Former Google search boss joins board of startup that wants to give you a coach with your wearable

Asa Mathat

MOBILE

April 7, 2016, 9:00 AM PDTSHARE:

Wearable fitness trackers have a nagging problem: People buy them, then toss them out. People are generally lazy.

GOQii, a startup based in California and India, believes it has cracked that. And now it has recruited a Silicon Valley big name for guidance as it prepares to enter the U.S.

Amit Singhal, the longtime executive atop Google’s search organization, is joining the board of GOQii, his first role since retiring from Google in February. GOQii builds a fitness tracker, but its main business is in the services alongside. In fact, it gives the tracker away for free — consumers then pay a monthly fee for certified “coaches” that work with them to hit fitness targets (i.e. lose weight, run a marathon). They can use the service with a number of different wearables, like those from Jawbone, Fitbit and Apple.

“Wearables are great but most people don’t know what to do with the data,” CEO Vishal Gondal said. “The problem we are solving is the problem with engagement.”

Like virtually every startup nowadays, GOQii is also using machine learning — advanced data-crunching of the measured activity. But they are also pairing this virtual intelligence with real-life motivation, something that Singhal said made him come on board.