Helping Trainers and Gyms Work More Efficiently
During this episode of “The People Behind Innovation,” Owen Brown interviews Jacob Montoya. They discuss the founding and ideas that inspired Jacob’s company, and the ways it has grown and changed over time. They also touch on Jacob’s time in the accelerator programs and how they helped him grow his business. The series is available under Google, Apple, Amazon, and Spotify streaming services, or on Anchor with no account needed to stream. Please contact katherine@exponentialimpact.com , if you have any comments or founder stories.
Jacob Montoya is the founder of FitSW, a software platform for personal trainers and gyms. FitSW helps personal trainers and gyms run and grow their fitness businesses through software that improves efficiency and organization through automation that allows fitness professionals to manage clients, create fitness plans, and track client progress all in one place.
What led you to your discovery of the fitness market and your product?
I was a personal trainer in college and I saw a need for a product like this. I mean, at the time people were writing down the weights used just with pen and paper. I saw a need for something like this where everything could be digitized, but I didn’t have the capability at that time to build it, and smartphones weren’t as prevalent. So I just continued about going through my degree program and got an electrical engineering degree undergrad and entered the real world as a software engineer. It wasn’t until I did my MBA that I saw an opportunity to kind of revisit this. We had an entrepreneurship class during the program where we could create our own MVP product. I remembered this idea and thought it was a good time then with smartphones and lots of technological capability, so I released an MVP and people started using it. At that time, I had a job lined up, so I wasn’t gonna focus on it full time, but after I put it out there and I saw people were using it, I saw that maybe this could be something, maybe it was something that there was a huge demand for. And so, after a few years working in tech, I decided to make the leap and focus on this full time just because people kept using it even though I wasn’t spending any time on it.
What are some of the biggest changes that you’ve had from that initial conception of FitSW?
To start, I was mainly focused on wanting a way to manage workouts and allow the trainers to build workouts so they would know who their client was supposed to be, what weights they were supposed to do, what exercises, how many reps of those exercises, what the equipment settings were etc. That was the initial vision. But as time went on, we got so much feedback from users like, “we want to be able to track my client’s progress over time”, “we want to be able to accept payments.” This feedback has transformed us into being the one stop shop for personal trainers for all their needs: accepting payments, planning meals, all that type of stuff. And I don’t think I truly appreciated how much of a platform they would want, all the different capabilities and features that they would need in a platform. It can get difficult to listen to every single request you get because then you’re not good in any one area. You’re just average in a lot of different areas. So that’s been a struggle. That’s definitely something you need to think about as you’re building a product. You wanna try and be everything to everybody, but you gotta find your target user that you serve their needs really well. And so that’s been a balance. But our goal is to be the one stop shop for personal trainers that operates their business a certain way.
How did you get the first customer to sign on and integrate in your platform?
Initially, we focused just on personal trainers. Right now we’re focusing on personal trainers, gyms, and physical therapists. So there are a lot of different users that can use our software and be successful with it. But personal trainers are a little bit easier to acquire as customers than gyms. And how we got them, the first one was from just posting on some forum boards and encouraging people to try out our software for free. We operate on a freemium model, so that makes it easy for people to sign up and try our software out. That was the key way we got early users, just posting on those forums. And then a way that we’ve built relationships with these users is being very responsive to them when they contact us. If they’re someone that we really think is our ideal customer, we build features for them if we think that they’ll be used by the wider audience as well. That kind of helps us form those strong relationships where they’re really excited about what we’re doing and we’re taking into account their requests.
What’s the reason behind FitSW? Why do you guys exist?
People that want to become personal trainers usually do so because they want to help people. They want to help people reach their goals. And so what we’re trying to do is empower those fitness professionals so that they can help people better meet their goals with our software. Those personal trainers can engage with more clients, they can better motivate their clients, they can build excitement around fitness. That is our “why”, to help these fitness professionals that are trying to help people do their jobs more effectively.
You were a member of the Amplify and Ascend programs in 2020 and 2021. What are some of your takeaways from those programs?
I really enjoyed the Amplify program just because it gave me a chance to plug into the Colorado Springs ecosystem. Prior to that I was just working out of my basement. There’s so many benefits to being plugged into the ecosystem to go, going into a space where there are other entrepreneurs engaging with other entrepreneurs, it makes hiring easier. It legitimizes you if you’re part of an accelerator. It’s much easier to interview someone if you’re in the Amplify program or in the Exponential Impact office. I think just connecting with other entrepreneurs who are going through the same thing, you get a lot of insights, you form a lot of connections potentially that could benefit your business.I really enjoyed the amplify program just for all those benefits.
COVID hit right at the end of that program, but it was still a good experience. I’m very glad that I took part in that just to become plugged in. Now I’m in the Ascend program, we’re finishing up here in the next month I think. And that has been a great program again for connecting with other entrepreneurs, understanding that you’re not alone with the struggles you’re dealing with, getting insights into what another founder is doing, what can help them benefit, how are they running their marketing. Very insightful to talk to other entrepreneurs, and the speakers and mentors that we have had the opportunity to engage with have been very beneficial. It’s great to just be able to bounce your ideas off a mentor and get their impact or get their input in and understand just talking through ideas is beneficial. Even if they may not have experienced that particular problem before, it’s still great to get other insights and even talk through it yourself. And of course many of the mentors have experienced very similar problems to you as well.
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