Why fitness startup Fittr is focusing on personal training as it continues on its mission to make India healthier
In conversation with YourStory’s Daily Dispatch, Jitendra Chouksey, Founder and CEO, Fittr, reveals why the fitness startup thrived amid the pandemic and focuses on what the future looks like in a post-COVID world.
Jitendra Chouksey, who started Pune-based fitness and wellness startup Fittr in January 2016 by, recently launched his first book, Lose Fat, Get Fittr, a comprehensive guide to achieving a healthy lifestyle.
The Founder and CEO, Fittr, says the fitness and nutrition community now has more than 3 million members, but the idea of the brand started from “a small WhatsApp group with the agenda to help friends and family get fit”. This later evolved into SQUATS Fitness Private Limited, from which the brand Fittr came into being.
Till date, the fitness startup has trained and transformed 200,000+ people, focusing on the fact that “the journey towards fitness is as important as the destination”.
Fittr
Jitendra says fitness is one of the most basic components of a person’s overall health and it’s important to make it a part of one’s lifestyle. “It hardly takes 30-45 minutes of exercise and just eating right every single day to stay in best shape.”
He adds that the year 2020 has been an “interesting year” as the pandemic changed people’s perception on a lot of things. People broke away from the notion that going to the gym was important to stay fit and realised that one could work out at home as well.
The company also ventured into personal training and created employment opportunities for 500+ coaches.
Jitendra says fitness is a multifaceted/multidimensional problem, and the key to solving it is to “understand it and ask the right questions”. “Fittr was in the right place at the right time,” he says.
Fittr has two verticals: the fitness and lifestyle segment, which contributes 95 percent of the business and has seen about 80 percent growth since last year, and the personal training business for categories such as yoga, martial arts, and dance, which has seen a growth of 35-40 percent month on month.
The future is likely to bring a huge demand for personal training, and Fittr aims to create employment for 1,000+ coaches in the next 12-18 months.
“In this model, you save a lot of time while getting the same kind of benefits so we believe that this segment will continue to expand,” Jitendra says.
Competition and funding
According to Jitendra, funding is a requirement in today’s market as competition grows and more players like Cult.fit and HealthifyMe scale.
Funding is a basic requirement for rapid expansion, but the Fittr team aims to focus is on three key areas: People, Product and Process. “The aim is to improve the existing products and processes,” he shares.
He adds that a lot depends on public sentiment, and Fittr will explore if “there is a good uptake in the offline space”. Till then, the startup will focus on strengthening its online presence.
Jitendra concludes by saying that there is a need to dispel the notion that fitness is something that requires time and effort. It just needs to be part of the daily routine.
“Start with basic exercises like squats, pushups and pull-ups, and eat a balanced diet. And, be patient and stay consistent,” Jitendra says.
Edited by Teja Lele