Vision - 5 years: Want to see an activity commerce market grow out of existing social commerce/health site models + activity data + geolocation, other data.
Intrinsic incentives for behavior change work less than 10% of the time, but current rewards are cheesy. I idealistically hoped 'social proof' and motivation using your existing social networks would be enough to incentivize not just a 1x healthier act, but repeated and routinized behavior change.
Unfortunately learned over a year of getupandmove/imoveyou this doesn't work well, and even the most motivated users drop off. Lots of room for problem-solving here, but hard to not lose first mover advantage or be cloned.
Goal: Your action should be able to provide currency, literally and figuratively (points earned for calories burned converted to rewards/reductions in insurance premiums, which lots of new folks are working on).
Business model was this:
1. Sponsored campaigns for hospitals, health insurers, etc. (more social media than action - quant measurement of success was impressions). Enterprise model w/campaigns between 15-250k (we hit the low end but not the high end).
2. It was "Evite for healthy actions."
3. It was easy but time intensive to sell here given connections/experience in the space, but we spent a lot of time and human capital working on a glorified consulting model, even though we were successfully able to sell/close enterprise partnerships quickly (less than 12 weeks). Not scalable. Also, we found out we sucked at user acquisition with the direct-to-user model, and never 'went viral.' Our growth graph has a nice steady up and slightly to the right trend with no hockey stick in sight. Enter pivot.
Business model post-pivot:
1. Verify activity. Become middleware layer for 'proving' someone has done action or challenge using different types of data (example: geolocation, social proof/logins, accelerometer/fitness devices like FitBit).
2. Offer the verification to partners with potential for big distribution rather than go straight direct-to-consumer. Use founder strengths in this area.
3. It "will be" Paypal for verified health/wellness activities (individual and group).
Business model includes percentages of these factors which evolve over 2-3 years:
1. Sponsorship/campaigns (50% first year)
2. Lead gen (% cut; 25% first year)
3. With verification, conversions/cut of per action market completion + purchase, especially where actions include purchase of item.
My uneducated opinion is that this is very tough to accomplish, and if you guys pull it off you will have built a great company. It seems you guys are in the preventive healthcare business.
On friends: I doubt friends are helpful here, unless they are friends I see daily and take/compare actions with. Plus if I drop they will just support my new decision, or they may not even notice. I am sure you guys will figure something out here.
On rewards: Providing currency is a great idea("lower insurance premiums..."), but just knowing I am taking care of my body is a greater motivator than saving "15% on my car insurance", I mean my health insurance.
On product: It's nice that I move you, but really I want to move ME. Ideally I would want ImoveMe to be a product where I can have my health-related goals, then it will help monitor them. Better than connecting with my friends on FB, I would rather connect with people who have similar goals then compare progress. A friend who does not jog cannot motivate me enough to wake up at 6 AM and go for a run.
On product 2: Challenge your Twitter and Facebook friends to small bursts of exercise. . Well you know what, why can't IMyou (or me) challenge me? If I tell you my goal is to loose weight, then be fun and turn this into a game. SMS me random burts of exercise to do, or email it to me in the AM, and once a week send me my diet plan. I can SMS back "DONE" then you can give me points, I guess. I cannot afford a personal trainer, but you know what, reading instructions is just ok. Plus it's a game. This game is my boss and tells me what to do. If I fail to text back DONE after x times, sign me off the service and ask me to come back when I am serious.
Again, this is my uneducated opinion about a business I have looked at only for a few moments. That being said, I watch the CEO interview on TC and she seemed hella-passionate, so I am confident she will solve this issue for all of us.
