Concerns for a healthy lifestyle

With the spread of the corona virus, many of our daily activities have gone online and physical activities have decreased dramatically, while the concern of a healthy lifestyle and maintaining health is felt more than ever. appetite As a healthy lifestyle application, it had felt this concern years before the spread of Corona, and the Ebrahimnejad brothers, the founders of this startup, were trying to build this application. Shahriar Ebrahimnejad, the younger brother is a graduate of information technology, he is 28 years old and has been playing sports professionally since he was a teenager, basketball, it is obvious that sports have been an important part of his life, but after entering the job market and eight years Activities in the field of printing and advertising have always been concerned with sports, in 1996 he decided to implement the idea of ​​Appetite with his brother who lived in Germany…

In 1996, when we started our work with Appetite, my brother was living in Germany; At that time, both of us were concerned about a healthy lifestyle; Because most of the people are away from sports due to daily problems and have little physical activity. For these reasons, we implemented an idea to provide users with coaches and simple sports activities.

What problem is Appetite supposed to solve?

Work pressures, various concerns of people and lack of mental preparation to make changes have caused people to not have the opportunity to exercise and do healthy physical activity. Maybe we mistakenly call this process laziness nowadays, but it is not so, because there are important reasons behind this lack of movement and activity that must be found and solved.

By creating small activities, Appetite helps users to incorporate a healthy lifestyle into their lives despite having concerns; Appetite is for people who, while having a busy lifestyle, are concerned about living a healthy life, and since no service has centrally addressed this need, Appetite has started working in line with a healthy lifestyle.

Does Appetite serve only in the field of sports?

Aptit started his work in the field of sports in 1997 and after some time he came to the conclusion that to have a healthy life, only exercise is not enough and should cover other things such as nutrition, type of daily behavior, etc.; For this reason, in the second edition, we included lifestyle management, which includes mind management, daily plans, etc. After some time, we decided to go into more details, and for this reason, Appetite currently has two applications; An application in the field of sports called “Appetite Fit” and an application in the field of lifestyle called “Appetite Life”.

Did you get the idea from a foreign example or was this just your concern?

At first, we got ideas from foreign examples. Of course, we were also concerned about a healthy lifestyle, but we didn’t know exactly what path we should take. There was no internal software in this area at that time; On the other hand, my brother was also active in Kyokushin before immigrating to Germany, and because of his studies, he had moved away from this space and did not have access to any application suitable for his activity. Of course, there were many scattered services, each of which performed a part of Appetite’s programs; For example, there were many contents in the field of nutrition and in the field of sports and lifestyle separately, but none of them are concentrated to meet the needs of a person.

What are the specialties of Appetite’s initial team and what groups did Appetite get help from?

6 months had passed since our activity in August 1997 when we entered the accelerator Navin Tek and our activity started in a centralized way. Since “team building” is a category that every new startup is involved with, we were also involved in this issue when we arrived, and after a while, a friend named Mr. Mousavi Kia joined us as a professional trainer in the field of sports. and people were added to us in this direction and our initial team was formed in Navin Tek. Currently, our team includes 12 people in different departments of marketing, support, sports experts, sports style and nutrition and 6 sports coaches.

Apart from Novin Tech Accelerator, what groups did you get help from in the startup ecosystem?

Except Shatabdeh Novinktech, sometimes we got help from the experiences of the co-founders of several startups. In Novin Tech Accelerator, we got help from the mentors of the production department, ui/ux and marketing mentors. In the summer of last year, when the appetite for the initial product had reached, we decided to attract capital; At the beginning of Corona, we also participated in campaigns that attracted significant users. In order to attract capital, there were stonewallings to the point where we were disappointed because we got involved in bureaucracies in the process of attracting capital; Of course, at that time we were also at a stage where we were not very familiar with business issues and unfortunately the VCs did not consider these issues that our team has just left the accelerator and does not have much experience and the teams at this stage on the investor’s money, they also need experience; But finally with the collection Persia Fund We entered into negotiations, and fortunately, during their cooperation, they had an approach that we were always looking for; Of course, there were problems at the beginning, for example, in the first steps, the product did not seem to be prone to taking bigger steps, but Pershiafand Group trusted us and we have been working together for about 7 months now.

What startups or groups are Appetite’s competitors?

Although many businesses in the field of sports, lifestyle and health were formed online during the Corona era, I think that our biggest competitors are still traditional competitors such as clubs, nutrition consultants, clinics, etc.; But unfortunately, in Iran, the healthy lifestyle sector has a weak approach, for this reason, if we only rely on domestic competitors, we will not grow. Appetite’s approach is to compete with other foreign applications by looking at the right content production and service effectiveness. Today, foreign services are available to everyone, and users do not trust an application just because it is “Iranian”, that’s why everyone should go in the direction of competing with foreign examples, even though foreign applications are much more advanced than ours and They have more work experience.

Have you ever needed permission or help from a certain organization?

Not yet; Of course, we are in the process of obtaining basic licenses such as company registration license, receiving an electronic symbol, etc., but in the field of sports, we have not yet entered the stages where we need a license or help from institutions; All trainers who cooperate with Appetite have degrees from the Sports and Youth Federation and are certified trainers so that the content passes under the hands of experts; In the field of nutrition, senior nutrition consultants with university degrees and the medical system cooperate with Appetite, so Appetite does not need a special license yet.

Does Appetite have a special program for people with diseases such as diabetes and celiac disease?

Appetite has tried not to provide services for patients who are forbidden to exercise by the doctor; Because the service is online and it is not possible to provide the program with details and control to the user. During the application registration process, the user is asked whether he has insurance or not, and users who have a disease are advised not to receive the service.

At What challenges did you face on the path of entrepreneurship?

Creating new value and entrepreneurship in the world and especially in Iran is always accompanied by a challenging path; People who intend to enter this path should prepare themselves for everything and not be happy or disappointed with the momentary results. It is interesting to know that Aptit has presented 4 versions so far and the first version was not well received by the public, but fortunately we were not disappointed at that time and implemented the necessary changes, so I think it is very important to make quick decisions by getting feedback and Let’s move in time and not just insist on the correctness of our original point of view. There are many problems in the path of entrepreneurship, such as: production, sanctions, team building, etc., but the important thing is how to deal with these issues.