It may or may not be the residual effects of Tim Ferriss’ “4 Hour Body,” but fitness apps seem to be all the rage (I’m looking at you “5 Minute Abs”). YCombinator-backed FitFu, an iPhone app for casual exercise, fits into this category and moreso.
With FitFu, founders Jof Arnold and Benjie Gillam are targeting people sitting at their desk all day, a situation where taking a few minutes to do some situps might be the difference between flab and abs.
FitFu uses pretty slick animation (creative was designed by agency Despark) and voice over to encourage and remind you to do little bits of movement throughout the day. The app uses an accelerometer to measure reps (you can choose from 8 exercises), so you actually have to move to have your exercises be counted.
FitFu also ingenuously adds a social element i.e. you can compete with your friends with regards to number of reps completed, keeping you motivated through competition.
The app basically eliminates all excuses to not complete exercise emphasizes co-founder Arnold, “People were saying ‘Oh I can’t do many reps,’ then we made an app that would eliminate excuses you make as you go into an exercise. It’s stuff you can do at home, or on a plane or in an office.”
Having vertical experience with previous apps PushupFu, CrunchFu, SquatFu and PullupFu, Arnold and Gillam are ready to focus on FitFu as a full time startup. The London-based FitFu, or what would happen if Pixar redesigned the WiFit, is in the YC winter class of 2010 and currently has 120K of UK seed funding. You can download the app here.
It all began in January 2009 when our founders - wandering digital sage Jof and software guru Benjie - released an innocent little app called PushupFu. The result of countless sleepless nights, numerous rolls of duct tape, a few everyday household objects, far too many takeouts and some epic battles with a kitten… it was released into an unsuspecting world at the entirely inappropriate time of 2am on New Year’s Eve. Soon one app become four, and before we knew...
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