StartUs Presents: Mogy

Describe Mogy in 50 words or less.

Mogy is the ultimate digital assistant for personal trainers and their clients. It was developed with the intention of solving their business problems, like daily work automation, client workout management and data analysis with real-time communication for remote clients.

Why did you decide to pursue your own dreams rather than someone else’s?

It was an instant dream come true while having our initial skype chat with our first personal trainer – Rob MacIntyre. He had explained to us his real world business problems, and within a couple of minutes we saw an amazing digital solution being built. It would be perfect for him and every other personal trainer.

As the project went on, Rob became part of this hardworking team, pushing us and the whole project even harder. There were no second thoughts in any moment of this project. Now, this is not only a shared dream coming true. It’s become so much more. It’s an obsession spreading outside of the office. We want to show everyone what a great product we are building together, better than ever.

We strongly believe that this app is the game changer of the fitness industry. It will save time and increase the work quality of personal trainers. They will be stepping up their game, as we like to say. We proudly roll out, whenever we can, our personal, team and Mogy motto: “BEYOND LIMITS.“ We know Mogy is truly disrupting the way workouts are being done and pushing trainings, trainers and their clients beyond limits.

7 years from now: How did your startup change the world?

Mogy has already changed the way workouts and trainer-client communication is being done. This momentum will only get more traction as it spreads through clients recommending the app that has made their personalized trainings simple, and trainers talking about simplifying and organizing everything in a unified app.

This is the app that made recreational and professional athletes and their trainers more efficient and productive. This is the app that made every bit of information traceable and statistically presentable. Who wouldn’t like an app like that?

In what ways do you measure your success and how do you make sure you don’t lose track?

We are sure we won’t lose track because of Rob, our main founder. He is a professional “Strength and Conditioning” trainer whose ideas are incorporated into the very essence of Mogy. There is not a single day the app is not tested by him and his clients and our quality assurance team. As the project was being developed, we also included several more in-house personal trainers to give us as much feedback as possible on how to improve the app.

Describe your typical working day from coming to the office to leaving it.

The office is the team’s cohabitation and coworking space. It’s starting to feel less and less like an office space and more like a home where this idea had its inception and was brought to life. The day starts around 9 am, for some earlier and for some later, after 10 am everyone is in. At 11 am we have our daily stand-up scrum-like meeting for 15 minutes. We call it “The Sync” as we sync up our work stuff with every other team member. People work on Mogy before and after the Sync.

After noon we usually GOOB* to grab a snack (and continue talking about work) or order in some food and relax our minds for a bit. “Work” hours stop at 5 pm (but mostly you can find us in the “office” till 7 pm, some still brainstorming or others playing games on the PlayStation in the chill room).

*GOOB – “Go outside of the building”, a LeanUX advice for having things and work done outside of the office building.

Already pivoted? Did customers use the personal coaching software like you imagined it in the beginning?

We are planning a full commercial start in September 2015. At the moment we have several professional trainers using Mogy daily in order to test it and give us feedback. I guess there is no software that is developed and presented to work as expected, and used by the client as planned. That was our experience with Mogy, anyway. It is the hardest job ever to be in the mind of the personal trainer who sees it for the first time. Our UX lead designer Igor Pičuljan is working hard to develop (and invent!) the best possible user experience for such a complex problem, and such an advanced and easy to use interface.

What we saw after demos is that trainers got their thoughts better organized when they saw how we designed the solution for managing workout programs. As there is no standardization in defining and managing workout programs, Mogy is actually trying to do that. That’s why we like to say that it is a real game changer for the fitness industry, making everything understandable and manageable under a single unified app.

Bootstrapped or financed: What fuels your startup now and what will in the future?

At the start we were backed by our first customer who the product was actually developed for. Now we are seeking local and foreign financing from investors and any other financing organizations that could support Mogy. As the product is a B2B SaaS (Software as a Service) solution, we are planning to be self-sustainable by offering various pricing models to our personal trainers. Our innovative marketing guys Miroslav Turčinović and Danijel Žinić are responsible for this part of the job.

With ferocious competition and a booming trend to build new companies: How do you make sure you don’t get lost in the shuffle?

The market is big, and the fitness industry is huge! We are not battling them now. We are fighting with ourselves and the idea of getting this app finished until the end of September. That’s our focus, and we don’t lose focus!

We will not get lost in the shuffle because we’ve seen the dance floor and it is not that crowded, plus no one is showing off the moves that we have prepared. That’s why we are not afraid and not thinking about exit strategies. As I said, it is an obsession. By the end of September we’re planning a full launch of the so-called “DEV3” phase which will release the app in its full new freshness, followed by a carefully planned marketing campaign to gain more traction and clients.

What do you look for in team members?

We basically look for team spirit and good people who can proudly do their part of the work the best it can be done. We are looking for people who are willing to go beyond themselves and express their work and ideas in the best possible way. This is a hardworking team that does not follow the 9-to-5 work day. We stick together like a music band doing their concerts every day without a pause or special preps.

Why would a talent join your team?

Because every opportunity in life is a good one, just like building Mogy. We’re sharing in this opportunity, and living a dream that has become a reality. That’s something that the candidate can immediately see as they enter our coworking space. This is the Mogy team spirit crushing all limits and bringing an idea to life.

What was your most memorable moment so far?

The most memorable moment was probably meeting Rob in London after one year of only skyping with him over the ocean. Meeting him in person was just so amazing! Seeing him talk with such passion about the whole project was a real breakthrough and very motivating. We are looking forward to the next big encounter when Rob will meet the whole team besides Andrej and me. One would think that memorable moments are built around this great virtual product we are developing, but it is actually the daily passion and contact taking place in the real world between people making it happen.

What advice would you give fellow founders for their startup?

There is a lot of advice you can get, and you hear some every single day. So, think about each one in the moment when it comes up. It will seem to you the most valuable asset in that second, and in the next one you will already be facing some other unrelated problems. Keep that in mind and simply learn to focus and stay on the important stuff.

In facing all the problems you are encountering, just remember to stay focused, keep your team spirit positive and synced, and do not give up (until you hit the floor hard, then restart the engine)!

Keep it lean. “Build, measure, learn.” Oh, and don’t forget to bro down!