These friends built a Tinder for fitness to get you off your butt

Photo credit: Zack Middleton

The turtle may be slow, but it wins the race with its persistence. Young Bangalore-based entrepreneurs Saket Agarwal and Ashish Agarwal think that is a story waiting to inspire millions of unfit people in India, where lifestyle diseases are spreading rapidly.

Saket was just in his first year of college when he launched a successful merchandising company. Ashish helped him (the two Agarwals are unrelated and, in case you are wondering, they met at a coaching institute). They ran that company for two years before moving on to a sports website that helps people locate sports activities near them.

Somewhere along the way, the two realized they hardly paid any attention to their own fitness. Some research showed that seemed to be a fundamental problem in India. Around 25 percent of Indians are at risk of dying of lifestyle diseases like diabetes and cardio-vascular illnesses before they touch 70.

But what if fitness could be put on the radar – that is, built into the lifestyle? That is what Saket and Ashish have set out to achieve with FiTurtle, a location-based fitness app.

FiTurtle founders Saket Agarwal and Ashish Agarwal

“We may be slow and relaxed like the turtle, but if we try hard enough and be persistent about staying fit, we will be fit,” says Saket explaining the name FiTurtle.

The free app has been live in Bangalore since January 25 and is steadily picking up customers.

The Tinder of fitness

I was hooked by their line: 90 seconds to flatter abs. Wow, is that possible?

FiTurtle promises you can get washboard abs with just 90 seconds of work, three to six times a week. They haven’t found anyone who has tried it yet. But to make it, you have to stay motivated. The app works on the premise that you can be motivated by people around you.

A bit like dating app Tinder, FiTurtle helps find a perfect match, only for fitness instead of hookups. “Users can connect with trainers and people having similar fitness profiles around them on the go,” says Saket, who is an engineer like Ashish.

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