Today we’d like to introduce you to Scott Bowen.
Scott, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
Why did I create FitTogether? Well… I believe fitness changes lives. I believe it is easier to reach your fitness goals when you surround yourself with other people that have your best interest and YOUR goals in mind. I believe anyone on planet earth can have the fitness success they want if they have a community behind them to hold them accountable. I believe the fitness community desperately needed its social platform that allows our community to share and help each other grow positively. I started FitTogether back in late 2009 after I left a meeting with a large gym chain CIO that I supported for my job, I am a technology consultant by trade. I sat in a meeting with several of their IT execs that day and it occurred to me upon leaving that not only THIS chain but almost every gym chain out there needed a better way to interact with their members, run their group classes and manage their trainers. That’s when the idea for FitTogether was born. If I had to say it was similar to “something”, I would say it probably closest resembles a LInkedIN for the fitness community.
It has a huge component of social features that are geared towards our community but also has business tools for gym managers and trainers to help run and grow their business. It absolutely has not been an easy road, I have had more challenges in those years than I care to admit. I have had developers steal code from me, I have had friends take money from me and not do the work they promised to do and I have gone broke SEVERAL TIMES. In the end, I never gave up and we have just finished and released a new version of the app that I am very excited to give to the public. It is, without a doubt, the best I have felt about the actual product and the vision since I started this journey a bunch of years ago.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Starting a business is not for the faint of heart. As I mentioned in my previous section, I have had every challenge a person could experience. Lack of money, running out of money, having people(friends even) not complete the work that I gave them money to do. The hardest part, I think, is just finding out what YOUR customers really want and will use. It has taken me a long time to get to this point, but with this new release of FitTogether, I think we are firmly on our way. It has the right blend of social functions and features for our social users and a good bit of tools for gym managers and trainers to hopefully make their lives easier as well.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
I have been an IT sales executive/consultant since getting out of college in 1999. While I have had an outstanding sales career, going to Champions Club almost a dozen times, it was never really what I wanted to do, I always wanted to do something in fitness as it is my passion. Oddly enough, sitting in a conference room on a sales call with some management from a large gym chain was the impetus of FitTogether. I realized that they had an inherent problem on their hands of lacking a good platform for their users and trainers etc. to better communicate and connect. I solve problems for a living, this was pretty much a no brainer when I walked out the door. The only problem, I have no idea how to write code and build websites and apps! And THAT was the beginning of a long journey that is still yet to see it’s ending.
What were you like growing up?
Growing up I was ALWAYS outside playing soccer or as I got into high school at the gym. Most kids had books in their backpacks, I had a soccer ball. I would take it out at lunch and just go outside and juggle. My record is 3,528:) Not too shabby! Fitness was always in my blood in some capacity, I just love pushing myself. I was also on swim teams all through high school, too. The only thing that I liked as much as fitness, was music. I am a live music junky having traveled all over the world following my favorite band, Pearl Jam:) I even forced my wife to see them twice on our honeymoon in Italy.
Contact Info:
- Website: onelink.to/fittogether
- Phone: 8583440890
- Email: bowen@fittogether.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fittogether/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FitTogether/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/_FitTogether
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