Problem: Motivation, consistency, follow through; all of these are familiar struggles when it comes to sticking to a workout plan and seeing results.
Experts say that up to 75% of people who set some sort of fitness goal as their New Year’s resolution usually end up failing. Getting in shape, losing weight, and exercising more are among the most common New Year’s resolutions. Of the 100B dollars that is spent every year trying to get fit, a cursory look around will tell you that most of us fail to meaningfully shift our habits. Even more staggering of a -sad- statistic is that researchers also found that 90% of people will quit working towards their fitness goals within the first three months of starting it. 90%. Ouch.
However, this is understandable when we start to analyze the qualitative data surrounding fitness and wellness. Looking at common patterns and routines that lead to these fitness failure stories shows that it is not motivation and drive that the everyday person is lacking, it is the misunderstanding of fitness best practices. For example, one of the most common mistakes people make is overzealous goal setting; people put a lot of pressure on themselves to reach an unrealistic and unattainable target in a short amount of time. This leads them to possible injury and ultimately, burnout.
Whether aiming to lose weight, gain strength, increase flexibility or even just feeling great, setting a realistic goal is simply not enough to generate results, or to keep people motivated longer than about three months. According to one of the largest websites for bodybuilding 42% of people say it is too difficult to follow a diet or workout regimen, 38% of people say it is too hard to get back on track once they fall off, and 36% say it is too hard to find the time.
Another issue that arises from the inability to uphold one’s fitness goals is the mental impact associated with the failure. The importance of mental health has been gaining popularity in the conversation surrounding fitness as we see a shift towards overall wellness, opposed to strictly physical goals. Researchers are finding that physiological factors can play into a person’s mental wellbeing just as much, if not more, than biological factors.
Enter: Future. Future is the preeminent fitness app for users serious about their fitness goals.
Future pairs each user with an elite coach in dozens of categories to tailor a workout program that is fully aligned to the style of fitness that best works for them and generates real results. Ultimately cutting into that 90% statistic and reducing the number of fitness goal dropouts. By utilizing wearable technology, a digital world, and a truly customized human connection and expertise, Future successfully bridges the gap between data, digitalization, and human interaction to provide real and lasting results to its users. Between voice prompts, FaceTime check-in calls with your trainer and messaging within the app, you actually feel like you're working with a real person and not a robot. Future is changing the game for what it means to work out virtually, providing an impressive coaching experience with highly qualified trainers. While we invest in technology, we are still people - we are motivated by the expectations set upon us by others, and we desire things mimetically based on what we are exposed to.
Why We Invested: We met Rishi and Justin at the very beginning of their journey- when they hadn’t yet stood up a product. We shared their assessment that humans perform better by being coached, and we wanted to join into their mission of democratizing coaching for all different types of people, augmented by the wearable platforms that were beginning to emerge. Our team was especially interested in partnering with Future because not only have we felt those struggles as well, but we know the importance of fitness in our overall lives. Mentally and physically. Exercise has been proven to improve mental health in a number of ways including: reduced stress, anxiety, and depression, improved self-esteem, increased cognitive function, and improved memory. Fitness can be one of the hardest categories to stay consistent with in our day to day lives. Despite this difficulty, we wanted to get involved with Rishi and Justin’s Future because we loved their vision that anyone can get amazing fitness results. Especially provided they have the right education, and a team of elite coaches that not only work to customize the workout program but know best and realistic practices that generate real results.
Team: Rishi Mandal & Justin Santimaria
Rishi Mandal is the co-founder and CEO of Future, a company that creates innovative technology products. He has a long history of working in the technology industry, and he has a proven track record of success. Rishi is a true innovator, and he's always looking for new ways to improve the lives of people around the world. He's an excellent leader, and he truly cares about his employees and his customers. Future pairs members one on one with a world-class personal trainer, who trains them digitally. Mandal was previously the CEO of Sosh (acquired by Postmates) and a product leader at Google. Prior to tech, Mandal was an astrophysics researcher at NASA and Stanford University.
Justin Santamaria is the Co-Founder & CTO at Future. Prior to Future, Justin was the Director for the Platforms & Guest Experience teams at Airbnb where he rebuilt the core experience across iOS, Android, mobile & desktop web with a new look, feel, and logo. Before that, Justin was at Apple for almost 10 years where he wrote the original Messages app for the first iPhone. This launched him into engineering management where he led the teams that built FaceTime, iMessage, and CarPlay from scratch. Justin has a CS degree from Stanford.
Onwards and Upwards: For us, we are already of the conviction that Future is not only a category-defining company but also one that perfectly illustrates the emerging paradigm that lays at the heart of human performance. The paradigm of person - wearable - coach combines the best of what we know about how humans meaningfully improve their performance in that it is human and relationship-centered, while also being augmented by the emerging technologies that we see. We learn from the innovative approaches of our portfolio companies, and we are excited to have learned so much about how coaching and accountability can be built into a business and help humans perform better!