Founder of MyZone - Dave Wright

Before starting MyZone, you were a gym operator.

Yes, I own gyms and a marketing company that promotes gyms, involved in the health and fitness industry since 1990. The focus was on attracting members to gyms and keeping them engaged. MyZone emerged as a solution to the industry's challenge of engaging the 80% who are less active. We focused on rewarding effort over fitness, aiming to improve exercise adherence and solve the misconception that one needs to be fit to start at a gym. We aimed to make every activity count, tracking the constant in all exercise - the heart's beat, moving from making movement measurable to effort rewarded.

What was the first product, and how did you decide on launching it?

Initially, I planned to call it mega training, focusing on metabolic enhancing group activity around zone training. After traveling and consulting with clients worldwide, MyZone was developed as a frictionless platform to accommodate various activities. We patented the wireless upload of stored data, making us the first to enable direct data integration from the device to a screen. Initially, MyZone launched as software for gyms to display effort during classes.

With the advent of Bluetooth 4.3, we enabled direct uploads to smartphones, gaining significant traction. In 2021, we introduced the MZ-Switch, the world's first interchangeable heart rate monitor, ensuring accuracy across different exercises by allowing wear on the wrist or chest, depending on the activity.

Developing the Initial MyZone Product– Moving from software, MyZone decided to create the hardware for Myzone

You initially focused on software, then moved to hardware, which many entrepreneurs avoid due to its complexity. What motivated you to increasingly integrate hardware solutions?

Indeed, focusing solely on software, especially with today's cloud technologies, seems simpler. However, in 2011, explaining cloud computing was like discussing magic due to its novelty. At that time, nobody offered what we envisioned for MyZone. Although companies like Polar, Suunto, and Garmin had long been in the heart rate monitor business, our ambition was to innovate beyond existing products.

Thus, we decided to develop our hardware to complement our software, creating a cohesive system. This combination of hardware with software presents a more compelling product offering, making the business proposition stickier. For instance, Peloton combines hardware with its software, enhancing the overall value proposition. This strategy made our offering significantly more impactful.

Can you give us some insights about manufacturing? Like how do you manufacture at the beginning? What were the learnings? How do you manufacture?

Yeah, of course. I mean, first and foremost, we there's a couple of things with my zone. We, you know, rather than sort of like, I went there with a problem to say, this is what I want it to do. It needs to do this. It needs to be frictionless. We need to make it. And it was, it has never been done before. And so I sort of like didn't take that as an answer, just, just because it hadn't been done before.

I'm not going to sort of like accept that as a solution. So, you know, so we've got a really good partner in China. So we do all the internal in-house. So we do all the development in-house, the manufacturing, because of all the bomb lists, all the semiconductor parts from, are literally based out of China, it makes sense for it to be manufactured out of China. But we control everything about Myzone and how it's manufactured and it's our firmware that is flashed onto the device to make it special so to speak week.

Cause you've, those that don't understand, you've got three aspects of technical applications. You've got the software, hardware and firmware. You know, the software is obviously, you know, the apps that we see, hardware is the actual physical devices, but the firmware is the software on the hardware. So the hardware is redundant.

Without the firmware on it to bring it alive. And that's why it makes it a little bit hard, you know, to actually, it's not something like, you know, if I wanna manufacture a chair, anyone can pick up that chair and, you know, and repurpose it or a piece of gym equipment or with Myzone that combines software, hardware and firmware, you can't do that without that super source. And the one thing that we did do, which was a little bit different,

Is when I went out and I said, well, we're gonna be starting off with the heart rate monitors, that's what we wanna do. And I said, right, okay, and the my zone, you'll see it's red, obviously, and the likes. And I went to the factory, I said, oh, look, I wanna make sure it's a red chest strap. And they're like, yeah, but it's under the shirt. No one sees it, no one does it red. They only ever do it black.

And I said, that's exactly why I wanted to do it red. In the same way, and again, not my, where I got the inspiration from, if people remember back up until about 2010, or if not before that, you know, late, you know, early 2000s, when the iPod came out, the one thing that determined whether someone's got an iPod or an iPhone is not the actual phone, it's usually in a pocket.

It's the white headphones that goes to the ears. And so I was like, look, up until that point, when you, you know, whenever any someone listened to a, you know, a MP3 player, it was always with black headphones. And then Apple said, right, we want white. Now you can't patent white, but when you see someone with white headphones, you basically go, hey, that's an Apple device. When you see someone, an elite athlete or anything like that with a red chest strap, it's a Myzone device.

If you see someone with, and off the back end of that from a marketing perspective, you know, what we've found is a lot of people say, ah, I saw KSI in getting in shape for his fight against Logan Paul, he lift his shirt up. He's got a Myzone red strap on, you know, and so from the manufacturing, and again, we can't patent the colour.

