ActivePlace is well on its way to being the one-stop place for the health and fitness industry. It’s a place to go to be inspired to be more active, as well as discover experiences to support your active lifestyle. ActivePlace is a specialised platform exclusively for the active industry, delivering user trust, a like-minded community, and the one place people can discover a more active lifestyle.
CTO and founder Trent Allan says he noticed a huge gap in the market; that there was nowhere to go when it came to your “active life.”
That’s because he believes the market, worth $1.84 trillion annually, is severely fragmented.
“It’s fragmented with lots of little different players and no one person you know that you can really trust. What we also know that businesses in this industry struggle to find new customers partly given that the social platforms, such as Facebook and Instagram, are not specifically designed for them,” Trent says.
“We believe in world of healthier, more active people. We believe it’s where happiness comes from but we also know it’s a hurdle for a lot of people. Choosing to hit the gym vs staying home, deciding to eat the healthier food for lunch, committing to put away 20 minutes in your afternoon for a meditation versus grinding out more emails.”
ActivePlace has recently enjoyed some great wins; finalising their pre-seed round, raising just over their target of $1.3 million
“Another big achievement has been the rebuilding of our website and the launch of our apps. The builds took many months to complete, and required immense effort from everyone involved. Now we have a website we’re very proud of, and apps for Android and iOS that are improving sprint to sprint,” Trent says.
“Recently we were also accepted into the NewChip Startup Accelerator program, an incubator based in Austin, Texas. It’s not as well-known as Y-Combinator or 500 Startups, yet NewChip and their team appeared to us to be the perfect fit. Our intake starts officially on July 14th, and we’re looking extremely forward to the help and accountability we know they’ll provide.”
Moving forward, Trent says the business is hoping for continued and accelerated growth, with the US in its sights.
“Having officially launched in Australia we have our eyes set on the US and UK knowing they will likely be our largest target market. We also have some exciting new features and functionality for our website and apps in the pipeline that will start to appear in the next few months.”
“It’s been a slow transition to becoming full-time on ActivePlace. I’ve enjoyed the consulting world and helping my clients solve different problems, but as CTO & Co-founder of ActivePlace the demands are growing and I really want nothing more than to give this business my all and ensure it becomes one of the largest companies in the world.”
Trent says he’s loving being part of the Fishburners community.
“The biggest benefit is being surrounded by other founders and business owners. It’s only these people that truly understand what you’re going through. Being surrounded by them is a big relief, knowing you’re not the only one experiencing the struggle,” Trent says.
“Beyond just good people, the pitch nights, community events and free coffee (super important for building any company!) are the added perks that makes this the only place to be for anyone building a startup in Australia.”
Trent also has some great advice for other startups:
“The hard truth is that the large majority of startups don’t make it that far. They all begin with the best intentions, long hours and intense passion, but most of them still fail. Building a startup is one of the hardest things you’ll ever do and you need a strong reason to hang in there when the sky is falling and you find yourself gently pulling your hair out (both of these are guaranteed to happen, by the way).
“It comes down to your ‘why’ for building the business and your vision. If you’re super clear on them and are willing to go as far as dying in order to see them come to fruition, you now have a chance of making it succeed.
“A good business idea, a strong problem you’re trying to solve, a good founding team and hard work are all super important as well. But nothing is more important than your ‘why’ and vision, because this will help get you through the really tough times.”
Trent would like to encourage other Fishburners to become part of the ActivePlace community.
“It’s free to sign up, and with our apps now available for download there is no better time to get more active and make ActivePlace the one place for your active life.”
