One of the latest entries into the increasingly crowded corporate-wellness startup space is banking on healthy competition among wearables users.
Austin-based FitRankings, a web platform that compiles individual rankings and also pits companies against each other, launched Tuesday in Chicago as part of a gradual U.S. rollout. It has been available in various other cities, including San Francisco and four Texas cities — Austin, Dallas, San Antonio and Houston.
The platform uses data from a variety of wearables to track “measurement of task” minutes, rewarding users who hit a relatively easy-to-reach target of 500 MET minutes per week, co-founder and CEO Patrick Hitchins said.
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“It’s a pretty low bar,” said Hitchins, a Chicago native now living in Austin. “If you walk 30 minutes per day, five times per week, you’ll hit it.”
Users sign in through their company or on the platform. Every company gets a “FitIndex,” based on employee participation and achievement of a MET-minutes target for all participants. The platform says it ranks companies based on their index value and their total MET minutes for a given ranking period.
Hitchins said the platform rewards a company that has a large percentage of employees who do just enough exercise to meet targets over a company that has marathon runners but also a lot of employees who don’t participate.
James O’Brien, managing director of Henderson Global Investors’ Chicago office, says he signed up because he finds that a little competition keeps him motivated.
“I saw an article about it and it sounded very intriguing, because I have a FitBit,” said O’Brien, 55, who described himself as an avid runner who regularly competes in marathons.
FitBit, a wearable device that works among others with FitRankings, allows users to compare fitness numbers within a select community of friends.
O’Brien said FitRankings allows users to also measure up with a wider group of users wearing various devices, such as Jawbone.
“Our rankings have kind of turned work into a sport,” Hitchins said. “You need to perform, and in order to perform, you need to be fit.”
FitRankings joins other companies in adding wearables to the corporate wellness space. A 2013 study by ABI research predicted that, by 2018, more than 18 million wearable devices will be integrated into company wellness plans.
The website angel.co, which tracks companies that have received Angel funding, lists 188 startups working in the corporate-wellness space as companies try to lower health care costs.
FitRankings is free to individual users and available by subscription in a premium version to corporate users, Hitchins said. O’Brien said his company will consider using it, but he said it may not be for everyone.
“Some people are very sensitive about privacy and may not want companies to have all this information about them,” he said. “It depends on whether you are positive or negative on the Big Brother approach.”
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