Upfit: “Lose Weight In A Twinkling By Obtaining A 100% Customized And Healthy Nutrition Plan.”

Describe Upfit weight loss plan in 50 or less words.

Upfit is the first weight loss plan configurator helping people achieve their personal goals without starving. Each Upfit plan is as unique as the customer’s goals and eating habits. Vegetarian, vegan or paleo, food allergies and intolerances or even cooking times are just some of many customization options.

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

Inspired by a long lasting friendship Stas, Tim Kahle and I always had the passion to create something innovative and disruptive. All of us are serial entrepreneurs and made already great experiences back in the days leading bigger teams in global startups such as fab.com or hem.com! As all of us have a diverse but different skill set we knew we were able to beta-launch nearly any idea with the team-intern resources. The key was to find something all three of us are passionate about and that could potentially scale globally.

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

Actually there is no „typical working day“. Unexpected situations are expected to show up. But ok… let me pick a random day. At 9.30am my day in the office starts – but as for most entrepreneurs the company is always on your mind 🙂 After a 15 min daily meeting with the customer service, marketing and product team all tasks for the day are prioritized. As long as nothing else happens I’m trying to break them down to the basics and execute them with my team. Each week we talk about key figures and how getting better on all action items connected to web and product.

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

Upfit wants to change the way people think of dietary and healthy eating. Feeling positive and self-confident is very much influenced by eating right (70%) and working out (30%). We believe that a healthy lifestyle should be accessible and affordable to anybody without any restrictions.

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

We are 100% number-driven. Our philosophy is to test everything before pushing new features and ideas live. We work with transparent projects plans and create KPI’s for each team member to keep track of our goals. We are no big fans of long meetings so we try to keep the whole communication transparent and give free access to the numbers all over the company.

Already pivoted? Did customers use the Upfit weight loss plan like you imagined it in the beginning?

Sure 🙂 Our initial plan was to create an organic supplement helping people lose weight. Since then we got a lot of feedback which led us to the more sustainable solution of weight loss. Every single person is unique and needs a personalized instruction how to achieve the personal goals. Currently we are testing Upfit as a white label solution in gyms and cooperate with with a lot more people looking for a convenient way to lose weight even in their daily lives.

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

Generally we are very open-minded and happy to work with motivated people who believe in our vision and the team – from investors to cooperation partners. Financially we are 100% bootstrapped but the next step is to raise money to speed up growth and create more products our customers are asking for.

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

We mainly focus on ourselves and the product. What happens around us is not as important as our goal to get better every day and to help our customers achieve their personal goals.

What do you look for in team members?

Passion, diligence and positive attitude.

Why would a talent join your team?

Our colleagues describe us as fun and straight-forward. We hate long meetings and believe in flat hierarchies. Every team member plays a key role in Upfit’s future and that’s the way we treat them. Work hard, play hard.

What was your most memorable moment so far?

Our first customer was a great moment – but the most memorable was the first positive feedback a week later. Since then we received hundreds of emails, had thousand of live-chats on our website and received even hand written letters. A lot of constructive, some sceptical but most often positive feedback how Upfit changed people’s live in a great way.

What advice would you give fellow founders for their startup?

Idea is important, team and execution is key.

 

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