Being the first there from a manufacturing perspective, we were able to do it that. But, you know, Kyrakos, the one thing I'll say for certain, we went through an absolute cluster of fuck ups the whole time. I mean, multiple times, the first three to four years, it was trying to do something that had not been done before. We had recalls, we had multiple recalls to get it right. And then we finally got away because it was not all, you know, you know, you had sweat ingress, you had water ingress, you had the battery, then we moved to what was an MZ3, which was one of the world's first rechargeable heart rate monitors.

So up until that, you would have a coin C2032 battery. Now the drawback with that is that you had to really make sure that the O-ring was sealed if someone was sweating or if they went into the pool or anything like that. So we came up with a rechargeable, fully sealed rechargeable heart rate monitor, which we get the best part of about seven or eight months on a single charge, and which is quite rare.

Now that we've got both the PPG as well as EKG, it works out anywhere between three and six months on a single charge depending on how it's used. So these are all the different manufacturing iterations that we have been focusing on. And what we decided to your question before about not doing just software, but just doing hardware as well. The reason being is that if we control the hardware, we can control the story for the customers.

Because if someone just grabs a cheap heart rate monitor off a shelf and they work with the system and then it doesn't show accurate on the system, on the telemetry display, then it undermines the whole integrity of Myzone. And so that's why we said, okay, if we can control it, make sure we get to device, then that way, you know, for customers, it's like one throat to choke. We can control and make sure that the user experience is the best part.

It seems you've developed unique technology, not seen in systems like Ant Plus.

When we launched MyZone, it was unique for incorporating all communication protocols. It supported analog at 5.3 kilohertz and ANT+ for compatibility with brands like Garmin. It also featured memory for data storage and introduced the MyZone protocol for our proprietary system. Upon the release of Bluetooth 4.3, we integrated Bluetooth as well. This made MyZone versatile, allowing users to connect with Strava directly, use their Garmin simultaneously, and even see their MyZone stats on gym screens via our proprietary protocol.

Our aim was to be universally compatible, ensuring MyZone worked with any preferred platform, including Apple and Android devices, as well as gym treadmills.

How many users can it support concurrently?

We've supported up to 170 users on a single screen. Bluetooth's limitation is around 20 connections, but our technology allows for much higher numbers, making it suitable for busy gyms.

How does this change the workout experience?

MyZone acts like a dashboard, showing real-time effort levels. It helps users see the intensity of their workout, encouraging them to reach their true potential. This feedback is rewarding, making physical effort visible and understandable. It's effective for everyone, from children to Olympic athletes, including professional teams like Arsenal Football Club. By simplifying heart rate data into color zones and effort points, we make fitness more accessible.

Users no longer rely on abstract heart rate numbers but on intuitive color zones and effort points for immediate understanding of their workout intensity.

Dave, you've mentioned the importance of trade shows multiple times. Last time, the founder of Hydro also emphasized their value for networking within the industry. For new CEOs or founders attending these events, you advised against skipping a booth. How should they navigate these events effectively?

I didn't advise against having a booth. In fact, having a booth is crucial if the budget allows because it signifies your seriousness and presence in the industry. It's important to identify which shows to attend and understand the potential customers who will be there. We participate in about 47 shows yearly, ranging from large to regional events, aiming to engage with customers directly.

Attending shows without investing in a booth is not seen favorably. It gives off the impression of leeching off others' investments and efforts, which can damage your reputation. Being present, engaged, and invested at these shows demonstrates your commitment and positions you as a genuine participant in the industry.

So how do you, being in a trade show, how do you stand out? Let's say that you do your booth, but like, I've seen in the last one I've been, there are people doing coffees, for example, so people were lining up or, like, they're doing some sort of different things every time, so people spend more time there. What would you suggest?

Yeah, look, I think, you know, if you are going to be doing a trade show, what you've got to do is you've got to be proactive on the front foot to find out who's going to make the appointments and constantly make the appointments of actually attending your booth at set times, whether you're going to do an announcement at a particular time. Of course, you can you can put on free tea and coffee and that is one way to support the customers that are there.

But if we're talking about consumer shows versus trade shows, they're two separate things. There are two separate things. The consumer electronic show is a consumer show. That is effectively full of

You know, say private equity people going to see what's the next, what's the next best thing and, and consumers or manufacturers trying to say, Oh, look, I'll manufacture what you, what, what you guys do with a, you know, it's, you've got to work out who your audience is and what you're trying to, what you're trying to, um, what you're trying to, to view. But from a trade show, a B2B show, um, is having a good plan. I mean, having a good location is always important.

