Only 9% of RunKeeper’s users self-identify as “runners.”  Most say that want to “stay fit” or “lose weight.”  Jason claims it’s better to go downstream to the larger base than upstream to marathoners. Change ), You are commenting using your Google account. No! This may all be true. The Personal Risk of Starting a Company, Jason says he wishes he had started his company earlier when he had boundless ambition, energy, and a high threshold for pain. Runkeeper will become a subsidiary of ASICS, which said in a news release that it plans to benefit from Runkeeper’s technology and “a management team with extensive experience in this field.” Runkeeper founder and CEO Jason Jacobs said Runkeeper’s roughly 40-person Boston staff would expand “aggressively” following the acquisition. I realized then that I wanted to build a big company at the intersection of fitness and technology. Plus, this hypothesis of a simple, social, fun fitness platform for the masses felt like a solid, well-timed starting point. Written by some of the top SEO practitioners out there, this book can teach you what you need to know for your online business." —Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos.com, Inc., author of New York Times bestseller Delivering Happiness Jason Jacobs is on Facebook. The funny thing is that I came to realize this as I went out on 20-mile training runs, wracking my brain along the way about what I was really passionate about. Found insideThis book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 16th International Conference on Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality, EuroVR 2019, held in Tallinn, Estonia, in October 2019. Jason Jacobs launched RunKeeper application in 2008. "We both have deep roots in and focus on Sure, $349 is a lot of money. “I brought cohesive value to the company. Seventy-seven percent of those using our Apple Watch app are male, and the average age is 40. Explore Courtbean's photos on Flickr. Jason Jacobs - RunKeeper - October 30, 2012 With over 6.5 million users and roughly 70% of them living outside the U.S. RunKeeper is an all-star mobile app. ‎Şov: Entrepreneurs Club, Bölüm: Jason Jacobs - RunKeeper - October 30, 2012 - 19 Kas 2012 Jason Jacobs, founder of Runkeeper, pursued being an entrepreneur with passion and maniacal focus. When I started Runkeeper in 2008, I had no idea what I was in for — all I knew was that I wanted to build a big company at the intersection of fitness and technology. "Read this book before you invest a penny in the stock market. It may lack GPS. You want to choose people who have been waiting for someone like you and your company. Change ). Former co-founder/CEO of Runkeeper (acquired by ASICS). Our Investment in Waterplan Helping companies plan for water-based disruptions to business. A professor of medicine reveals how technology like wireless internet, individual data, and personal genomics can be used to save lives. This real data is superior to untested hypotheses. The Surprises and Benefits of a Diverse User Base. But we are putting out money (or our development resources, rather), where our mouth is and going long on the Apple Watch. Found insideAccording to the CEO of Runkeeper, Jason Jacobs, in a couple of years we won't even have to think about tracking ourselves. “It will be automatic. Found inside – Page iIn this book, you will find workout programmes that can be performed at home or in the park as well as in the gym, making this resource completely accessible and convenient. If you want to bring something into the world that does not exist, a lot of diverse skills are needed. RunKeeper makes tracking workouts fun, social and easy to help users understand and improve the quality of their fitness. In this book, more than fifty luminaries from academia and industry examine the key challenges of gamification and the ludification of culture—including Ian Bogost, John M. Carroll, Bernie DeKoven, Bill Gaver, Jane McGonigal, Frank Lantz, ... Today. Share to Facebook. How has RunKeeper, one of the first apps in the store, continue to differentiate itself and keep its users coming back? I’m a longtime software entrepreneur (was the founder of Runkeeper, one of the largest fitness apps and communities, before we sold to ASICS in 2016). With this book as your guide, you'll discover: How to tell your story to your team, new hires, investors, and customers for better decisions, greater alignment, and speed How to balance your life and grow your company at the same time How ... It would be easy to look at all of this and think the Watch is doomed to not break out of early adopter-hood. Jason Jacobs, cofounder and chief executive of Boston’s FitnessKeeper Inc., has built his company’s RunKeeper smartphone app into one of the world’s … While it was a grueling process for sure, I am very glad that I had the patience to wait until it felt right. Today, 50 percent (and growing) of our new users are female. Jason Jacobs is the founder of FitnessKeeper, the company behind RunKeeper. I have been extremely impressed with what Jason has accomplished with the RunKeeper product in a very short time using very little capital. I hoped that whatever company I started would be one I built from small to very big over a number of years, which to me, meant it had to be an important problem that I was deeply passionate about solving in a big market. This book is open access under a CC BY license. In its initial years, RunKeeper was a fast-growing, profitable company and did not utilize the $1.5 million it raised in its Seed and Series A rounds. He tipped the scales in favor of promotion. The Tradeoff Between Starting Now or Later, “RunKeeper was an idea before the iPhone even existed – and long before the app store.”  Sometimes brilliant ideas just need the correct surrounding technology or environment before it can take off. “To be attractive to investors you need a working product. Jacobs is also enthusiastic about Apple's iPhone 5S … "Like a tasty Parisian bonbon, this book is filled with sweet surprises."—David Lebovitz, New York Times bestselling author of The Sweet Life in Paris "Amy Thomas seduces us in the same manner that Paris seduced her —one exquisite ... Join Facebook to connect with Jason Jacobs and others you may know. While the extra spending money was nice, my real motivation was much more the sport of it and the feeling of accomplishment when I experienced success. to track their outdoor fitness activities using GPS. Podcast host in-training at @mcjpod. Check back in a year or two and see how we’re doing! I recently spoke with Jason Jacobs, part of the team that created RunKeeper ($9.99, App store), an app designed to use the iPhone's built-in GPS to record the distance and speed of runs (or anything else for that matter - Jason added that 50% of RunKeeper's users are cyclists). Pinterest. We recently launched a new version of our app for the Watch, and we are already hard at work on the next version with even more improvements. Now, things are smoother but I have 40 plus employees relying on me and the expectations of investors!”, 4. “What you do not measure you do not improve.”  