dwyane Wade filmed some amazing quarantine workouts that we recently released. We also have workouts on the app like “workouts for small spaces” or “workouts to do with your kids.” We have found that a variety of workouts still seem to be popular during quarantine. With FitOn, people really like to mix up their workouts every day. The one behavior change we have seen is that people are spending 40% more time per week working out now that they are doing their workouts from home. We were very fortunate as we release almost 100 new workouts just as the quarantine hit. We have been adding some great new workouts like the ones we just released with Gabrielle Union and Dwyane Wade.
Gabrielle Union and Dwayne Wade share their quarantine workout on FitOn.
Gyms will have to become more capital efficient and more heavily focused on digital. Being the largest digital fitness platform, FitOn is well positioned to help them do this.
How do you think things will look in your industry a year from now?
The fitness industry has been forever changed. COVID-19 has shown the importance of digital fitness and this will only increase over the coming years. It has shown that digital platforms like FitOn can be a great alternative to the gym when you don’t have the ability to go to the gym several times a week. Traditional retail gyms should be partnering with companies like FitOn to create more digital solutions for their audience. Gyms will have to become more capital efficient and more heavily focused on digital. Being the largest digital fitness platform, FitOn is well positioned to help them do this.
Lindsay Cook, the founder of FitOn.
What have you learned from other difficult times in the past?
Disrupting the digital fitness industry has not been easy, but we have earned our place at #1 by constantly iterating on our product and offering the highest quality and broadest variety of workouts, plus social features to meet consumers’ needs. That becomes even more important now where our customers feel a bit more isolated by spending so much time at home. We’re focusing on building more community with our users and staying focused on what our customers are asking us for and not getting distracted by the noise of the industry at large.
Safe–and entertained–at Home: What business leaders are doing with their downtime
Morning routine?
I fit in a FitOn workout first thing in the morning before my kids get out of bed. It is what I call “me time” and I feel dramatically better the days when I get the chance to work out. Taking care of yourself is so important to helping you take care of the others you love.
Currently binging?
I watched Tiger King with the rest of the world. It was hard to find another show as entertaining after that one. Period pieces are my go-to so I just started getting into Mrs. America.
Currently reading?
I wish I could say I’ve been reading anything but the news right now but enjoying stories that are not only COVID related and read the good news stories too. I’ve been taking meaningful steps to not read the news first thing in the morning and have completely stopped reading it before bed.
What are you doing to spend quality time with those you’re sheltering with?
Lots of scavenger hunts around the backyard with the kids, lots of baking, and lots of movie nights with smores. I’ll be honest though that I have had very little downtime in the past few months. It’s definitely not easy to find the best work life balance between work, homeschooling, catching up on the news, checking in on family, and all the other things going on at the moment. I’ve been trying to really take more time to spend time with my kids and savor the extra moments I’m getting with them at home. I’m also trying to learn something new and have been taking app-based piano lessons.
What are you doing to stay healthy mentally and physically?
I’m trying to fit in a FitOn workout as often as I can and take walks after a long day of working at home to get some more fresh air.
Where are you dreaming of visiting once things are back to normal?
I’m dreaming of Hawaii, spending all day in the ocean swimming and eating lots of Hawaiian Shave Ice.
