May 23, 2014
Would sharing a post-workout selfie keep you motivated?
Waterloo startup moves to Toronto as more than a million users download mobile fitness app
Two years after setting up at the University of Waterloo’s startup incubator Velocity, mobile software company PumpUp is successfully launching from the program and moving into their own offices in downtown Toronto.
The startup, founded by Garrett Gottlieb, a Waterloo student, and Phil Jacobson, a Wilfrid Laurier University graduate, have also upped their game with the launch of the PumpUp health and fitness social network this week as they surpass the major milestone of one million downloads of their PumpUp app for iOS and Android.
Velocity community helped build PumpUp success
“The Velocity startup community is infectious in a really positive way. It’s a huge part of what we've accomplished so far,” said Jacobson. “The mentorship, connections and funding helped us get off the ground. We’ve very thankful to the community for helping us get to where we are today.”
PumpUp won Velocity funding in the Fall of 2012 alongside notable Velocity successes Thalmic Labs and Kira Talent. They moved into Velocity Garage workspace that year, at a time when Vidyard was the largest startup in the space, and BufferBox was still at Silicon Valley’s Y Combinator.
“PumpUp’s Phil Jacobson and Garrett Gottlieb have been true startup community builders, and exemplary role models for the next wave of companies now at Velocity,” said Velocity director Mike Kirkup. “Like Vidyard, BufferBox and others before them, they’ve achieved success from a strong work ethic, consistent drive through the ups and downs of startup life, and by taking advantage of all that the Velocity program has to offer.”
Just a year following their move into Velocity, Jacobson and Gottlieb faced the dragons on CBC’s Dragons’ Den, raised their first round of investment, and launched the beta version of their PumpUp app.
PumpUp is one of a number of startups that have helped propel the total funding raised by Velocity companies to over $100 million in the five years since the startup incubator was established.
