Mitchell Warmerdam studied Hotel and Event Management at Tio. Today, he owns his own business: Gymeyes, a workout analysis system that he will soon launch on an international scale. It earned him a spot in the talent top 50 of Het Financieele Dagblad.
Gymeyes lets you analyse your performance in the gym. Mitchell: “We install cameras in premium clubs and athletes can start a 360-degree analysis at the touch of a button. After their workout, they get an overview of their performance. You can see exactly how you did and personal trainers can give you feedback online.”
Ambition: Gymeyes in 2,500 clubs
Mitchell founded his company a year and a half ago and the product has been available in around fifty gyms for six months now. He has five employees and, together with them, he wants to make the move abroad this year.
Mitchell: “Our ambition is to have Gymeyes active in around 2,500 clubs throughout the US and Europe in five years’ time. Eventually, we want to develop a fully automated system: someone walks into their gym, logs in via facial recognition, starts their workout and is recorded in 360 degrees. Afterwards, they can review their analysis together with a personal trainer and the system gives them automatic feedback. When they get home, a full review of their workout is available in the app, so they can further optimise their performance.”
Top 50 young entrepreneurs
The growth he realises with his company is the best part about Mitchell’s job. The year 2018 got off to a great start, because he earned a spot in the talent top 50 of Het Financieele Dagblad; a list of young entrepreneurs that the paper calls “the leaders of the future.”
Mitchell: “Last year, during the five months we were live, our users recorded around 12,000 videos. That is awesome. At first, we visited gyms in person and called them up. At the moment, most of our promotion happens via a video of our system that every club puts online. That works both ways: they draw new customers and so do we. Other gyms always keep a close eye on what their competition is doing.
Plenty of freedom at Tio
Mitchell chose Tio for its personal touch. “I largely make decisions based on my gut feeling and that worked out great. The best thing about Tio is the freedom you get to do what you want.
For example, he got to set up his own sandwich shop at the location in Eindhoven and he founded a miniature business with some fellow students. He learned the ropes of entrepreneurship early on during his time at Tio. Now, with Gymeyes, he still reaps the rewards. “Classmates could work the register and earn some extra money, while I took care of everything else. Tio gave us the freedom to do all that, which I really enjoyed.”
Follow Mitchell on LinkedIn.