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Venture Investor Sarah Kunst Takes On Fitness Sector With Launch Of Dodgers-Backed App Proday

This article is more than 7 years old.

For entrepreneur Sarah Kunst, the impetus to launch her new business was close to home -- or, at least, close to the hotel rooms she's called home intermittently over the last few years. Frequent travel and unpredictable work hours had wreaked havoc on her gym schedule. She was seeking a way to get fit on her own time and own terms.

"I was doing VC investing, living bi-coastally, and realized I was getting out of shape and didn’t have time to work out," she said.

It was a trip to her small Michigan hometown that proved the final straw. Kunst found herself accompanying her mother to the local Curves weight loss center, for lack of an alternative.

"I realized most people in America don’t have the fancy gym options you take for granted in cities with ClassPass," she said.

The former Forbes Under 3o list member got to work researching the $22 billion fitness industry. She was surprised by what she saw as a relative lack of investment in technology, particularly given that modern gym-goers are never far from their smartphones.

"I’m a child of the internet," she said. "I started looking for a great fitness app, but realized the ones available sucked. We’ve been getting the equivalent of a VHS tape for years, or a checklist."

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Now, backed by the Los Angeles Dodgers' accelerator program as well as funding from well-known angel investors Arielle Zuckerberg and Sara Haider, Kunst has launched Proday, a subscription workout app that allows users to exercise alongside professional athletes and fitness celebrities. She’s raising a $500,000 seed round, with the majority of that capital already committed.

Proday's marquee athlete for its launch is NFL tight end Delanie Walker, formerly of the San Francisco 49ers and now the Tennessee Titans. Kunst says her pipeline includes Olympic medalists as well as professional dancers. The aim is to give users a range of workout options, from cardio-focused sessions to barre-inspired moves.

For $60 a year (or $150 for a lifetime founding subscription), Proday members can watch videos or even follow along with GIFs on their iPhones, exercising alongside professionals.

 

Kunst says the appeal of drafting big-name athletes for the app was twofold. She'd been thinking about the business of sports -- and the short shelf life for many athletes once they're finished in the big leagues. A gymnast, for instance, can be out of action as soon as his or her early twenties. Kunst sees Proday as the ideal side hustle for those looking for alternative revenue streams.

"For professional athletes, working out is almost a full-time job," she said. "Why don’t you monetize something you’re already doing, and connect with your fans in a deeper way?"

She also knew slick design alone wouldn't get users excited about the product. "I could make the UX or the UI better," Kunst said. "But could I make people care?"

Sara Haider, one of her seed investors and a longtime software engineer, concurs. "She's taking an interesting approach to motivation," she said. "You're getting star treatment from awesome athletes."

In February, Haider made a public commitment to invest in nine consecutive women-led companies. She'd looked at her own track record as an angel and was disappointed to see that only 33% of her investments were in startups with women CEOs.

"You can’t be what you can’t see, and I see a lack of women leaders in my industry," she wrote in a Medium post on her initiative. "Despite good intentions from most people, unconscious bias and structural inequality still leads us to a world where women and minorities are extremely underrepresented in Silicon Valley. We can do better."

Proday marks the first of Haider's nine investments since committing to a more diverse portfolio.

"For me, Sarah's trying to tackle fitness in a way that makes sense for regular, busy people," Haider said. "That works for me as I don't like to go to gyms and I have a very busy schedule."

She added that, as an early-stage investor, she's backing the founder as much as the business itself.

"Sarah is such a hustler," said Haider. "I think I would be excited about anything she's working on."

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