Sportsetter pivots out from the subscription model – And lands $1 million investment

    As the sports market keeps on digitalizing, Helsinki based fitness marketplace Sportsetter announces finding a way to really influence on their partners’ results.

    Sportsetter’s main idea is to encourage its users to get more active and fit by trying out different forms of fitness and sports. Unlike traditional channels, or services such as PayasUgym and ClassPass, with SportSetter consumers pay nothing nor commit to trying new activities and venues.

    “We changed our subscription model first to be compatible in mobile. Then we changed the plan to unlimited version until we went took off the whole price,” describes Niko Karstikko, the CEO and co-founder of Sportsetter their process of becoming the major player for leads and additional sales to brick­and­mortar fitness service providers.

    As the company has been experimenting with its business model, Karstikko says getting close to running out of funds made their team to trust in their gut feeling. Now they’ve got over 65 000 trial visits across the US and Finland – and a 24% conversion from trial to paying returning customers, which brings a positive impact to Sportsetter’s partners’ sales funnel.

    “Instead of just polishing the diamond and flirting with ideas, we had to search for new growth. Now the amount of additional sales and sales leads we bring to our partners is substantial – For example, a multinational partner with four locations live in ­app, has attracted $150 000 of additional revenue to date. Conversely, we have brought our 300+ partners significant additional leads and sales,” Karstikko says.

    These numbers also got the attention of investors, since Sportsetter announced closing one of the biggest funding rounds for wellness startups in the Nordics by getting $1 million in a round led by Reaktor Polte.

    Now Karstikko says they have a strong team working for the goal to widen their operations in Finland, New York and also in UK – where they’ll expand in the upcoming months:

    “We could’ve done these changes already three months ago – And that’s why I encourage companies to take their products to the market as soon as possible to see what works and what not. Have the guts make decisions!”