Cyrus Nambakhsh is the co-founder of Gymnut, a social training marketplace that allows trainers and other fitness enthusiasts to share fitness content, build fitness followings, and offer workouts and training plans.
Q: Please tell us a little bit about your company - what is Gymnut all about?
Gymnut is like 'iTunes + Instagram' of fitness. It is a place for personal trainers and people in need of them and their services to connect; a social fitness marketplace which makes fitness inspiring, fun and super practical.
If you are a gym-goer like me, on Gymnut your journey can start with a baseline selfie, getting engaged with a network of constantly growing personal trainers, and finally unlocking one of the workouts created by these trainers.
Gymnut has a workout store which works pretty much like how iTunes works for musicians and their records. Trainers create and publish their workouts for the price they set to create the training engagement with a broader audience.
Gymnut's social feed works like Instagram which integrates the progress and daily activities of clients and trainers around their workouts, and anything they would like to post.
Q: Please tell us a little bit about your background and how you started your company?
I am an engineer and scientist in heart but an entrepreneur in practice. I have my BSc, MSc and PhD degrees all in Biomeical Engineering with a focus on Artificial Intelligence, computer vision, developing firmware and software for solving health issues particularly cardiac diseases. I have a few innovations in TeleECG, Minimally Invasive Cardiac Surgery tools, and a mobile dongle for a medical application.
I have also been a soccer goalkeeper for most part of my life especially in university levels.
Back in the days, I used to impress my coaches when they were seeing my reflexes and confidence in defending the net but they had all a common suggestion for me " you must build up your physique if you would like to become a professional athlete". That became my challenge and obsession at gyms while I was bogged down in school. Being a newbie to gym, workouts, and nutrition plans I was always disappointed and hopeless to make the progress I needed so badly. Years past and I was thinking there should be a better and much affordable way to access right training plans, trainers and the inspiration that I needed to become a desired version of myself. That was the time for Gymnut to be born.
Q: What are some of the projects you are working on right now?
My 100% focus is currently on Gymnut while I founded an app called Nearjobs which is a proximity app for outsourcing chores. I recently have filed a patent for the first mobile dongle for pregnancy and ovulation test.
Q: What are your plans for the future, how do you plan to grow this company?
Our mobile apps for regular gym nuts (e.g. gym-goers and those who work out outside gyms) is heavily focused on making online training personalized, practical, and affordable - letting users follow trainers, socially share progress via a timeline and being rewarded by peers and trainers.
We deeply have focused on scalability of Gymnut while designing and developing it from scratch. Both trainer- and trainee-sides have been developed to facilitate scalability and virality of the app. With the launch of our native apps in mid to end-April, our marketplace chicken and egg problem will be solved and the social scalability of the platform will roll out. We expect to see an unprecedented growth in our user base, workout store and training plans sales.
We have some long term plans to intersect Gymnut and artificial intelligence (AI) which falls within intellectual property realm and I won't be able to discuss them at this point.
Q: How do you bring ideas to life?
Entrepreneurs by nature are naggers. They nag about their surroundings. If it happens that they are too frustrated about something, then they think about a better way of doing it or finding a solution for that pain.
I always like to mall a problem over for a while, run my first few possible ideas by a few close people and pretend there is a product that does the job and then watch their reactions. If positive, then go after building partnerships and a team. Building a product regardless how simple it is, will take at least 6-12 months of team work. For example, when I helped my brother to build a double-functional broom, from get-go to having first MVP it took him 1 year. So be patient and make sure you do it right and thoughtfully with a right team.
Q: What were the top 3 mistakes you made starting your business and what did you learn from it?
I wasn't a firm believer in lean startup strategy which advocates bringing the MVP to life as soon as possible.
We, especially myself, were sometime waiting too long for some of our team members to get some tasks done instead of learning the skills and getting it done ourselves. There were many people who we rushed to bring them on board and they never got anything serious done. On the flip side, I learnt that I should self-train fast and agile, and resort to my dedications and passion for the product.
And finally, never get advice from successful corporate CEOs and entrepreneurs too early in your business.
Q: How do you go about marketing your business, and what has been the most successful form of marketing for you?
Marketing is all about building brand, demonstrating the value, and hustle around your camapaigns. Our marketing team works under Hassaan Ahmed and very closely on a daily basis. Our campaigns are mainly online and currently limited to PR campaigns, content marketing via our online magazine ( Fitness20.ca) and social media campaigns.
We also engage with trainers who are interested in the marketplace and raise awareness among them on other social media platforms. Moreover, We are putting together a team of regional brand ambassadors.
Q: What would you say are the top 3 skills needed to be a successful entrepreneur - and why?
- First and foremost, you should be technically capable of developing your product or overseeing its development (for example, understand principles of programming and designs for web2.0).
- Secondly, you must be extremely hard worker, a hustler, and open to learn anything outside of your comfort zone. You should be basically a Swiss knife for your business.
- You should become the person who sets the example for the rest of the team. Eventually, be a great team worker who is capable of working in a startup environment with a horizontal structure. In another word, you and your new hires must have very close ties and interactions on a daily basis.
Q: What are the top 3 online tools and resources you're currently using to grow your company?
Q: What are three books you recommend entrepreneurs to read?
Start up genome report.My suggestion here is get your hands dirty to learn skills if they are needed for your business. Don't rely too much on reading books to learn how to operate your business. Internet has a lot of good sources for entrepreneurs. Join the communities. As an entrepreneur you shouldn't have enough time to read books and if you have then something is not being done in your business.
Q: What is your favorite entrepreneurship quote?
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"Most successful founders are driven by impact rather than experience or money." - Startup Genome Report
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"Running a startup is like being punched in the face repeatedly, but working for a larger company is like being waterboarded." - Paul Graham
Q: How can our community get in touch with you?
I am always on the lookout for talents. I personally make sure to encourage smarter people join our growing team. We are also building and expanding our network of ambassadors inside and outside of North America. Finally, if you are interested in any substantial press coverage or joining our team, Please reach out to me at cyrus@gymnut.co or find me on twitter, Linkedin and Instagram.
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