Too much of work pressure on employees gives huge mental stress. In current situation when WFH model is being followed by most of the companies across India, such work pressure has further fueled the stress among them. For employer, taking care of health challenge in current situation is one of the biggest challenge. Keeping all such issues in mind, TWChallenge rolled out revolutionary TwelveWeek Challenge. In order to know more about this app and how does it contribute towards wellbeing of employees at workplace, Rajeev Ranjan, Editor & Publisher, Digital Terminal interacted with Vivek Slaria Founder, GreenLattey and TWC. Vivek shared his business details and statistics to give a deep insight into his business model. Read below the excerpts-
Rajeev: What was the idea behind starting TwelveWeek Challenge App?
Vivek: The purpose behind starting TwelveWeek Challenge app was to help people bring fitness and mental peace into their daily lives, especially during this period of lockdown.
Due to the current pandemic situation and gyms being shut, several people are not able to seek professional trainer helpto maintain daily fitness into their lives. Also, sitting at home with less physical interaction with colleagues or friends & family increases stress. This translated to people eating more, having anxiety or being prone to depression. All of this inspired us to create a platform that will help working people, both young and old to exercise and take care of their mental wellbeing with the help of Live sessions where trainers guide people on the app.
Rajeev: What were the challenges initially and how did you overcome them?
Vivek: There were several challenges that we faced as the app was being built. The first and the most crucial one was the lack of resources both monetary and people. Founders were also outsiders to the space of fitness. Offices were locked. They could not go to clients to show the technology or even be able to get some feedback on the product.
To solve the challenges the founders first kept themselves calm. They themselves did daily yoga and meditation on the app. Further, the existing team started using the app for their daily fitness. The teams were united while working from home by using technology. Using a real time poll before and after the session, the happiness index of employees were measured to check if the idea to elevate mood & boost productivity through the fitness sessions would work.
As the team started attending the fitness sessions and polls were taken to check the mood elevation scale, it was a successful test. Soon, the team built a plan to take it to market more aggressively. Soon the challenges started fading away as more and more people joined in the app and it started growing.
Rajeev: How does this entire platform work? Brief about its technology aspect.
Vivek: TWChallenge app is built on native android and IOS devices with real time video technology integrated in the back end. The design principles used are design thinking, agile development and social engineering. It is integrated with already existing cloud infrastructure allowing it scalability in both volume and geographic locations. After a user downloads the app, the registration process is a simple process of OTP based mobile number verification and name registration.
A user then selects and subscribes from a series of challenges to get started on a fitness journey. At the designated time, the user gets a notification of their class. He goes online to the app and starts the class with a live trainer. In case a user misses out a session due to prior work or family commitments, the video recording of the session is made available on the homescreen of the app.
Rajeev: Which are the major verticals you are targeting for this application?
Vivek: The major verticals that we are targeting include physical and mental wellbeing of people. Due to the current pandemic, there are a huge number of cases where people are going through either physical or mental deterioration. This needs to stop. Specifically, the stigma on speaking up on mental health needs to end, by encouraging people to speak up and consult help from a professional by treating it like a physical ailment.
To support this, while on one hand there are dedicated corporate programs, on the other there are several new programs like Fit Women, Healthy Heart, Nutrition Programs.
Rajeev: What is your company's business model? How do you monetize your solutions?
Vivek: Being a self-funded startup, it was important for the product to make money from the beginning. We are happy to share that we have been breaking even on unit economics since the first month of operations. There are two ways in which our solutions are monetized. The first is that the company pays for the services we provide to their employees. The second is the individuals subscribe to our programs.
Being a subscription-based model, there is no heavy onetime cost to people subscribing. This on one hand while is great for the consumer, it does bring in a challenge for us to ensure a person gets value from these sessions every week. We are excited about this model and look forward to bringing it to life in a more focused way to our consumers.
Rajeev: Please share your current revenue growth. What is your target by 2021?
Vivek: Fitness is a huge and growing industry. In 2017, per Deloitte it crossed revenue of USD 1 Billion dollar in revenue in India alone. There is an increase in the number of people being more aware of their wellbeing and wanting professional help to get them there. No longer are people satisfied with a morning walk.
New formats like Zumba, Tabata athletics are taking shape and helping expand out reach. So from a market perspective, there is huge potential. Further, of every one person who takes fitness seriously, there are 9 who probably should be taking it seriously. Thus there is an even further untapped market that exists.
Being the first year of operation, our focus is to ensure sustained break even and growth in user base. We are witnessing a 2X growth in user numbers on a month on month basis. This has to continue. While it is premature to state the current year's numbers, we are looking to revenue of 50 Cr in next 2 years and upwards of 100 Cr in the next 3 years. With a model built for scale, we are excited about reaching this.
