Building a fitness platform with social networking at it's core
Founder(s) name: Florian Leones Mealing
Company Name: SyncMove
Industry Sector: Health & Fitness Technology, Social Networking, Lifestyle App
Our Brand/Product: SyncMove is a social-first fitness platform for students and young fitness enthusiasts, helping them build consistent workout habits by matching them with nearby workout partners.
Our Story: In November 2023, I left the gym feeling like something was missing. I realised that having a workout partner would have made the session better, not because I needed help lifting, but because I missed a sense of connection. That day, I cycled home thinking about how, at 16, I was too anxious to work out alone and had to drag my dad to the gym with me. It took me four months to transition from machines to the free weights section, but once I did, the gym became one of the most positive forces in my life.
I began wondering how many others felt the same fear or isolation when starting their fitness journey. I spoke with friends and confirmed there was a real need for something that made working out more social and supportive. The challenge was that I had no prior knowledge of coding or business building, so I committed myself to learning. Over the next nine months, I taught myself everything I could about software development, user interface design, and startups.
In September 2024, I began working on the first version of SyncMove, a simple website prototype. From the beginning, I spoke with users to understand their needs, and their feedback guided the development of the product. Eventually, I started building the app and formed a small team. Together, we have made tremendous progress on both the product and our marketing strategy.
Next Phase: We now have a strong product shaped by user feedback, and the next phase is market validation and growth. SyncMove, as a social platform, relies on network effects. At scale, this enables exponential growth, but early on, it presents a challenge. The product is designed for users, but without enough users, the experience suffers, and growth stalls.
Our current goal is to overcome this cold start problem through a hyperlocal strategy, starting with saturation at the University of Birmingham Sports & Fitness gym. Once we succeed there, we will replicate that approach at other gyms in Birmingham, and eventually scale across the UK.
Looking ahead, we also aim for SyncMove to support social prescription by GPs, enabling patients to find supportive fitness partners as part of their mental and physical health treatment. Beyond that, we plan to develop a B2B version of SyncMove, a white-label solution for clubs and gyms to use within their communities.
The immediate focus, however, is saturation at a single location. To achieve this, we’re running activation campaigns, such as energy drink giveaways for sign-ups, and making the app inherently shareable. From Elevate, I hope to gain support in refining our strategy, building key partnerships, and preparing for long-term growth.
Get Involved: I am looking to connect with investors who align with the long-term vision of SyncMove. While I am not formally raising yet, we are approaching a key inflexion point. Our short-term goal is to saturate the University of Birmingham Sports & Fitness gym and grow to 100 or more daily active users, which would provide strong evidence that our model is effective. Once we hit that milestone, we plan to raise a pre-seed round of £20,000 to £30,000 to scale our hyperlocal marketing and begin expanding across the UK. I am focused on finding investors who bring not just capital, but also experience with network effects and want to be part of building a category-defining fitness brand from the ground up.
Email: florian@syncmove.co.uk
Phone: +44 7836 338399
Website: www.syncmove.co.uk/
Socials: www.instagram.com/syncmove_official/ www.tiktok.com/@syncmove1