It's nice to get a glimpse behind the scenes of JEfit.
I used this app when I got serious about my fitness journey around 8 years ago. I fell off from using it 4 or 5 years ago (no fault of the app.) I can honestly say, it made it really easy to stay consistent with my workouts and show up to the gym confident in my programming.
Perhaps what I love best about this story, and similar startup stories, is the purity of building something to solve a problem personally. Then when the success of that thing happens as a side effect, it seems more appropriate. Stories like this take me back to the simple joy of creating something useful.
This. The guy was sold a dream that only SV could make it. Totally not true. I’m sure the value of SV networking is great but what would that provide him? There’s plenty of opportunities he could have pursued in his home state. Raleigh-Durham has a very healthy investment culture.
I’m always skeptical of people who built something elsewhere then decided Silicon Valley is the only place they can grow. Sounds like someone said that to him and he just ran with it. With all the VC’s turning him down, he could have done that on the east coast just as effectively.
List of partners in his home state that could have been interested:
Frontier Growth
SJF Ventures
Bessemer
River Cities Capital Fund
Wildwood
Having participated in countless Startup Weeks (Boulder being my favorite), there’s opportunity everywhere if you’re willing to put yourself out there.
Speaking from experience in SC, not NC, the terms just aren’t as good down here as could be had elsewhere. VC is somewhat a social game and moving to Silicon Valley does buy you a better market to play.
I've been using JeFit for ~6 years (I have a lifetime premium, I think, due to buying the app in full when you could). It used to be a pretty ugly app but I've stuck with it because it was the only app that did the simple function of creating a routine with a schedule then logging your performance over time.
Longtime Jefit user. I respect that it the enshittifiction (e.g. locking "volume" charts behind a subscription) has been slow enough to not force me to another product. I've definitely encountered many many bugs, but only a few that have resulted in partial data loss.
Lots of respect with allowing data export in a simple format like .csv
I stopped using the app around 2018 and went back to pencil and paper. Although I did like the diagrams on the movements to do, but once you learn them, you can't forget them. I never entered the data into a spreadsheet though, I didn't care about tracking gains. All I cared about was, what I was doing last week and where I am at this week.
I've been using it for a long time as well, but I'm really tired of the constant up-sell attempts. I really just want a dead simple app to track my work, and I really feel like Jefit is moving further and further away from that.
If you’re on iOS, the app “Strong” is a really simple but great tracking app. On Android there is “FitNotes” which is a little bit more barebones, but still really functional. I have tried Jefit a few times and think it’s great but ended up using these other ones because of their simplicity.
Heavyset on iOS should fit the bill perfectly. It has everything I want in a workout tracker (weights based on percentage of training max, workout calculator, Apple Health integration) and nothing more. https://www.runloop.com/heavyset
I've been using the free tier for a few years. I want very little out of it -- really just something to say "do these exercises today".
The basics work well enough. I'd just as soon they didn't lock alternative exercises behind the paywall -- if my gym doesn't have a leg extension machine, what's a good alternative? It doesn't seem a lot to ask.
I'm well aware that I get what I pay for on the free tier. But I worked around it by googling an alternative and just substituting that instead. It's good enough for my extremely meager purposes.
Jefit isn't about video tutorials, but keeping track of your progress in specific exercises, and performing correct amount of volume to progress but not over-train, a thing that becomes harder when you advance and your progress starts to slow down. At that point avoiding stagnation requires a lot more optimization and an app that can tell incremental progress in bench is more motivating than looking at the mirror and seeing very small changes. Also, for powerlifters the mirror is a poor tool since it's not about hypertrophy and body shape.
Conversely, a tidal flood of free content, much of which is low quality, can motivate a consumer to shell out $$$ for something that's more curated, limited, and has a guaranteed lower limit on quality.
I know because I've done this many times in many contexts, with everything from fitness apps to programming courses to buying the latest fiction books. With all of these, there are multiple lifetimes' of free, good content out there, but good luck mining the nuggets out from the thick layer of slop.
Yup, I have no idea what's the point of gazillion YouTube shorts on exercises that have perfectly good tutorials by experienced people, available already.
No I did not joke. If you bother to open one of the playlists I referred to, you can find e.g. 10 rear delt exercises demonstrated in under 15 second videos with extremely good tldr advice.
Every point you make is fair but the point still stands: you had to find this stuff first.
And if I did not know about him and typed "rear delt exercise" into Youtube, there will be an endless amount of slop before I personally would run into this guy.
I'd gladly pay for this guy's app if I were in the market for a new workout plan. My point is that free content does not eliminate the market for paid content.
Would be good to hear more details about the journey from bootstrapped North Carolina house to a decent-sized team out west.
Is Jefit profitable now? Then?
What were revenues like during those times?
What's the software stack?
Interesting challenges (esp. from a tech perspective)?
It's nice to get a glimpse behind the scenes of JEfit.
I used this app when I got serious about my fitness journey around 8 years ago. I fell off from using it 4 or 5 years ago (no fault of the app.) I can honestly say, it made it really easy to stay consistent with my workouts and show up to the gym confident in my programming.
Perhaps what I love best about this story, and similar startup stories, is the purity of building something to solve a problem personally. Then when the success of that thing happens as a side effect, it seems more appropriate. Stories like this take me back to the simple joy of creating something useful.
Anyone want to fix the typo in the title? Presumably “15 Years of Jefit”
or 15 Years of Buildling Jefit
It would be interesting to hear more about why the move to Silicon Valley was necessary.
"My team in North Carolina didn't want to relocate. If I moved, I'd be starting from scratch, with no team"
I wonder what was the problem with the existing team working remote?
This. The guy was sold a dream that only SV could make it. Totally not true. I’m sure the value of SV networking is great but what would that provide him? There’s plenty of opportunities he could have pursued in his home state. Raleigh-Durham has a very healthy investment culture.
