Retrofit In The News

Healthcare Startups Can Save Lives - And Rake in Big Money 9/5/13 - Big businesses are looking to reduce the cost of the health care benefits they offer to employees, and similar belt tightening is underway at insurers, doctors' offices, and hospitals. Insurers have a particularly difficult task, with the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, mandating certain minimal coverage standards that make it harder for insurers to strip down their policies and easier for patients to switch providers. … The two-year-old Chicago startup Retrofit — backed by $11 million in venture funding — is telling employers its weight-loss program can reduce absenteeism and health costs while boosting productivity and morale… "Health is an extremely hard industry to tackle. Many have tried and failed," says Glow CEO Mike Huang. "But if someone gets it right, it could impact many, many lives." … Read The Story

Flat Is The New Growth For The U.S. Weight Loss Market - For Now 8/28/13 - There's one thing I know after tracking the U.S. weight loss market and all ten of its subsegments since 1989 - it's never dull. There is always something dynamic happening in this huge $61 billion market. … Now, rather than traveling to a weight loss center to meet with a diet "coach", "consultant" or "counselor," one can access this advice readily 24/7 online, by phone, or via email. The old brick & mortar model, at least for commercial diet centers, is outdated, and profit margins have fallen to less than 9% of sales. Diet companies are reaching customers more often where they work, live and play, instead of asking them to come to a center. … Look for diet companies that go after the corporate wellness market, and large healthcare systems. Weight Watchers has a head start in this segment, providing at-work programs at 4,500 companies nationwide. New start-ups such as Retrofit and Balance Health are also actively catering to this market. … Read The Story

Skype Celebrates a Decade of Meaningful Conversations! 8/28/13 - In 2003, the human genome was sequenced to 99.99% accuracy… J.K. Rowling released her fifth Harry Potter book, "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix." And on August 29th that year, Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis founded what was to become an indispensable communications solution for more than 300 million people worldwide. … The infographic (including RetrofitMe.com) below takes you through a decade of fascinating people, places and behaviors Skype has inspired.
… Read The Story

Retrofit Hires Chelsea Katz to Manage Business Development From Denver 8/22/13 - Chicago-based Retrofit, which targets professionals with its data-driven weight loss program, has hired Chelsea Katz as Business Development Manager. … Retrofit markets its weight-loss programs to both individuals and businesses. The latter can subsidize the program or have participating employees cover costs. "We have such great data on our outcomes," says Katz, noting that 90 percent of customers lose weight and tend to keep it off much better than traditional diet plans. … Read The Story

Startup Wunderkind Jeffrey Hyman Shares Career Stories 8/20/13 - For the past two years, Hyman has been the founder and CEO of Retrofit. The company was designed as a weight-loss program for busy professionals who, typically, do not have the time to spend on other traditional programs, due to time spent focusing on their careers or their families. Retrofit helps keep tabs on clients’ weight through activity tracking and weight monitoring. It is a 12-month program tailored to be easily customizable to fit every client's schedule. It is an entirely online resource, with services conducted through computers and smart-phones. Customers receive advice and consultations from dieticians and wellness experts through Skype and video conferences. 93% of clients who use Retrofit lose weight. … Read The Story

People On the Move 7/30/13 - Retrofit Business Development Manager Chelsea Katz is responsible for building strategic corporate relationships as companies nationwide search for innovative ways to combat the obesity epidemic. Katz will be instrumental in adding to the Retrofit client roster of business clients nationwide. She is based in Denver, Colorado. … Read The Story

July 2013 - How Well Is Your Workplace? Learn How To Create Health Incentives That Work 7/5/13 - Taking an interest in employee health makes good business sense. Corporate spending on healthcare is forecast to reach an average of $12,136 per employee this year, according to a study by the consulting firm Towers Watson. Likewise, a Gallup survey estimates that overweight workers with three or more chronic conditions miss 3.51 days per month, compared with 0.34 for normal weight counterparts without chronic health problems. Stepping in to keep insurance rates down and productivity up is vital to a company’s well being. But what works? After all, if it were easy to quit smoking or lose 20 pounds, there wouldn’t be a problem. … Jeff Hyman, founder and CEO of the weight-management company Retrofit, says that punitive measures don’t work. … Read The Story

Everything You Need To Know About The Withings Scale That VC Fred Wilson Loves So Much 6/19/13 - Venture capitalist Fred Wilson is a big fan of the Withings smart scale. The Withings Smart Body Analyzer monitors and tracks a person's weight, body fat percentage, blood pressure, and any given environment's temperature and air quality. … There's a growing number of wearable devices and fitness programs out there, so it's likely that people use more than one device or service to track their health. But the real power of the Quantified Self movement is being able to compare the data from all those tools. That's why Withings users can share and sync their data with more than 60 apps and services like fitness tracker Fitbit, IFTTT, RunKeeper, and Retrofit. … Read The Story

I2A Fund goes private, becomes Chicago Ventures 6/17/13 - Armed with $40 million in fresh capital and a new name, one of Chicago's rising venture funds is adding to the local pool of money for homegrown technology startups. The I2A Fund, which was created in 2007 with contributions from the state of Illinois, announced Monday that it has closed its second fund with $40 million and renamed itself Chicago Ventures. … Chicago Ventures' portfolio consists of 15 companies so far, with 14 of those based locally. These companies include Retrofit, a provider of customized health and weight-loss advice; Shiftgig, an online network that helps service workers find jobs; and Power2Switch, an online resource that lets consumers shop for cheaper electricity rates. … Read The Story

Weight Watchers for Business: What Former Executive Knows About Corporate Wellness 6/7/13 - Romy Carlson knows as well as anyone that getting corporate America on board with office weight loss programs is almost as challenging as actually losing weight. The former Weight Watchers executive just signed on with corporate wellness company Retrofit as vice president of business development. … In order to get business-driven executives to sign on to expensive wellness options, Carlson said, you need to show them that it offers a real return on investment. … Read The Story