So, apparently I suck with social media and blogging. I’d like to be able to tell you there is a great reason for being out of touch. That I was too swamped coding the app or chasing the people and funding we need for success to write blog posts or share memes via Twitter and Facebook. The reality is that I was embarrassed that we did not have any positive updates to share with you about our progress on the app, a weak excuse at best. Of course, I compounded my own problem by frequently talking about how close we were to getting it out in the past and not managing your (and my own) expectations correctly.
I am not used to having this many things not in our control and take pride in being a ‘man of my word’ and delivering anything I commit to. Even as a coach and manager, I always knew with the right motivation and support, the team could achieve whatever we set out to do. And then I transitioned to the world of tech, as did my co-founder Don. While we do have experience and education in this field, the challenge of producing our own first application has come with many unanticipated hurdles and disappointments (which I will now be happy to share in a future post). Who would have thought convincing people to work for you for free, coordinating teams of satellite developers or raising large sums of money on the strength of an idea and team would be so difficult? Especially since everyone we talked to (with the exception of a few investors who just did not know the industry) thought it was a great idea and that we were awesome enough people to do it (at least that’s what they told us and we like to believe).
The (painful) truth is that we were one feature away from releasing the app at the start of September, but would have had a hard time maintaining and building more on top of it with the team and technical framework we had then. So, like any good entrepreneurs, we pivoted and decided to rebuild the app ourselves. This meant learning new technical skills, languages and frameworks and getting much outside our comfort zones. In the long term, it will mean we have multiple applications that Don has built from scratch, much easier to maintain and build upon. In the short term, it has meant we are ‘swimming in a sea of unknowns’ in terms of deadlines and meeting expectations.
The irony is that I pride myself on my communication skills. For any of you who have emailed or talked on the phone with me, you’ll know how passionate I am about solving this problem and appreciative of anyone who can help along the way. I can admit that I am not great with or a big fan of social media, but something I am working on getting over. Recently, a fellow entrepreneur chided me for not sharing the craziness and stress we are dealing with behind the scenes with the public and particularly our users. It made me realize how wrong I have been to not be as open and honest as possible with our beta group, who have a vested interest in our success and want to be advocates for us. What better way then sharing the experience of learning how to go from trainer to tech entrepreneur.
Moving forward you can expect to hear more from us and what is going on while we work diligently on Trainer+. We are very close to having it ready to launch and are optimistic the beta will be ready this month. In the meantime, look for some more stories about what we have experienced over the last year and the information that drives us along this journey. As always, thanks for your patience and support.
About the Author: Nick Corneil is the founder of Trainer+, a company that builds software that makes it easy for fitness professionals to create, share, track and analyze fitness programs for their clients. For more information, sign up here or check out our homepage.
