How a Fitness Tech Startup Bootstrapped It's Way to Success with Avatar Nutrition

Brendo McCormack Podcast

Many people struggle with their diets, not necessarily because they lack tools, but because they do not have support. With so much information out there, it is hard to know what to take on board, so having someone to guide you undoubtedly makes all the difference. This customer-centric, personal approach underpins Avatar Nutrition’s purpose-driven mission.
We welcome back the platform’s co-founders, Katie Coles and Mark Springer, to hear about what has happened since we last spoke to them. We kick off with a quick recap of what the platform does and how it makes flexible dieting as accessible as possible. As with all startups, getting things off the ground was far from easy. Katie and Mark shed light on some of the obstacles they faced, including their lack of tech knowledge, manually running the platform, and creating the database off of Mark’s laptop!
While these things posed challenges at the time, there is no doubt that this slow, iterative process has contributed to the platform Avatar is today. We also hear about their decision to migrate from a web app to a native one and how they incorporate client feedback into their product. Katie and Mark are incredible entrepreneurs who are a great example of what can happen when you are willing to take lessons out of failures and just keep going. Be sure to tune in today!

Key Points From This Episode:

• Hear about what Avatar Nutrition is and the impetus for starting the platform.

• A significant client transformation Mark saw when he was working as a personal trainer.

• How Mark and Katie came together and the winding road they took to start the platform.

• Transitioning from a web to native app and what that process has been like.

• How the slow, iterative process of building Avatar contributed to its great database.

• The power of having a person, rather than a computer respond to customer queries.

• How Avatar on-boarded their first 1500 customers through word-of-mouth advertising.

• Avatar’s purpose-driven mission: How this has kept the needle moving.

• Discovering flexible dieting changed Katie’s life and helped her overcome her eating disorder.

• Unexpected obstacles and tragedies Mark and Katie have faced building Avatar.

• The journey of understanding tech better and what Mark and Katie have learned.

• Some of the reasons for moving from a web to a native app.

• What’s on the horizon for Avatar now that they have launched the native app.