Having whatever it is that you are showing off, so to speak, making sure that you've got the people, you've got the product, you've got the people, and to do it that way. You don't need to spend a truckload of money on any other stuff, but making sure that your team have sort of like, and you usually do, before a trade show begins, the trade show organizer we'll let you know who's registered for the show.

So you should be able to get the list, to be able to see who's there, and then make that, be proactive on the front foot to get those customers there and meet with you. But you've got to also look at what the size of the booth that you need, whether it's got to be reflective of, A, your position, B, the size of the thing. So if you're manufacturing, say, big gym equipment, so to speak, you're gonna have probably about 350 different skews of equipment, right?

So you can't really sit there with just one piece of equipment if you've got all this other, and you want people to try your equipment. From a software perspective, if you're launching a software platform, right?

You don't need to have the biggest booth in the world, but what you need to do is you need to make sure that you've got enough of a presence so that you can, if you wanna go through and show your customers, or potential customers, your platform or whatever, then you've gotta make sure that you're a part of that. And you can make that space not go overboard because there's nothing for you to think, but also...

It's got to be in line with the budget that you've, and the importance of the show, so to speak.

Got it. It's, it's very interesting because we attended the trade show very, very recently. And I it was the first time that I've been there. I've never been to a trade show before. And I go there and I did not expect it to be so impressive and finding so many clients there. So this is a fantastic insight. I wanted to ask you about something else. I've seen a conversation and podcasts you have before you spoke about the future of the space being in insights.

A major focus for us is actionable data insights. For instance, if you swiped into my gym just twice in a month, I might historically urge you to keep up your fitness efforts based on limited gym visits. However, with MyZone, if I notice you've been active outside the gym, I'd commend you for your effort, acknowledging your hard work and external training, like preparing for an Ironman. This shows we care about your overall fitness, not just gym attendance.

The real breakthrough comes from analyzing changes in exercise behavior. For example, if your workout hours drop significantly, it could indicate a risk of you stopping exercise or facing an issue like an injury. Our aim is to use data to predict such changes and intervene early, encouraging continued exercise or addressing potential reasons for the decline.

Our roadmap includes modeling behavior to offer personalized insights to operators or directly to users, helping maintain or reinvigorate their exercise routines. Beyond that, we envision using data to offer even more tailored recommendations, such as suggesting new trainers when your current ones wear out, based on your activity level, or advising on nutrition that matches your workout intensity. This approach aims to enhance the overall fitness journey with meaningful, data-driven support.

Dave, for the last one, I speak with many people and I always hear two different opinions. One is there are going to be more biomarkers in the future, there are going to be more devices in the future, there are going to be more type of sensors in the future. And the second is there's going to be much less devices in the future, one brand is going to be there and dominate the market and so on.

Which do you have a third opinion or are you part of either of those?

So are they going to be continuous biomarkers? I think as the tech gets, the conductors get smaller, the power, the battery, the whole thing, we've spoken about the likes of ingestibles where you ingest a tablet and then it

It displays there used to be things called patches that you put a patch on. You know, a lot of these. Well, it depends on it depends on what you're trying to capture. Okay. Because there's only two, the, the determinants of physical activity is only measured by two things, right?

One is strength, and the other is the beat of your heart, cardiovascular work. So what measures physical activity is not how many jiggles or steps or jiggles of a jiggle machine. It's based on 150 minutes of moderate activity per week or 75 minutes of vigorous activity per week plus two strength training sessions. That's the only measure of physical activity.

That's what measures physical activity. Now there's things such as O-ring. I have an O-ring, right? Which measures my sleep. Now the form factor of the O-ring means that I can't lift weights with it. Right? As we know, is that I can't lift weights with it because lifting weights, it'll break it. And at the end of the day, I don't really care about that.

I just wanna know how much sleep I do at night. There are devices where you can wear, now the MindStand device, we only put this on when we're exercising. So this is not an all day monitor. Yes, there's all day monitors out there, but then you've gotta start thinking about, you know, what are you gonna do with all this data? What are you gonna do with all this data?

And the thing that you're, I suppose, bearing in mind is that, you know, there's always going to be more wearable devices coming out there, but you've got to understand the form factor, the form factor. As an example, I've got a tag watch that will pick up my, the PPG, it'll pick up my heart rate, okay? But I can't wear that when I go to the gym and I use weights because when I flex the wrist, it won't work.

Same with an Apple watch. You know, if I start hitting a tennis racket, it won't work. If I start sort of like boxing a bag, it's not gonna work. So you've got to understand what that form factor is, picking up the most accurate thing. But there will always be, there will always be new developments.