Seeking feedback on MVP - workout inspiration discovery platform. An alternative to Peloton / Zwift for cord-cutters.

Thanks so much for taking a look and for your thoughtful reply.

You’re right that I’m aggregating content others have produced and sharing them via this platform.

I’ve used YouTube for workouts a lot but it was always work finding useful videos. Once I found GCN on YouTube I loved that and I’ve been using their videos for years, but it’s a time suck tracking down equally good content and I want to cut the time between planning a workout and executing it to the smallest margin possible. Mainly because I find my day gets off on a really negative footing if I spend 30mins trying to pick an inspiring documentary, guided workout or great podcast. I feel like I’ve wasted that super productive morning time when I should be working. Then do I make my workout shorter or just work less in the morning? Either way it’s a loss.

If I find something fast or have something ready to go that I am psyched to workout to then even if I’m feeling crappy I am more motivated to workout and the session itself is much better. Then I feel like I’m making great use of my time and I’m amped for the rest of the day.

Part of the problem is that good stuff is spread all over. We don’t have cable tv but do have Netflix and Amazon Prime so I have to search there plus YouTube. Vimeo has good stuff too but I never quite get there. Then we have Salomon TV on appletv so I sometimes check that but they don’t post new stuff often. It’s just time consuming finding the gold nuggets.

The idea with Slipstream is to post human-curated high-quality content relevant to people who are regularly working out and putting in the time to maintain or increase aerobic fitness (high volume low intensity cardio so good for watching a documentary). It’s also good for those tough times when you are rehabbing an injury and need something to look forward to and inspire you through dark days of limited cardio, and restricted outdoor access.

Content on the platform is a bit limited so far as I have tried to just get it to MVP status for testing before spending hours adding new stuff).

I’m amped to add new stuff as it’s been my habit over the years to share the podcast or documentary or guided workouts I have dug up out of the internet with friends and now they often ask me for new recommendations. So that work is a fit for me at least.

The randomness you experienced is interesting to me. Content is ordered by publication date, newest first but the main feature is the filter that lets you quickly (Ajax grid) drill down to the stuff you need.

For example some days I need to do aerobic base training miles on the treadmill so I might filter for video > documentary to narrow it down. Then if there still too much I can narrow further by free/subscription/purchase so I am just seeing free and the subs I already have but no ones I don’t have so I would check boxes for free and subscription > Netflix and also Amazon Prime. Then I have a pretty streamlined set of options with newest first.

I plan to promote the filter feature more on landing pages but maybe I need tool tips to onboard users? What do you think would help?

On my feature roadmap is a way to let you mark items as already watched and hide them in the filter if you want to narrow to fresh stuff only.

A secondary motivation for doing this is to promote the work of the athletes that are creating great content. I selfishly want them to be able to make more, so it’s good if they can get their stuff in front of more target-audience eyeballs (I.e. people that might also buy Salomon because of the positive branding experience of seeing the good stuff they’ve been supporting. So you can filter by sponsor too, there’s sponsor kudos on each post and there’s a sponsor taxonomy archive page that will show all the content tagged with sponsor Salomon so that’s another content discovery path.

Next up I’m working on landing pages for each persona to better explain what the platform can do for them. For example if you love indoor bike classes the GCN intervals videos are awesome and free (with a little commercial break - bonus interval!). They are a great option if you have room for a bike and can’t get to a class or don’t want to pay an expensive subscription.

I match elements of a couple of personas I’ve drawn up and I’m working on testing this MVP with more people who want great platform-agnostic motivational workout content so I can better understand their needs.

Couple more notes:

The advertising is all part of the rights owner’s content so they are reaping the benefit of that and I am not. I’m also not selling competitor or random display advertising. I’d like to build to a user base where sponsors would pay to promote an item per Pinterest, Insta etc.
I’m not sharing anything that isn’t free to embed. If it’s locked, paid-download or subscription platform I provide links directly to that piece of content on the owner’s platform. For example I have the Netflix app on my phone, if I find a Netflix video on slipstream I click the button and it opens directly in the netflix app and starts playing.
I have a huge list of mobile app UI ideas that would make it even better but I won’t invest in a react-native app version or iOS/android native version until I can prove product market fit.

Thanks again for taking the time to look and comment. Apologies for any typos too, I’m tying this on my phone while mobile for the weekend. Trying to keep this whole thing fast and lean till I see that it meets a need for others, not just me.

Let me know if I can ever reciprocate with a look at your MVP/beta test ideas.

Thx

Say something nice to aw11gwd…

1

Just out of curiosity, did you ever consider making a Youtube channel first and attracting viewers that way? Or are you simply aggregating videos others have produced and sharing them out via Slipstream? If so, then it feels like you're trying to create an RSS feed for videos that inspire...But I don't understand how these would seem pertinent to me while I spin / run on my own, particularly when they're being presented this randomly to me.