I’m always skeptical of people who built something elsewhere then decided Silicon Valley is the only place they can grow. Sounds like someone said that to him and he just ran with it. With all the VC’s turning him down, he could have done that on the east coast just as effectively.
List of partners in his home state that could have been interested:
Having participated in countless Startup Weeks (Boulder being my favorite), there’s opportunity everywhere if you’re willing to put yourself out there.Speaking from experience in SC, not NC, the terms just aren’t as good down here as could be had elsewhere. VC is somewhat a social game and moving to Silicon Valley does buy you a better market to play.
I've been using JeFit for ~6 years (I have a lifetime premium, I think, due to buying the app in full when you could). It used to be a pretty ugly app but I've stuck with it because it was the only app that did the simple function of creating a routine with a schedule then logging your performance over time.
How many if je don't fit?
What if jefit?
embrasse le concassage
Always appreciate seeing small teams go into bare metal hosting!
(judging by the photo of them in front of HE FMT2 colo racks)
Congrats! Weird how you lost half your customers during COVID when sales of home treadmills were exploding.
Misspelling in the title, not their fault
Still a happy user of this app, thanks for sharing your journey. Especially love the Apple Watch app
Longtime Jefit user. I respect that it the enshittifiction (e.g. locking "volume" charts behind a subscription) has been slow enough to not force me to another product. I've definitely encountered many many bugs, but only a few that have resulted in partial data loss.
Lots of respect with allowing data export in a simple format like .csv
Did the "recent" exercise sort get removed?
I stopped using the app around 2018 and went back to pencil and paper. Although I did like the diagrams on the movements to do, but once you learn them, you can't forget them. I never entered the data into a spreadsheet though, I didn't care about tracking gains. All I cared about was, what I was doing last week and where I am at this week.
I've been using it for a long time as well, but I'm really tired of the constant up-sell attempts. I really just want a dead simple app to track my work, and I really feel like Jefit is moving further and further away from that.
If you’re on iOS, the app “Strong” is a really simple but great tracking app. On Android there is “FitNotes” which is a little bit more barebones, but still really functional. I have tried Jefit a few times and think it’s great but ended up using these other ones because of their simplicity.
Hevy is another great and simple iOS workout tracking app in the same vein as Strong.
If you're on iOS, consider this completely crazy idea:
Apple Numbers.
I started doing this with Excel, but the AN experience on mobile is great. You can even add simple forms.
Heavyset on iOS should fit the bill perfectly. It has everything I want in a workout tracker (weights based on percentage of training max, workout calculator, Apple Health integration) and nothing more. https://www.runloop.com/heavyset
I've been using the free tier for a few years. I want very little out of it -- really just something to say "do these exercises today".
The basics work well enough. I'd just as soon they didn't lock alternative exercises behind the paywall -- if my gym doesn't have a leg extension machine, what's a good alternative? It doesn't seem a lot to ask.
I'm well aware that I get what I pay for on the free tier. But I worked around it by googling an alternative and just substituting that instead. It's good enough for my extremely meager purposes.
youtube is FLOODED with free fitness content, I mean, you could workout for five years and never see the same video twice
its all evergreen - crunches from five years ago are just as good today
everyone I know who worked as a personal trainer has moved out of the industry
endless free resources out there
and then the content connected to devices like Peloton etc
not sure how you can make a buck in this business
want to track your progress? look in the mirror or guesstimate
Jefit isn't about video tutorials, but keeping track of your progress in specific exercises, and performing correct amount of volume to progress but not over-train, a thing that becomes harder when you advance and your progress starts to slow down. At that point avoiding stagnation requires a lot more optimization and an app that can tell incremental progress in bench is more motivating than looking at the mirror and seeing very small changes. Also, for powerlifters the mirror is a poor tool since it's not about hypertrophy and body shape.
> want to track your progress? look in the mirror or guesstimate
Do you lift? That's not a good way to track progress.
Conversely, a tidal flood of free content, much of which is low quality, can motivate a consumer to shell out $$$ for something that's more curated, limited, and has a guaranteed lower limit on quality.
I know because I've done this many times in many contexts, with everything from fitness apps to programming courses to buying the latest fiction books. With all of these, there are multiple lifetimes' of free, good content out there, but good luck mining the nuggets out from the thick layer of slop.
Yup, I have no idea what's the point of gazillion YouTube shorts on exercises that have perfectly good tutorials by experienced people, available already.
E.g., https://www.youtube.com/@RenaissancePeriodization/playlists has ridiculously good per-body-part demonstration playlists if you scroll down a bit.
You joke but this is exactly what I'm talking about.
This channel must have hundreds of hours of content, and I'm sure much of it is good, but I don't have hundreds of hours.
Instead, I will send hundreds of dollars to some trusted person to distill hundreds of hours into an app or something that I can use immediately.
No I did not joke. If you bother to open one of the playlists I referred to, you can find e.g. 10 rear delt exercises demonstrated in under 15 second videos with extremely good tldr advice.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34gVHrkaiz0&list=PLyqKj7LwU2...
Mike Israetel who runs the channel is in the top-5 in scientific body building circles.
And you can get those same videos in their app https://rpstrength.com/pages/hypertrophy-app
Personally I'd use Jefit or Hevy over RP, but the point stands.
Every point you make is fair but the point still stands: you had to find this stuff first.
And if I did not know about him and typed "rear delt exercise" into Youtube, there will be an endless amount of slop before I personally would run into this guy.
I'd gladly pay for this guy's app if I were in the market for a new workout plan. My point is that free content does not eliminate the market for paid content.
We need an examine.com for fitness. Too much slop out there.
https://exrx.net/