Are you healthy? More importantly, what does that question mean to you? The World Health Organization seems to think that, “Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.” So how are you supposed to achieve that state? Historically, one-on-one coaching has been incredibly effective. As one NYT bestselling author puts it, “we do better when we’re watched.” In other words, accountability is a game changer, and successful programs that enhance well-being largely build accountability into their DNA. Dieticians offer 1:1 help you lose weight in a healthy way. Personal trainers offer 1:1 help you maximize gains from a fitness program, and therapists offer 1:1 sessions to support a healthy mind. At scale, companies like Omada Health and Noom support the nutrition side of metabolic health. Others like Ginger and Talkspace provide support for mental health. But who is building 1:1 coaching and accountability for physical fitness? Matt Spettel and Gabe Madonna at CoPilot, that’s who.
CoPilot is a digital training service that pairs users with a one-on-one remote fitness coach to help them reach their goals as quickly and safely as possible. The team is religiously focused on a single metric: “users making progress,” meaning clients that quantitatively improve the metrics they’ve told their coaches are important. CoPilot also gives coaches a suite of software tools to make them ruthlessly efficient, helping each one drive gains in hundreds of clients. I was astounded at how effective mine has been. My coach is better than any personal trainer I’ve ever used and is one-tenth the cost. But I’m just a single data point. The numbers speak louder: a large majority of clients make progress every month. The average fitness app retains just 7% of downloads after the first month. CoPilot keeps 91%. It turns out that an app full of videos and a chatbot aren’t compelling enough. You simply can’t automate accountability, and 1:1 coaching is the answer.
In leading this $6.5M investment, we’re proud to support a superb team as they address a huge gap in the health quality improvement space. CoPilot is a great product that brings together the best of human coaching paired with a variety of healthcare boosting techniques to round out a complete strategy. If what they’re building sounds interesting, we encourage you to check out their open roles.
