New to the Luxembourg-City Incubator, Stronger is not only trying to democratise access to fitness competitions but also developing a corporate wellness programme. Silicon Luxembourg got the details from co-founder and CEO John Olivier.
What if everyone could compete in fitness competitions and cash in on their physical strength? That’s the idea that popped into Stronger CEO John Olivier’s head during the pandemic when he and his friends filmed themselves doing exercises and bet beers on who could do the most repetitions. Soon beers turned into money and the idea for Stronger had planted itself in John’s head.
Two years later, in September 2022, John founded Stronger a “fitness software company”, which allows strangers to compete in online fitness challenges and win cash prizes for their performances.
“People struggle to get into fitness competitions because they are often only for people with a really high level of fitness or those who can spend a lot of money on entrance fees, coaches and preparations,” said John Olivier, co-founder and CEO at Stronger, adding:
“Our vision was really to democratise this system and make it available online so that people could engage in competitions, faster, cheaper and more often.”
John Olivier, co-founder and CEO at Stronger
A seasoned entrepreneur in the hospitality sector, John Olivier first pivoted to tech during the pandemic when he took a four-month bootcamp course. While he initially started Stronger by himself, he has since been joined by co-founders and brothers Heldi and Stivi Caku.
The Stronger competitions, which are still only available to beta testers, currently only involve two players at a time. Players can choose between three pre-set challenges/competitions: push-ups, burpees or squat jumps. After picking a challenge and a player they feel comfortable competing against they can see the player’s achievement stats and, after agreeing on a cash prize, the players both film themselves doing the exercise.
“After one or two minutes [depending on the exercise], the video stops automatically and is downloaded to our database. Our job is to review the videos, count the repetitions and ensure that the technique is right,” says John. “After six, or seven minutes you have the results and are able to watch your competitor’s video and get your money if you are the winner.”
There is no lower or upper limit for the cash prize, both players just have to agree upon it. Once they have, they agree to an additional transaction fee of 10% which will go to Stronger.
While this may sound like it could quickly veer into the territory of gambling, John has already been in touch with the ministry of justice who ensured him that since “it has nothing to do with chance and everyone is betting on their own physical performance” it is not considered as gambling.
Currently, competitions are limited to 1v1 and three challenges, however, Stronger plans on allowing bigger pools of competitors soon and on adding another 20-30 body-weight challenges in the near future. The app will first be available in Luxembourg but since Stronger aims to get 20-30k within the first year, it seems likely that they will expand if the demand is there.
Stronger will be officially launching within the next two weeks, after which Oliver and his team will continue working on their corporate wellness programme, which they hope to release soon. This will be a subscription-based programme which connects employees to local coaches in Luxembourg who give livestream classes and includes mindfulness exercises to increase the well-being of employees.
