Tagalong with the best Athletes in the World
By: Dan Stein
Tags: Founder Interview, Startup Life, Entrepreneur, Entrepreneurship, Startup

Interview with Nick Karwoski, CEO of Tagalong

Interview with Nick Karwoski, CEO of Tagalong

Tell us about your business. What do you do?

Tagalong is a platform for fitness enthusiasts to find, hire and train with Professional Athletes. Tagalong athletes can hire Pro’s to speak with them about their training, create custom training plans or meet up in person (or virtually) to workout.

What is your startup’s origin story?

A professional athlete’s life is not as glamorous as it appears. Training full time for the 2016 Rio Olympics, National Team Triathlete Nick Karwoski found it difficult to support himself financially. As a means to supplement his income, he decided to bring his knowledge and expertise to amateur athletes who wanted skilled guidance in swimming, cycling and running. Nick quickly achieved success as a pro trainer and enjoyed the experience of helping people realize their athletic potential. Seeing his teammates and fellow pro athletes in other sports struggling financially as he once had, he realized that if he could do this, he could help others do it too. Nick decided to create a mobile platform that allowed people find, hire and train with Professional Athletes. The Pros would be able to supplement their income while training and the athletes/users would be able to train and get access to some of the best athletes in the world.

Tagalong’s mission is to connect athletes to help them improve together. In an increasingly impersonal world, Tagalong differentiates itself from other fitness websites and apps by providing the ultimate personalized training experience offering one-on-one in person or virtual training sessions, customized training plans and consultation calls. We want Pros to share the love of their sport with others and the knowledge they’ve obtained on how to succeed. We want amateur athletes to be open minded, willing to experience new things and take risks knowing that our Pros will help them every step along the way while having fun and staying safe. For us, it’s not solely about the end result. We want athletes to enjoy the journey in getting there.

Had you been involved in the industry before this startup? What is your background?

In addition to building Tagalong from the ground up, Nick has proven success in helping grow other startups. At Hydrow, a company that is rapidly gaining a foothold on companies like Peloton and Nordictrack, Nick leads as their top athlete and most requested trainer on the platform as well as a senior production coordinator. He knows how to capture the attention of his audience and deliver quality content. Nick also started a surf-inspired fitness company, Surfset, where they received $300k on ABC’s Shark Tank from Mark Cuban.

What’s unique about your company? What are the key differentiators between you and other players?

Tagalongs Pros are not trainers. They are not coaches. They are Professional Athletes. They are or have competed at the highest level in the world. Creating a safe platform for Pros to make money while not disrupting their training and utilizing their skillset is fun for them and exciting for athletes to work with them. They can relate on some many different levels. Nothing is foreign to them; coming back from injuries, preparing for a race, losing weight, setting a personal best, getting competitive again.

Take us through a day in your life. What does the typical day look like?

Early morning workout. Run, Row or ride. With some core.

Big breakfast while catching up on news and whats going on in the world.

On board any new Pro’s so we can add them to the marketing/promotion timeline.

Interview candidates for new positions on our team (social media, app developer)

Team meeting to go over what we are all working on and how we can ensure we keep momentum moving.

Add new users to our database and send out Welcome Email.

Afternoon Tagalong workout with a client.

Calls with potential partners.

Finish up admin work to keep the business organized.

Touch base with a few Pros.

Facetime with my family.

What has been the most challenging part of growing your company?

Making the best decision on where to invest and spend money. Not having a computer engineering background is challenging when developing an app.

What has been your best marketing channel? What are some channels you are looking to explore next?

US Governing bodies (USAT, USATF, USCycling, etc).

Facebook/Instagram and Linkedin.

What apps do you use that you would recommend to others?

Slack, hootsuite, gsheets.

Do you have a book, podcast, or Youtube channel you would recommend to other Entrepreneurs?

Prof G Show Pivot How I Built This

If you could go back in time to the day you founded your company, what advice would you give yourself?

Focus on generating revenue first and finding a co-founder who could be a CTO.

What’s something you’ve learned from building your business that someone else can learn from?

Finding someone else who believes in your dream and is willing to put their own sweat into it is rare. In order to be successful, no one should ever work harder than the founder.