Of course, RunKeeper has competition; what sets it apart? This is the first serious biography of Forten, who stands beside Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, and Martin Luther King, Jr., in the pantheon of African Americans who fundamentally shaped American history. Sometimes a goldmine can be a byproduct of serving your customers faithfully. Jason Jacobs, RunKeeper's CEO, had been using Nike+'s shoe pedometer but wanted another way to keep track of his training for a Chicago marathon. Explore. But someone in the space is … His passion is authentic and infectious. Founder and CEO Jason Jacobs of FitnessKeeper, the little company that makes RunKeeper (pictured at right), acknowledges that Nike didn't screw this up for lack of trying. remove-circle Share or Embed This Item. People point to the $349 starting price tag, difficult-to-come-by sales numbers, or the lack of many iPhone luxuries we’re now accustomed to, like GPS. Even in the early days of the Apple Watch, it is already starting to have an impact on the low end of the fashion watch market. — Jason Jacobs, RunKeeper developer Blind by the age of 17, the 30-year-old from the UK undertook the challenge of learning to run outdoors alone after he … The characteristic that best describe Jason Jacobs is execution intelligence. New Top Discussion. Plus, people lie or don’ know what really motivates them,” explains Jason. A year out of college, I joined a software company that had around 100 employees. When I left two years later, they were more than 700 employees and publicly traded. Before that acquisition, CEO and Founder Jason Jacobs led Runkeeper through a major identity refresh. It might be hard for people to justify it as a companion device today, but it is only a matter of time before people won’t be able to imagine what life was like before they had it. My name is Jason Jacobs and welcome to My Climate Journey. From getting started running to training for a marathon, find out how you can take your run to the next level. I brought them as a non-techy.”  Especially in marketing and public relations Jason was  a powerhouse – or as he puts it more modestly, “We got a lot of attention early on because I needed something to do.”, “There will be a lot of consolidation in the near future. We’ve hired … From then on, I viewed all of my professional experience as ‘practice before the big game’. In 2016, Jason’s company Runkeeper, one of the largest fitness apps and communities, was acquired by ASICS. The Four Steps to the Epiphany launched the Lean Startup approach to new ventures. It was the first book to offer that startups are not smaller versions of large companies and that new ventures are different than existing ones. I had yet to come up with an idea for a business I was really passionate about, and I figured while I waited for the right idea to come along, I would continue to build up my skill set so I would be better equipped to bring the right idea to life when I found it. While seemingly every third person in the tech early adopter crowd is wearing an Apple Watch these days, there is still a lot of skepticism about whether it truly can be a mainstream device. “They dropped the ball and we benefitted.”, 3. He has built a quality team of people, has a clear … Today, that number is down to 26 percent. Runkeeper was launched in 2008 and acquired by ASICS in 2016. Boston-based FitnessKeeper, maker of the Runkeeper app, has announced an agreement to be acquired by Japanese apparel company ASICS for $85 million, MobiHealthNews has learned. For those first 18 months, I put everything I had into the company and didn’t draw a dollar in salary. “We know what motivates different types of users: guidance, encouragement, bragging rights, money or whatever. It took me several years to lock in on the ‘right idea’. Other than building technology companies, I didn’t know what I was passionate about at the time, which made for a grueling process. Three short stories from a brighter future tell how the leaders of today could use capitalism to help solve some of the world's toughest problems... and make a fortune in the process. Post-acquisition, I was really struggling w/ purpose. Jason Jacobs served as the co-founder & CEO of RunKeeper, a mobile fitness platform that incorporates a unique blend of tracking, sharing, analytics, and coaching to enable runners and other fitness enthusiasts to get motivated, stay motivated, and improve their results over time. RunKeeper works with the Pebble smart watch (pictured) as well as the Samsung Galaxy Gear. I was the little kid in my neighborhood growing up who rounded up the other kids after a snowstorm to go around shoveling people’s driveways and undercutting the price of the snow plows. Offers a systematic approach to product/market fit, discussing customer involvment, optimal time to obtain funding, and when to change the plan. Jason Jacobs is founder of fitness-tracking app maker Runkeeper. Outlines the managerial decisions and leadership goals that guide a startup business to success, and provides tips and advice from the founders of such companies as Spanx, Zipcar, Flickr, Honest Tea, and LinkedIn. RunKeeper ist seit den Anfängen der modernen Smartphone-Ära unterwegs. "Creating Climate Wealth is about how climate change, the biggest challenge of our time, can be turned into a $10 trillion dollar wealth-creating opportunity. ( Log Out /  I am proud and excited to announce that Runkeeper has entered into a definitive agreement to … 2 min read It’s been a busy 11 months since Runkeeper announced our intent to be acquired by ASICS. So much of what we sayor don’t say, and what we do or don’t do, isdictated by what others have told us, or whatpeople may think of us. This is not how weshould be living, by measuring ourselvesagainst the mundane. But starting slightly later permitted him more experience in working and especially in his specialty of evangelizing products. Our posts have you covered, whether you are new to running, looking to improve your speed endurance, or otherwise take your run to the next level. Free events like this one are hosted every month in dozens of cities. 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