(Founder Stories) RunKeeper: Jacobs’ Strategy For Raising Capital

Jason Jacobs is the co-founder and CEO of RunKeeper, one of the initial 200 apps sold in the iPhone app store. The app allows users to record their jogging distances and times, and in partnership with other fitness focused apps/devices, manage a host of additional health related activity, such as weight loss and strength training.

Having recently raised a $10 million Series B round, the Boston based Jacobs dropped by our New York studio to tell Chris Dixon, how it all began.

Jacobs says RunKeeper’s genesis dates back to 2007 when he was training for a marathon. At the time he was searching for a “big important problem to solve.” Influenced by what he describes as Nike’s user friendly Nike + iPod, he wondered, “why are these guys the only one doing this?”

He jumped in the game.

Initially operating on a shoestring budget, Jacobs built RunKeeper with the help of “moonlighting engineers that were working for equity.” Using his savings as a safety net while generating a bit of revenue, Jacobs intentionally fended off investors for about 18 months, saying the more time Runkeeper could focus on building the product “the higher the caliber of investors we would be able to attract and the less of the company we would have to give up in the process.”

Jacobs shares plenty more insights, so be sure to watch the entire video to hear more. Episode II of this interview is coming up.

Past episodes of Founder Stories featuring leaders of FindTheBest, KickStarter, Flipboard and many other statups are here.