The Next Big Thing in Connected Fitness - Gamified Rowing

As Samsung Next builds out our connected fitness portfolio, I sat down with the founder of one one of our early investments, Aviron a experience-driven, gamified and connected rower, to discuss how they’re using gaming psychology and fitness technology to create hardware and software that will stimulate people’s minds and help them stay motivated and consistent with exercise.

We’re excited about Aviron for several reasons, including: 

• Aviron combines the increased confidence, problem solving, and resiliency benefits of gaming with non-impact, high intensity interval training (HIIT) for a calorie-torching rowing workout that taps into users’ competitive side. 

• It boasts a unique content library with hundreds of workout programs including live games and peer-to-peer racing modules that burn more calories than swimming or running alone. 

• Aviron is not just another gamified product—they’re a fundamentally gaming first software platform on a high-end hardware product that has the potential to revolutionize fitness with gaming, and are quickly gaining popularity in the market.

Enjoy the Q&A with Andy Hoang, founder and CEO of Aviron. We cover everything from the journey to market, to why Aviron is poised for success as the next gamified rowing experience.

Andy Hoang, Aviron 

What was the original inspiration (or motivation) behind founding Aviron? Is there a nice origin story there?

When I was in high school, I discovered that working out helped me to strengthen my cognition in addition to my physical strength, and coincidentally helped me manage my ADHD. But as I spent more and more time in the gym, I couldn’t help but notice that gym-goers were bored and just seemed to be going through the motions of a half-engaged workout on the elliptical, bike or rowing machine—I even bought a Peloton at one point thinking it would be a great option as a busy professional, but the instructor-led classes weren’t engaging for me. I knew there had to be a better way for people to get more out of their workouts. At the time, I was also an avid gamer, and thought that combining fitness with gaming was a no-brainer, and that tapping into users' competitive side would be more effective and engaging. Aviron launched to the commercial market in 2018 and to the consumer market in July 2020—just in time for the Covid home workout boom.

Home fitness is quickly becoming a pretty competitive space. How challenging was it to raise those initial rounds? Did your vision initially click with investors, or did it take some convincing?

I was lucky in that my timing was impeccable. Peloton helped to open the eyes of many investors to the potential of the $100B connected fitness market, and it was accelerated by the boom in home fitness due to COVID-19. Simultaneously, investors began tuning into the $150B gaming industry, and the alignment was natural.

Aviron is fundamentally a gaming-first platform on a high-end hardware device—we’re unlike anything else on the market, which investors were quick to pick up on. While there are other rowers out there, none are built on such a strong gaming base with high quality visuals, strong storylines and music and audio that supports the story. Furthermore, Aviron is a beautiful, high quality machine that employs best-in-class resistance for strength training, and is smooth to row on with or without the gaming platform. We truly believe the future of fitness is gamified and are building the interactive, engaging rowing machine that makes that future possible. Investors were quick to see that we’re like nothing else on the market. 

Consumers already recognize the confidence building and problem-solving perks of engaging with a game while you work out and we do that really well with our “choose your own adventure” model with strong story-led games (along with the more traditional games like Row Breaker (inspired by brick breaker) and Balls of Fury (inspired by the old-school classic, Pong).

What really resonated with me from our initial conversation was the fact that you and the team have an incredible track record of executing a profitable business (with limited resources!), coupled with Aviron’s desire to target a different market segment via HIIT. Is this a similar sentiment to what other investors were drawn to?

I think that’s right. And even more so today, it’s clear that Aviron is considered the high-intensity Peloton for rowing with mutli-player video games and live races. The gamified content that we have enhances our go-to-market strategy to appeal across three areas: D2C, retail, and B2B via gyms and hotels. Not to mention, our product is beautiful. 

How did you go about hiring people around you? What were you looking for in your employees?

We’ve built a fantastic team of ex-Unity game developers who are passionate about gaming as well as bringing the fun and benefits of gaming to a wider demographic. We’ve intentionally built a diverse team of passionate people who are really good at what they do and are passionate about the future of fitness. We’re excited to continue to grow the team commensurate with the demand we’re seeing for our product.

How do you plan to use this initial round of funding? How did you approach your product roadmap?

We’re excited to be using a lot of the funding to grow the engineering team to continue to improve upon and iterate on the product, release exclusive features and accelerate our speed to market. Additionally, we’re looking forward to rebranding some video content for the website and doing more integrated ads that will get the Aviron brand in front of more consumers looking for the best at-home connected rowing device. We’ll also be using the funding to grow the team commensurate with the increase in demand we’ve witnessed. We’re thrilled to report that demand has stayed high over the last few months, even as people have returned to the gym. In fact, July 2021 was our strongest revenue month to-date, proving continued demand and popularity of our product in the consumer market.  

What’s next for Aviron? 

We’re excited to release our new branding mid-August and to continue to grow our product in the US and international market. Keep your eye out for some new software releases, new games that continue to challenge what we can do or expect to be able to do on a connected rowing machine and for our continued growth as a company.  

Samsung Next's investment strategy is limited to its own views and does not reflect the vision or strategy of any other Samsung business unit, including but not limited to Samsung Electronics. Antonio Key is an investor with Samsung Next.