Bvddy is a social fitness app that instantly brings together people through their love of sport and social networking
Miami-based startup Bvddy released their social fitness app in 2016 in a bid to help athletes find like-minded and locally-based sporting partners.
And today, this smart sport-matching service app is being enjoyed by thousands of athletes and fitness devotees who enjoy social networking in cities across the United States such as Chicago and New York.
Bvddy is also available on Android and iOS.
Via Bvddy’s proprietary smart matching algorithms a person’s basic information is used to pair them up with others with a similar geographical location, sporting taste and level of play.
After downloading the app, users simply create their profile, select their preferred fitness categories and then find others nearby to play their favorite sports with.
They can chose from more traditional sports such as basketball, jogging, soccer and tennis – as well as less traditional surfing, yoga and mixed martial arts.
Towards the end of 2016 Bvddy began a seed funding round and raised USD 1.5 million in order to expand their offering to other hubs across the United States,
Bvddy founder and CEO, Pedro Ast tells Nativa World about his startup journey and explains why his game-changing social fitness app may also suit businesswomen who travel….
Pedro, what does the word ‘Achieve’ mean to you?
Achieve for me has many meanings but I like to narrow it down to two words – ‘progress’ and ‘execution’. To achieve means to accomplish a goal, a task or even a simple chore and for such to occur I think you need to be constantly progressing and executing.
What’s your background?
I went to school for entrepreneurship and finance and then a big part of my life was spent playing professional tennis. This gave me tremendous discipline as well as the drive to constantly keep pushing and to never give up.
How did the idea for the social fitness app, Bvddy come about?
As a former professional tennis player and student athlete the main inspiration was my constant problem to find people within my skill level to play tennis with. After college – when most of the friends I played with had either moved to a new city or started new jobs – it became more difficult. So the main inspiration came from my every day problem of finding someone to play tennis with.
How easy is Bvddy to use?
You login with your Facebook account, pick the sports you’re interested in, select your skill level and ‘voila’- the system starts to recommend you people near you. Once you find someone you want to connect with you just buddy up with him or her. It’s that simple!
Which sport is the most popular among your female users?
Running, Yoga and Tennis. We’ve also started to see high demand for Volleyball.
It’s definitely been a great and exciting path especially now as we scale our product and continue to make tweaks
How could Bvddy benefit businesswomen who travel and who like to stay fit on the road?
Businesswomen that are constantly on the road can benefit by connecting with like-minded women who share the same passion for sports as they do. Bvddy would prove to be a social networking tool as well as fitness tool to stay active no matter where they are.
How has your startup journey been thus far?
It’s been a very interesting journey that has been full of lessons and emotions along the way. It’s definitely been a great and exciting path especially now as we scale our product and continue to make tweaks that make the overall product that people see and use stickier.
However, one of the things I would’ve done differently was to launch our Beta in a city like San Francisco or Los Angeles – rather then Miami. This is because the culture in those cities of adopting and trying new technologies is more prominent. I’d also like to have tried to raise more money in the beginning of the process to have been better capitalized. Raising money takes time and especially nowadays and with the industry changing.
One reason that Bvddy is special is because of our smart matching algorithms
How is Bvddy faring in the fitness app marketplace?
In our category, which is ‘Health & Fitness’ under the ‘Recreational Sports’ and ‘Join a Community’ sections we sit at the #1 position. We’ve also recently been featured by Apple as one of the new apps they love for this coming year.
One reason that Bvddy is special is because of our smart matching algorithms and how it learns about our users over time and so gives them the best matches possible. This special feature results in people going from the virtual world to the real world to play the sports they love.
What are the main difficulties you experienced in launching your fitness app?
With every startup there are different issues that come along the way. One of the most prominent was having a product that worked and functioned how we wanted it to but then being prepared to react as we learned from people using it. The difficulty was being able to listen to how people were using the product and then reacting to their needs so we could continue to improve the product to make it better each day.
We want to create millions of connections and have our eyes set on successfully monetizing our service.
What are your long term and short term goals for the business?
Short term goals are to release over 60 new sports which we’re scheduled to do so this month along with improvements to our matching algorithms. We are also planning the release of a new feature called ‘Trending Sports’. This will allow users to discover what sports are trending in their area- and in real time.
Long term we want to continue to grow and expand while making people happy with the product we’ve built. We want to create millions of connections and have our eyes set on successfully monetizing our service.
Pedro’s Startup Tips:
- Believe – if you don’t no one will
- Build a great team of people you trust from production to your investors
- Listen- never stop listening to your product users and be ready to react to what you listen to
- Trust your vision- you’ll have doubts along the way but that’s just part of the process
- Raise money under your terms
- Try to raise money when you don’t really need it and you’re financially healthy.
Photography courtesy of Bvddy & Pedro Ast
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