Our Mission Is To Help 10M People Get Fitter In The Next 5 Years: Sahil Bansal, Co-Founder & CEO, Fitelo
What led you to launch Fitelo?
Fitelo started in 2019 when childhood friends Mehakdeep and Sahil met at an event after 14 years.
Sahil is an MBA grad and later turned to an Entrepreneur.
Sahil has over 10 years of corporate experience and worked at companies including Infosys, HCL, and Genpact. Psychology and habit building has been at the core of his work.
In his fat to fit journey, Sahil learned that Fitness is about habit-building and lifestyle.
Mehak (Dietitian Mac) has been fat since childhood. After trying every weight loss solution he decided to unlock the mystery himself. He quit his corporate job, took up MSc in nutrition.
He worked with Manipal Hospital and many health centres before venturing out on his own in 2016.
In 2019, they set out to build a platform to help other people.
As of today, we have over 370,000+ Facebook followers, 67,000 Instagram followers, and 50,000 app downloads.
We are handling 3000+ monthly clients.
What are the USPs of Fitelo?
We are the easiest way to get fit. We work on modifying the lifestyle of an individual step by step. We work on creating healthy habits. So, they get fit and are able to stay fit in the easiest possible way. Our methodology is completely natural.
Our program doesn't require any gym, any fitness equipment, there are no fad diets and we don't recommend or use any supplements/medicines.
We help our clients gain a better understanding of their behavioral habits and improve their nutrition and lifestyles.
Fitness is about habit-building. Habit building happens when you take small steps repeatedly over a period of time. Every weight loss product/service people try promises to give instant results. People lose weight only to regain it after a few months. We work on building these healthy habits. It is the only sustainable and long-lasting way to lose weight, stay fit and avoid diseases.
What is the vision and mission of the company?
Vision – To make health and wellness a part of everybody’s day to day routine.
Mission – Our mission is to help 10 million people get fitter in the next 5 years.
What is the expected revenue of the financial year 21-22?
Since its inception, Fitelo has served 15,000+ clients. From a team of 2 people in 2019, the Fitelo family is 85 people strong today.
Through its social media channels, Fitelo aims to spread awareness about fitness and health throughout the world. It also shares what is wrong with the fitness industry today, debunks myths around nutrition & so called health products, practical tips to stay fit from home and easy to cook healthy recipes.
With close to 4 lakh followers on Facebook and 70 thousand followers on Instagram, Fitelo’s content reaches 50 Lakh people on a monthly basis.
The Fitelo app has been downloaded over 50,000 times.
Today, Fitelo is not just helping clients to lose weight, but to also to manage and reverse disease such as PCOD, Diabetes, Hypertension and Thyroid.
How is Fitelo disrupting the gap in the healthcare industry?
Sustainable fitness is about building healthy habits. Through our natural and easy to follow wellness plans we have helped over 15,000 clients in the last 2 years to create healthy habits. Powered by our platform, we are giving our clients personalised experiences. Our clients are loving the approach. We have over 1800 reviews on Google with a 4.9 rating.
Our founders have been through their fitness journeys. Together, they have experience working with corporates and startups, they understand psychology and habit building, they understand technology and they are both passionate about fitness. With more than 10 years of industry experience each, they have built a high performance team that understands health, psychology and customer service.
Our aim is to be the number 1 app in India when it comes to weight loss. We want it to be in the easiest possible way. We want it to be sustainable and completely natural.
Take us through your journey, An Engineer Turned MBA Grad And Later Turned To An Entrepreneur, how has been it for you? What led you to be an entrepreneur?
I was always obese. Till about 10th class, I was not aware enough about it. There were body shaming and bullying incidents but these things were not considered important enough to be raised at that time. It was 2002.
By the time, college came, I had become more conscious. Gym was the obvious solution back then. I enrolled with two of my friends Kamal and Mac.
Being from a business family, I was always interested in entrepreneurship. Along with Kamal and Mac, I started selling fitness supplements at the age of 15. Having limited experience and knowledge, the venture failed in less than 6 months.
For the next 4 years, we spent a lot of time together trying to get rid of our obesity. We also shared a common passion to do something of our own.
In 2008, Kamal moved to Australia, I moved to Pune to join Infosys and Mac stayed back to pursue his MBA. Over time our paths drifted away. Our individual fitness struggles continued.
Over the next 11 years, I pursued a MBA and developed a keen interest in psychology. I worked at companies including Infosys, Reuters, HCL, and Genpact. I also attempted to build another startup in the edtech space. Most of my work involved creating habit formation models using technology. I got a chance to speak and write about it at international conferences.
In the process, I realized fitness is also about habit building. After trying every weight loss solution in the last 10 years, I started working on building healthy habits. I was able to lose 30 Kgs and sustain. I had found a permanent solution finally.
In 2019, Mac and I met at a networking event.
After completing his MBA in 2011, Mac had joined an auto company. In 2014 he met with an accident which left him bedridden for months. He regained a lot of weight.
He was frustrated. He quit his job and took up MSc in fitness and nutrition. He lost 60 Kgs when he realized the power of natural foods. He seemed to have a found a solution as well.
When we met in 2019, I told him about my struggles. We resonated that long term fitness can be achieved only by habit building and lifestyle modification. He had a lot of knowledge and experience in the domain. I had experience of working with tech giants. We both knew the role tech would play.
We decided to take this concept to the masses. Fitelo as a brand was born, a platform to help other people in losing weight and have an overall healthier lifestyle.
What services do you provide and how do they work?
Services we provide - We provide customized 'Weight Loss’, ‘Disease Management' and ‘Lifestyle Management’ wellness plans that are very easy to follow. With our Fitelo app, we work on building long term habits and help our clients get into a healthy lifestyle step by step.
How does it work - We have a Subscription-Based Model. As soon as a customer purchases a plan, a persona health coach is aligned with them. The entire client journey is managed by our AI-enabled platform. It enables a high level of customization and personal experience. The Fitelo app helps our clients in creating healthy habits.
How does Fitelo disrupting the gap in the industry? What is the current market size and opportunities ahead?
Obesity rates in India are increasing faster than the world average. Junk food, alcohol and sedentary lifestyle have caused 20% of the country to be obese. In fact, we are the third most obese country in the world.
The majority of the world's population lives in countries where more people die of conditions related to being overweight rather than being underweight. India, notorious for malnutrition, is now a land of obesity
A study in the Indian Journal of Endocrinology and Metabolism says the percentage of rural Indians who were overweight grew from 2% in 1989 to 17.1% in 2012. The Indian Healthtech market hit $144 billion. It is expected to grow at a CAGR of 27% for the next 5 years.
Obesity has led to a host of other health woes growing at an alarming rate in India, including hypertension and diabetes.
India is on track to own the unenviable title of diabetic capital of the world as soon as 2025 with more than 65 million Indians already suffering from the disease.
Over the last few years, we have seen a massive increase in cognisance and consumption of preventive healthcare across all age groups and income levels. A great reflection of this is the 20 million unique monthly searches taking place on Google linked to ‘fitness near me’.
According to industry studies of the Indian retail fitness services market, in 2019, there were six million active users in India who spent on an average $350 to $400 annually towards fitness services, amounting to $2.6 billion market size. The market size is estimated to hit a whopping $6 billion by 2023.
Tell us about your expansion plans?
In the next 5 years, Fitelo will be a single-stop shop when it comes to sustainable and natural fitness. The Fitelo platform will be one place where an unhealthy or unfit person can come when they are looking for awareness, consultation, a product, or a service that can help them to achieve sustainable fitness.