As a disclaimer: I'm a Soul Cycle enthusiast and pay for fitness, meditation and relaxation.

BernardoesUX

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5 years ago
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1. 1
  Thanks so much for taking a look and for your thoughtful reply.
  
  You’re right that I’m aggregating content others have produced and sharing them via this platform.
  
  I’ve used YouTube for workouts a lot but it was always work finding useful videos. Once I found GCN on YouTube I loved that and I’ve been using their videos for years, but it’s a time suck tracking down equally good content and I want to cut the time between planning a workout and executing it to the smallest margin possible. Mainly because I find my day gets off on a really negative footing if I spend 30mins trying to pick an inspiring documentary, guided workout or great podcast. I feel like I’ve wasted that super productive morning time when I should be working. Then do I make my workout shorter or just work less in the morning? Either way it’s a loss.
  
  If I find something fast or have something ready to go that I am psyched to workout to then even if I’m feeling crappy I am more motivated to workout and the session itself is much better. Then I feel like I’m making great use of my time and I’m amped for the rest of the day.
  
  Part of the problem is that good stuff is spread all over. We don’t have cable tv but do have Netflix and Amazon Prime so I have to search there plus YouTube. Vimeo has good stuff too but I never quite get there. Then we have Salomon TV on appletv so I sometimes check that but they don’t post new stuff often. It’s just time consuming finding the gold nuggets.
  
  The idea with Slipstream is to post human-curated high-quality content relevant to people who are regularly working out and putting in the time to maintain or increase aerobic fitness (high volume low intensity cardio so good for watching a documentary). It’s also good for those tough times when you are rehabbing an injury and need something to look forward to and inspire you through dark days of limited cardio, and restricted outdoor access.
  
  Content on the platform is a bit limited so far as I have tried to just get it to MVP status for testing before spending hours adding new stuff).
  
  I’m amped to add new stuff as it’s been my habit over the years to share the podcast or documentary or guided workouts I have dug up out of the internet with friends and now they often ask me for new recommendations. So that work is a fit for me at least.
  
  The randomness you experienced is interesting to me. Content is ordered by publication date, newest first but the main feature is the filter that lets you quickly (Ajax grid) drill down to the stuff you need.
  
  For example some days I need to do aerobic base training miles on the treadmill so I might filter for video > documentary to narrow it down. Then if there still too much I can narrow further by free/subscription/purchase so I am just seeing free and the subs I already have but no ones I don’t have so I would check boxes for free and subscription > Netflix and also Amazon Prime. Then I have a pretty streamlined set of options with newest first.
  
  I plan to promote the filter feature more on landing pages but maybe I need tool tips to onboard users? What do you think would help?
  
  On my feature roadmap is a way to let you mark items as already watched and hide them in the filter if you want to narrow to fresh stuff only.
  
  A secondary motivation for doing this is to promote the work of the athletes that are creating great content. I selfishly want them to be able to make more, so it’s good if they can get their stuff in front of more target-audience eyeballs (I.e. people that might also buy Salomon because of the positive branding experience of seeing the good stuff they’ve been supporting. So you can filter by sponsor too, there’s sponsor kudos on each post and there’s a sponsor taxonomy archive page that will show all the content tagged with sponsor Salomon so that’s another content discovery path.
  
  Next up I’m working on landing pages for each persona to better explain what the platform can do for them. For example if you love indoor bike classes the GCN intervals videos are awesome and free (with a little commercial break - bonus interval!). They are a great option if you have room for a bike and can’t get to a class or don’t want to pay an expensive subscription.
  
  I match elements of a couple of personas I’ve drawn up and I’m working on testing this MVP with more people who want great platform-agnostic motivational workout content so I can better understand their needs.
  
  Couple more notes:
  
  The advertising is all part of the rights owner’s content so they are reaping the benefit of that and I am not. I’m also not selling competitor or random display advertising. I’d like to build to a user base where sponsors would pay to promote an item per Pinterest, Insta etc.
  
  I’m not sharing anything that isn’t free to embed. If it’s locked, paid-download or subscription platform I provide links directly to that piece of content on the owner’s platform. For example I have the Netflix app on my phone, if I find a Netflix video on slipstream I click the button and it opens directly in the netflix app and starts playing.
  
  I have a huge list of mobile app UI ideas that would make it even better but I won’t invest in a react-native app version or iOS/android native version until I can prove product market fit.
  
  Thanks again for taking the time to look and comment. Apologies for any typos too, I’m tying this on my phone while mobile for the weekend. Trying to keep this whole thing fast and lean till I see that it meets a need for others, not just me.
  
  Let me know if I can ever reciprocate with a look at your MVP/beta test ideas.
  
  Thx
  aw11gwd
  
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  5 years ago
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