Startups

Fitness app upace gears up for the sales cycle ahead

For founder Rachel Koretsky, 23, working with universities is a marathon, not a sprint.

The upace app in action. (Courtesy photo)

“It’s kind of like a big puzzle,” upace founder Rachel Koretsky, 23, says of being a young entrepreneur in general and of dealing with university bureaucracy specifically.
Sure, upace is a fitness app, but it’s not yet another workout tracker.
Rather, upace is two-sided portal for university fitness centers and the students that use them — a downloadable mobile app for students that allows them to see the gym’s schedule and book classes or time on cardio machines, and a customizable web app where the fitness centers can organize all this information.
After its wider launch this past august (a pilot version was tested February through May at Koretsky’s alma mater, American University), upace is currently being used by three college campuses. The most recent client, this month, is Rutgers University.

We're busy ramping up for August 2016.

Currently based out of the American University incubator, upace targets new clients through some mixture of cold calling, student outreach (they have brand ambassadors on college campuses) and word-of-mouth opportunities such as conferences. New clients must sign a one-year contract with upace.
“Expanding is the No. 1 goal we’re working on currently,” Koretsky said. To this end, she admits that the long sales cycle is one of the biggest challenges that upace is facing. While for many the school year has just started, universities are already working out budgets for academic year 2016-2017. “We’re busy ramping up for August 2016,” Koretsky says, the date upace hopes to launch on another round of campuses.
Other goals for Koretsky and her team include considering whether to expand to non-university gyms, and what additional data reporting capabilities a future upace might offer university fitness centers.
“There are always a lot of moving parts,” Koretsky admits. But luckily the recent graduate with a degree in business administration, a minor communications and a certificate in leadership is passionate about this particular puzzle.
“I love getting up in the morning and being able to work on this project,” she said.

Companies: American University

Before you go...

Please consider supporting Technical.ly to keep our independent journalism strong. Unlike most business-focused media outlets, we don’t have a paywall. Instead, we count on your personal and organizational support.

3 ways to support our work:
  • Contribute to the Journalism Fund. Charitable giving ensures our information remains free and accessible for residents to discover workforce programs and entrepreneurship pathways. This includes philanthropic grants and individual tax-deductible donations from readers like you.
  • Use our Preferred Partners. Our directory of vetted providers offers high-quality recommendations for services our readers need, and each referral supports our journalism.
  • Use our services. If you need entrepreneurs and tech leaders to buy your services, are seeking technologists to hire or want more professionals to know about your ecosystem, Technical.ly has the biggest and most engaged audience in the mid-Atlantic. We help companies tell their stories and answer big questions to meet and serve our community.
The journalism fund Preferred partners Our services
Engagement

Join our growing Slack community

Join 5,000 tech professionals and entrepreneurs in our community Slack today!

Trending

Biotech, high chairs and dirty laundry dominate DC Startup and Tech Week’s pitch competition

Not all jobs are the same. Why do workforce agencies treat them like they are?

After nearly a decade, the federal program for immigrant entrepreneurs is finally working

Block the bots or feed them facts? How Technical.ly uses AI in journalism

Technically Media