In early 2012, Simon Berglund and Pontus Andersson were introduced to the app world by Anders Hassis. Simon has been the CTO for AppShack AB since late 2013 and Pontus has been its CEO. Anders is from Framert AB. These three guys spent the entire 2012 summer developing a game for kids together. “Since then we have learnt a lot” says Simon, “This summer, Anders contacted us with this idea which led to us developing it together.” Simon is talking about WODEdge, an app that lets you “follow CrossFit boxes and have access to their workouts directly on your phone”.
WODEdge lists thousands of daily updated WOD’s (Workout of the day). This data is collected from boxes in the US and Sweden, which is WODEdge’s current areas of focus. In Simon’s own words, “WODEdge enables you to gather inspiration from well-known boxes (crossfit gyms) and allows you to exercise as a professional, without necessarily being one.” In addition, crossfitters who want to do their WOD while travelling can quickly and painlessly find closest boxes and join them for a workout. In WODEdge you can save your favorite boxes and subscribe to all their WODs. This makes it easy to follow the schedule of a certain box, without being there physically.
The Journey
Pontus’s parents are “quite engaged in Crossfit”. His mother competes in the Senior European Championship, and his stepfather is a well-known crossfit personal trainer. “This idea was actually something that we at App Shack had considered in our early days.” recalls Simon. “We developed the backbone of the front-end before we decided to put the project on hold.” By then, Anders had developed a “full-feathered backend system” for the service and just wanted some help with the GUI. Simon, Pontus and Anders finally decided to do this together and thus, WODEdge came up.
Expansion plans and challenges
WODs are collected from the boxes in the US and Sweden. As of today, WODEdge covers almost the entire US west coast and Sweden. However, there are plans to expand further and cover most parts of the world. Improving the quality of the retrieved data has been an aim too. According to Simon, they haven’t faced any specific major challenges as of now, but efficient storing and caching of data is something that they are working on.
WODEdge’s target users are crossfitters, fitness-freaks and “anybody who wants to live healthier”. WODEdge hasn’t received external funding as of now. The founders have been funding the project themselves. However, they welcome suggestions on how they can expand further and monetize the project.
WODEdge is willing to hand out some redeem codes for StartupDope users.
Download the app here – http://www.wodedgeapp.com/