COMPANY
Company name:
Herd

Company url, if any:
https://home.tryherd.com/

If you have a demo, what's the url? For non-software, demo can be a video.
(Please don't password protect it; just use an obscure url.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8Q45-rT018&feature=youtu.be

Describe your company in 50 characters or less.
Herd is your running companion.

What is your company going to make?
Herd came out of the realization after joining a running group. Running alone (especially when it's a challenging workout) is hard and can be boring and dull (for both beginner and athletes).
Our mission is to provide the tools for anyone to become a runner.

We are building an application and content for runners. Audio guided runs that take you through a workout.

Where do you live now, and where would the company be based after YC?
(List as City A, Country A / City B, Country B.)

New York (open to move)

CONTACT
Email address of the founder who is filling out this application:
[email protected]

Phone number(s):
3477463543

FOUNDERS
Founders
HACKER NEWS USERNAME	NAME	EMAIL	PROFILE UPDATED
elietoubi	Elie Toubiana	[email protected]	yes
[email protected]	no
Please enter the url of a 1 minute unlisted (not private) YouTube or Youku video introducing the founder(s). This video is an important part of the application. (Follow the Video Guidelines.)
https://youtu.be/a8Q45-rT018

Please tell us about an interesting project, preferably outside of class or work, that two or more of you created together. Include urls if possible.
We worked on getcoachai.com together (a training plan builder that we created for our team)

How long have the founders known one another and how did you meet? Have any of the founders not met in person?
We have known each other for more than 10 years

How many founders are on the team?
(Fill out this number of founder profiles)

2

CATEGORY
Which category best applies to your company?
Fitness / Wellness

PROGRESS
How far along are you?
We built an MVP and we are starting to build a network of coaches (mostly focused on running)

How long have each of you been working on this? How much of that has been full-time? Please explain.
Worked on it for around 2 months.

Are people using your product?
Yes

How many active users or customers do you have? If you have some particularly valuable customers, who are they? If you're building hardware, how many units have you shipped?
~100+
The product is in beta and we just talked about it with a couple of friends who shared it with their friends.
We don't think the app and content is quite ready for prime time.

Do you have revenue?
No

Anything else you would like us to know regarding your revenue or growth rate?
[BLANK]

If you've applied previously with the same idea, how much progress have you made since the last time you applied? Anything change?
[BLANK]

If you have already participated or committed to participate in an incubator, "accelerator" or "pre-accelerator" program, please tell us about it.
[BLANK]

IDEA
Why did you pick this idea to work on? Do you have domain expertise in this area? How do you know people need what you're making?
1) Why did you pick this idea to work on?
We kinda of built the product for us. We run with one the biggest running group in New York but we realized that we could not make it to most of the week workouts. So we got one of the coach recording his voice with the workout and created a playlist. and we LOVED it.
2) Do you have a domain of expertise
- We are not fitness experts BUT we are fitness enthusiast and we know that the current mold of the gym is not working for everyone
- We are ultra marathoners and many times marathoners.
- We happen to be connected with popular running coaches (Sold out classes at treadmill studio or celebrity coaches)
- We are technologist ready to build the best user experience.

How do you know people need what you're making?
We built a product that we are the first users off. We didn't mean to share it until one the coach talked about it with other people and we decided to create an app out of it.

What's new about what you're making? What substitutes do people resort to because it doesn't exist yet (or they don't know about it)?
What's new about what you're making?
1) There is no tracking app that also contains audio guided runs describing a workout. (Some companies have outdoor guided runs like Peloton and others tracking ability like Strava).
2) People use different strategy to solve the current problem
- They join a running group (no music but motivation with peers and coaches)
- They make their own playlist and try to make it match with the workout they want to do (This we tried and this is really hard. Especially when you altnernate between fast and slow pace many times)
- People listen to an audio guided run and use another app to track time and distance.

Who are your competitors, and who might become competitors? Who do you fear most?
- Peloton (most feared)
- Strava
- Aaptiv
- Running clubs

What do you understand about your business that other companies in it just don't get?
Peloton is a very interesting case as they are trying to expand into running. A few things that I think peloton is not quite getting.

1) Peloton doesn't provide an tailored experience for runners. Peloton started out with spinning. Spinning and running and very different in nature. Most casual spinner just do it because they want to get fit while runners are usually goal oriented, They want to run a 5K or a 10K, they want to beat their previous time. Only a platform focused on running can provide that.

2)

How do or will you make money? How much could you make?
(We realize you can't know precisely, but give your best estimate.)

We have 2 avenues that we are exploring, Either a subscription model or a pay per class.

Then the addressable market could be massive. In the US alone 60M are running jogging or power walking frequently, and this number is expected to reach 100M by 2025. (We are thinking of pricing the service at $14.99/month so an addressable yearly revenue of ~$1.5B in the US). Also we think that we can branch out to elliptical, stretches etc pretty naturally.
For reference only the revenue of gym membership in the US is over $50B/year.

How will you get users? If your idea is the type that faces a chicken-and-egg problem in the sense that it won't be attractive to users till it has a lot of users (e.g. a marketplace, a dating site, an ad network), how will you overcome that?
A few ideas that we are confident could yield to new customers.
1) Leveraging popular coaches. (Here our approach is different, we want to make coaches partners and get a commission on each workout that are being played. We would love to be the NETFLIX for fitness content). We already have contacts of coaches with 1M+ followers whow are looking for more ways to monetize their reach.

EQUITY
Have you incorporated, or formed any legal entity (like an LLC) yet?
No

If you have not formed the company yet, describe the planned equity ownership breakdown among the founders, employees and any other proposed stockholders. If there are multiple founders, be sure to give the proposed equity ownership of each founder.
(This question is as much for you as us.)

Elie 70
Jeremie 30

Please provide any other relevant information about the structure or formation of the company.
[BLANK]

LEGAL
Are any of the founders covered by noncompetes or intellectual property agreements that overlap with your project? If so, please explain.
No

Who writes code, or does other technical work on your product? Was any of it done by a non-founder? Please explain.
Elie (Some very basic design work like logo was done by contractors on fiverr)

Is there anything else we should know about your company?
(Pending lawsuits, cofounders who have left, etc.)

[BLANK]

OTHERS
If you had any other ideas you considered applying with, please list them. One may be something we've been waiting for. Often when we fund people it's to do something they list here and not in the main application.
[BLANK]

Please tell us something surprising or amusing that one of you has discovered.
(The answer need not be related to your project.)

Task usually take exactly the amount of time that you assigned to them. Therefore great execution is key but correct prioritization is paramount.

CURIOUS
What convinced you to apply to Y Combinator? Did someone encourage you to apply?
We talked to one incubator that ended up making us an offer (Antler) but after chatting with friends, they recommended to only go to an incubator if we are sure that they will add value. Y Combinator is the only incubator that we are considering at this point.

How did you hear about Y Combinator?
Startup School.