FitSW – Fitness Software for Personal Trainers - Interview with the developer of a fantastic app

Did you have any prior development or coding experience?

Yes, I had previously worked as a software developer developing specialized software used to test semiconductor chips but I had never done an iOS or Android App development.

What was the most challenging aspect of developing mobile app?

The most challenging aspect of developing the FitSW app was creating the best user experience possible for trainers creating workouts. Creating workouts can be surprisingly complex because our users have diverse approaches to building fitness training programs. We had to build in functionality for exercises with different amounts of sets, reps, weights, rest times, and interval times. Other trainers wanted to build cardio workouts so we wanted to include the ability to record exercise time, resistance levels, distance training and more. Still, other trainers were big on supersets with multiple exercises in a single set. We included exercise demo videos, exercise filters, and ways for the clients to enter their actual workout results. Building all this out in comprehensive user experience on a small phone screen was challenging, but once we did it, we were able to make the personal trainers' job of building workout plans much easier and efficient.

_{Jacob Montoya}

Jacob Montoya, the interviewee, is the Co-Founder and CEO of FitSW. Jacob did his college studies in Electrical Engineering from the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology. An MBA from Harvard Business School, Jacob is a seasoned development manager working for companies like Apple, Intel, and Flex.

Name a few of your favorite apps and reason you love them.

Downcast iOS app- This is a podcast player app and I like how many custom playing options it offers compared to the default podcast apps. I also like the fact that it's easy to tinker around with the settings and the UI is done well.
DuoLingo app- I really like how this app offers bite-sized lessons on learning a language. It's easy to do when you have an extra few minutes and the simplicity of the app and its ability to throw you right into a language learning lesson quickly is well done.

How long have you been working on this app?

We released the first version of this app 3 years ago and have continued to improve it and add new features to it since then. After the initial workout builder, we have received requests from trainers for new features which we have continuously implemented. We have added meal planning, progress tracking, live online classes, in-app messaging and much more during that time. We now have become the one-stop shop for all the software features a personal trainer will need to improve their efficiency and grow their business.

What need of the user did you have in mind when developing this app?

Helping personal trainers save time, do their jobs more efficiently, and consequently grow the number of clients they can manage.

In what way do you think your app is better than similar apps on the market? Please describe in detail what innovation you think you bring and what you are proud of in your app.

FitSW is the highest rated app for personal trainers on both the iOS app store and the Google Play Store. This is due to the fact that we have really focused on the user experience and making the app as simple to use as possible. There are several competitors out there, but none have as high of a rating on both the iOS app store and Google play store as us. In addition, we have a lot more features than competitor apps which has allowed our app to be the one-stop-shop for personal trainers. One example of a feature we recently added is the ability for the trainer to create and host live online personal training classes that their clients can also join through the app. Many have found this to be a great way to stay fit while in-person meetings have been restricted. None of our competitors have a feature like this completely built-in to the app.

What are your future plans and expected features of the coming new versions of this app?

We are continuously improving our app based upon the feedback from users. One upcoming feature we plan to add in the next month is the ability for personal trainers to create multi-day programs so that they could create something like a 90-day program using our app that consists of different workouts, meal plans, and goals. They could then copy that plan to multiple clients and adjust the weights, exercises, and meals in order to fit the specific client. This is a huge time saving for the trainer over building a plan from scratch for every client. We also plan to add more wearable integration so that if clients wanted it to, our app could capture data from their wearable device. Their trainer could then review and monitor that data to better adapt to the client’s fitness plan.

Assuming new users of your app are reading this page. What do you want to ask them to do (contact you about X, Share the app, etc.)?

Share our app. We also would love to hear about what features you find most valuable and what other features you would like us to add.