If your resolution this year is to get fit, you may want to check out Trainiac, a personal training platform that just raised $2.2 million in seed funding this week.
The Seattle-based startup is building on the increasingly popular fitness app industry, which is projected to be worth almost $15 billion by 2026.
With Trainiac, users must complete questions, workouts and an introductory phone interview to flesh out a customized fitness plan. Then, they pick from a list of certified personal trainers who develop customized workout plans that include exercises that help users meet specific goals and avoid injuries. The idea is to hold people accountable so they achieve their goals.
Trainiac is competing with the likes of Peloton, Mirror and Life Fitness, virtual fitness companies that have earned hundreds of millions of dollars. What makes Trainiac special is that its workout plans are customized for the individual user. The company’s co-founder and CEO Akshay Ahooja told GeekWire that he considered using bots and artificial intelligence, but he and his team decided real humans would be better.
“The most effective and well-known way to get into a long-term routine is to work one-on-one with an expert,” Ahooja told them. “We’ve put in a tremendous amount of resources and focus in training trainers in being fitness coaches online and what it means to make a client successful in this new world.”
Trainiac even has a version that focuses on helping trainers adjust from working in-person with clients at a gym to virtual training. Ahooja says the company currently has 50 trainers and that they get paid according to how well their clients do. This is based on metrics like how often users work out and whether they continuously subscribe to the platform.
You can find the Trainiac app on Apple’s app store and get unlimited coaching and workouts for $80 a month.
