­ƒôà  FitX Programming Updates

Q&A with CrossFit CEO & Michigan Alum, Eric Roza on March 29th!

We’re excited to announce FitX’s last official event of the year! We’re going out with a bang with a fireside chat and Q&A with new CrossFit CEO, Eric Roza! Hear about Eric’s journey in turning his dream into a reality, taking over the global fitness community amidst controversy and the global pandemic, and how CrossFit is working to continue to innovate and (re)build the brand. 

Sign-up now on CampusGroups! 

FitXpo Day 2 Recap

Thank you all for attending our first-ever two-day FitXpo! Did you miss some of the sessions? You can read a recap of day 2 below as our FitX feature for this issue or catch the videos here! Only umich.edu emails can access the folder. 

FemTech Summit

To celebrate FemTech Focus’s 100th podcast episode, they will be hosting their first ever FemTech Summit taking place March 21st-March22nd. With different events featuring a handful of powerhouse FemTech founders/VCs and a keynote speech by Jesse Draper from Halogen Ventures, this is an event you will not want to miss!

Our very own Mia Farnham (featured in this FitX newsletter) will be moderating the investor panel on the topic, “Why invest in FemTech”. Additionally, FemTech focus is offering a 10% discount to FitXers with the code GOBLUE. Register for the event here.
 

­ƒºæ‍­ƒñØ‍­ƒºæ Welcome to the new FitX Board!

We’ve confirmed our 2021-2022 board and could not be more excited for them to lead the future of FitX!

• Mari Mankey: President 

• Patrice Drummond: Member Engagement and Belonging

• John Lee: Education and Industry Expertise

• Gena Inbusch / Andy Gifford: Action Based Learning

• Mary Lindsay Ryan: Marketing and Branding

• Julia Harmison / Kyle Brunsman: Corporate and Alumni Engagement

• Paige Mintz: VC and Startup Events

­ƒæÅ FitX Feature - Recapping Day 2 of FitXpo

Thank you to everyone who participated in day two of FitXpo. We had over 150 participants across our four sessions. We’ll recap of a few of the main takeaways from each session.

Social Wellness in Action with Fabriq Co-founder, Amy Baglan 

Amy walked us through her entrepreneurial journey and love of creating ideas and products from nothing, which is exactly how Fabriq was founded! Prior to founding Fabriq, Amy built MeetMindful which was focused on people strengthening their connections and relationships which then evolved into how they could expand beyond dating into other types of relationships to serve their true mission. Enter Fabriq - the tracking app your real social life needs. Key takeaways:

• Social wellness is a giant blue ocean opportunity - no one was talking about it in the way Amy and Fabriq were thinking about it and thus created a fitness tracker for your relationships, but in the future it will set the standard for what it means to work on our social wellness just like other areas of our lives

• Participants had the opportunity to reflect on their own social wellness and social support via break-out sessions! COVID has helped people realized just how important their relationships are, especially when you’re challenged to keep them strong

• Fabriq seeks to fill a middle grown untapped space between social media vs. a phone call and how we can ritualize how people can have more authentic connections

Inve$ting in the Future of Well-being

Venture capitalists from KB Partners, Bridge Builders Collaborative, Rock Health, and Will Ventures joined us for a discussion on investing in the wellness space and shared their own investment hypotheses. Themes across our panelists included:

• Groupthink is always a risk when differentiating between a fad and a sustainable trend, but being research-driven and scientifically-based will help differentiate between the two. 

• Healthcare has moved beyond the four walls outside the hospital. Having innovators outside of hospitals focused on health, wellness, and fitness will help to accelerate improvements. We’re in the early days of thinking about healthcare holistically, but COVID has accelerated this need. 

• Flexibility, grit, curiosity, integrity, and compassion are essential to venture capitalists in this space

Improving Interactions in a Virtual World - A Q&A with Exer AI 

The Co-Founder & CEO, VP of Growth, and Co-Founder & Head Coach of Exer joined us for an interactive Q&A session and of course a live work-out and product Demo! Exer uses the AI capability of a smartphone to give real-time feedback on form during work-outs from thousands of coaches. Session participants had the opportunity to do a work-out live with Exer and experience the product features first-hand!

• Exer AI offers a solution for athletes, coaches, and studios to augment their virtual interactions & is working on solutions to increase accessibility wellness beyond fitness e.g., Physical Therapy

• Virtual fitness & wellness offerings are pandemic-proof. The rise of Peloton proves that people are looking for options & communities that meet them where they are

• Companies need omni channel offerings to meet people’s increased demand for variety (not just in gym or at-home)

Learn more about Exer’s offerings including Studio, Plank, and Physical Therapy HERE and download on your phone’s app store!

The Smartest Smart Ring - A Q&A with Oura CEO, Harpreet Singh Rai 

We finished FitXpo on a high with an awesome (extended because Harpreet was having so much fun) Q&A with Oura CEO and Michigan Alum, Harpreet Singh Rai! We heard about Harpreet’s journey from investment banking, to a hedge fund, and then to health & wellness after a chance meeting with the Oura Founder. Harpreet became an early investor in Oura, then joined its board, before eventually being appointed as Oura’s CEO. Harpreet’s passion for health & wellness, personal experiences with his own health, belief in Oura’s product, humility, and pride in being a Michigan alum made for an extremely engaging conversation! Harpreet shared how Oura has differentiated itself, its efforts and growth around COVID detection during the pandemic, how Oura built their notable partnerships, future growth plans and product features, and much more! 

