Background

Fitscovery was founded by Michael Jiang, as a “one-stop-shop” platform to help entrepreneurs manage their fitness business logistics and become discovered. Fitscovery looks to avoid high expenses and headaches that revolve around getting a new fitness business off the ground.

Michael's Pitch Video

Michael and his co-founder Francis gave Jason a lot of background information about themselves, and what their company does. They also enhanced this introduction by telling Jason what other organizations use Fitscovery and how. They also added a short demo of their site to highlight some of the different features.

Jason's Review For Buyer

Reviews on the Vintro platform consist of reviewers answering 3 questions for about 1 min each. Reviewers can choose to respond either by video or by voice recording.  

What did you like from the pitch?

Text Transcript: "I thought that your pitch overall was very well organized. It was easy to understand the cadence and the pitch pace was very good so again it made it easier for me to understand. I like the fact that you have a background in fitness and technology, so you brought both of those pieces together. You explain that well. I was also impressed that you had built a fitness community and were a brand ambassador for two different brands, again that adds additional credibility. You showed screenshots, which showed that this is well thought out and that you already have a prototype so again you demonstrated that you are beyond just the idea. You smiled, which made the presentation easier to watch. I like the fact that one of you had previously been a founder which shows that this is not your first company so you have some experience starting a company before. So, overall you did a nice job and keep on doing what you're doing the way that you're doing it, and it makes this an overall nice pitch to listen to."

What issues did you see?

Text transcript: "So I see one of the biggest issues right now is with the pandemic where gyms are closed and are starting to slowly open up but at a limited scale, so I think you need to address it in your pitch because we don't know what the new world is going to look like in the gym landscape. You mentioned new gyms are popping up all over the place; that's a concern because I don't see that happening right now. Also, you talk about you're going to connect gyms and gym enthusiasts, you may want to zero in on what that looks like especially with the pandemic… do you have a narrower focus? Is there a type of fitness you're going to start with? Who are some of the competition? Why are you unique and different from what's already out there? There are a lot of fitness apps out there and so just explain your unique differentiators will help set you apart. But, I think the biggest issue is coming back to the pandemic, how are you going to tackle that with what's happening right now and this could be a positive for you. You may actually be able to turn this into a positive and help these struggling gyms but it would be good to see how you can do that and have you explain that."

What next steps should they take?

Text transcript "I think that one of the immediate next steps is to zero in on how you're going to tackle this business and face the pandemic. While online fitness and at home fitness is definitely growing, how do you play into that space? If you're trying to connect the offline fitness enthusiasts in gyms, I would think about how you're going to connect the online community without having any physical location that people have to go to. I see that is one of the biggest issues right now. So spend more time researching the market and how you can modify or adjust your model if necessary. Also if you have any users that happen to be using your system before this pandemic, talk about that as well, any use cases would be great. Focus more on the differentiators that make you different than what's already out there and consider also zeroing in on your focus on what type of fitness enthusiasts that you want to start with. This may be a result of what's happening in the pandemic and so it may cause you to zero in on maybe you're going to talk or communicate with people that have home gyms for example or online fitness classes so think about that. I think you have something here, but, I would really zero in on the changing landscape right now of the fitness market." 

The Outcome

Michael's Takeaways 

“Vintro was great for introducing me to a platform of investors and mentors whom I would not have had access to otherwise. I created my startup in the Philippines because of cheaper tech talent and faster adoption cycles. Although it was certainly the smart decision for growing the user base, we had a very hard time finding investors in the Philippines. The Philippines does not have a strong startup culture and investment network (especially for a non-Filipino). Vintro allowed us to broadcast our startup to investors and mentors that we selected. I'm in the process now of speaking to a contact from Vintro whom I hope we can partner together with long term.”

Jason's Takeaways

“Vintro was a seamless and unique experience to interact with an entrepreneur on my own time. The simplicity of the system allowed me to easily listen to a pitch and provide meaningful feedback.”