The overarching problem in the fitness industry is how disjointed and antiquated it is from a business management perspective. Businesses of various sizes in the fitness industry are forced to use cobbled together solutions to meet their business needs. Sacramento startup GymHit is the only integrated communication, booking, billing and marketing platform designed specifically for the fitness industry.

I met with Gabe Gomez and Nicholas Trosko, co-founders of GymHit, at The Academy Training and Performance Center on F Street in Sacramento to chat a bit about their startup, their entrepreneurial path, and the Sacramento startup community.

If you don’t have time to watch the entire video, here’s a few excerpts from the interview.

On what GymHit does:

“GymHit is an automated marketing, booking, communication platform for any size fitness business. We can do as little as running marketing campaigns, improving your online reputation and as much as running your entire business through it including payment processing, recurring payments and business management. The idea for us when we started was to take any sized business and really allow them to look like a legitimate business when someone is searching for them online and get them away from using five to ten different software solutions, create a unified platform that somebody can go to run their entire business from. “

On the experience of the 500 Startups accelerator:

“The experience in terms of what we’ve done, it’s not just the accelerator itself, it’s the events, the people, no matter where you go, whether it’s to a dinner, a happy hour, whatever it is, you’re meeting people that are speaking your language and can help you.”

On what’s next for GymHit once they complete the 500 Startups cohort:

“Moving back into Sacramento to build out a team of customer service resp, sales reps, more of a states-side dev team and really start to try to become part of the statup community here in Sacramento and build it up and bring a lot of our connections as well back to Sacramento.”

On how many people GymHit will be looking to hire in Sacramento:

“Within six to eight months afterwards [moving back to Sacramento] probably about 10 – 12 people.”

On what advice they have for other entrepreneurs:

“Be persistent and be creative. Keep going. Figure out a way at any cost. Never give up just because you hit a bump in the road, no matter how big it is because the first three or four years are going to be up and down. One day you’re going to be happy, the next you’re going to be hitting your head into the wall trying to figure out what to do.” ~ Gabe

 

“It’s the truth. You have to really know what entrepreneur means for you. It doesn’t mean that, hey I’ve got this great idea and I’m going to do whatever it takes while I’ll live comfortably to see it happen. It really means give up everything for that idea and that essentially becomes your life.” ~ Nick

On the highs of entrepreneurship:

“The highs really compare to nothing… it’s an amazing feeling…There’s really no greater feeling than overcoming. You’re your own underdog in a Disney movie at all times. And then you win at the end of the movie and your like, ‘Yeaaaaa!’ and then the next day your underdog again. It really is such a phenomenal feeling.” ~ Gabe

 

“There’s a lot of lows, but those highs definitely make up for it. It’s pretty gratifying.” ~ Nick

Final thoughts:

“Go out and make something happen.” ~ Gabe

 

“It’s the most amazing journey. The people you meet, the experiences you have, the fears that you end up overcoming. It makes you constantly grow as a person and you end up becoming someone you never thought you could ever really become. It’s just the most amazing thing.” ~ Nick

See more profiles and interviews of Sacramento startup founders.