• Accuracy and convenience are driving forces. The signal detection in the finger is much faster than that for wearables on the wrist. Because the pulse signal is long, we use a lot less battery. The ring also blends in and users forget that it’s there.

• Oura’s focus is more on sleep metrics than activity and recovery. Everyone sleeps, but not everyone works out. So, data can be more readily used by more consumers.

• Doctors today are not trained to look at your sleep or HR variability data. It’ll take time, but most people are now beginning to look at how these metrics correlate with health conditions and how subtle changes can lead to diagnoses before more obvious physical manifestations.
   

ÔÅ® Industry Highlights

Well + Good Change Makers:

Well + Good, a popular news site that promotes all aspects of healthy living, recently announced their ‘change makers’ - people who innovate new ways for us to live healthier lifestyles. Highlights from the article include Naj Austin founder of Ethel’s Club, a physical place where people of color connect. A.G. Breitenstein, founder of Folx Health, the first healthcare startup to specifically serve the LGBTQ+ community. Ben McKean, founder of Hungryroot, an online grocery service that delivers modern, healthy food. Aneela Idnani founded HabitAware, a wearable company that produces a tech-enabled bracelet that vibrates when the wearer is engaging in a bad habit such as biting their nails.

What does employee wellness look like in a work from home world:

Today, many companies boast work-life balance perks to keep employees engaged and productive. However, if you take a step back, it’s easy to see how work place wellness is a contradiction, since many companies use various wellness perks to further optimize employee performance. In 2019 88% of US employers (with more than 200 workers) provided a workplace wellness program, and looking ahead to 2021, 40% of these companies are increasing their wellness budget. Several fitness companies are playing into the trend with gympass, classpass, and peerfit all offering employee-sponsored models. Additionally, rumor on the street is Peloton is looking to add a corporate wellness program

Gatorade is launching its first wearable:

The Gx Sweat Patch will be a single-use patch that captures small amounts of sweat, and then analyzes it to measure sweat rate, sweat loss, and sodium levels. Users can then scan their sweat patches with an accompanying Gatorade app to receive personalized hydration recommendations. This marks the first time that the Gatorade brand offers their consumers knowledge, rather than just products, with insights from the Gatorade Sports Science Institute. Recovery, hydration, and personalization are huge trends in the fitness industry right now, with several Gatorade competitors (ie. Hydrant, Cure Hydration) receiving millions in funding in the past year alone.

Whoop partners with the US Army to study stress:

Whoop, a popular wearable that measures heart rate to help users determine necessary recovery time, has partnered with the US Army to study the resiliency of soldiers working in an Arctic environment. Currently, 1,000 Spartan Brigade paratroopers stationed in Alaska are wearing a Whoop strap to measure recovery rates and sleep quality. This study is the first of its kind and demonstrates how wearable technology can go beyond everyday fitness and wellness, and have even greater real-world implications than originally realized.

­ƒÄÖ Listen In: New Podcasts To Check Out (on your Winter Walks?)

How to Build a Health Tech Company:

Owen Willis, leader of the On Deck Health Tech Fellowship, and Nikhil Krishnan, from Out-of-Pocket, join host Eric to discuss how health has evolved and how the environment has changed for companies in the health tech space has changed in the past decade.

How Aiming For Failure Can Help You Reach Your Goals:

Geir Sand Nilsen from Differ, a startup that gives students a safe place to ask stupid questions, discusses how to setup a good work structure and routine for entrepreneus to protect their mental health.

­ƒôê Financial Highlights 

• Therabody, a leader in recovery technology, has raised equity from more than 100+ athletes and celebrities including Aaron Rodgers, Kevin Hart, Karlie Kloss, and Jay-Z

• MindMed, a leading psychedelic medicine biotech company, acquired HealthMode for $32M, to increase precision and speed of patient monitoring and clinical research

• Slate Milk, makers of better-for-you chocolate milk that contain electrolytes, proteins, and limited sugar, raised $1.7M in funding 

• Cipher Skin, makers of clothing embedded motion-tracking sensors raised $5M in Series A funding; the goal is to better enable physical therapists and trainers to build both rehab programs and workouts

• Outcast Foods, which turns discarded fruit/vegetables into nutritious food products, raised $7.9M for its food waste solution
   

­ƒÆ╗  Job Postings 

Full-Time

Product Manager @ Whoop

Strategic Partner Manager, FitBit

Intern

MBA Intern @ Oxeon Venture Studio

MBA Intern @ Peloton

­ƒÿ£ FitX Fun Facts

Peloton just posted its first-ever billion dollar quarter. So what’s next for FitX’s favorite brand? A lot, according to CEO John Foley. During a recent interview, Foley stated that Peloton has ‘crazy stuff in (their) R&D lab’ and hinted that these recent innovations will focus on both the strength and apparel business. Foley later stated that the fitness giant will make several bets in the strength category and then see which ones members prefer. As Peloton becomes more and more of a lifestyle brand, rather than just an exercise brand, apparel represents a huge opportunity for Peloton to continue to expand. Here at FitX we are eagerly awaiting to see the ‘crazy stuff’ Peloton will come out with next…
 

Feedback, thoughts, or partnership ideas for us? Send a note to Sonja.