Lose It or Lose It - Why, How, and How Much
forge38.com
forge38.com
Ultimately, if you're taking money from people with the expectation that the vast majority of them will fail, well, that doesn't seem like the kind of business that will generate lots of referrals from happy customers. People generally don't like to share their personal failures. Beyond that, focusing on weight per se seems problematic from a public health perspective. It is extremely difficult to lose weight but also not strictly necessary for health benefits. If you can run 10 miles in an hour, it really doesn't matter what your weight is, and the ability to do is a much better predictor of future health.
Would be interesting to see some actual statistics from him in a month or two.
Note that the user experience would be much better too. Rather than need to upload photos, I would just use my scale normally.
Also, you could incentivize the photos by reducing the amount you lose. You could lose less of your bid when you miss a weigh-in by, for example, getting people to join the service. They could then follow your progress to make sure you don't miss your next one.
Finally, I'd make this about a charity and only take a cut of the losses. There isn't much reason you deserve hundreds of dollars for lazy people. This might decrease the success rate but increase your signup rate.
Anyhow, I like the actual foot _photo_, not just an integration. It might just be personal preference. I use a withings scale, and weigh in daily, but then I "capture" that with accountability by taking an actual photo of my actual feet. It's a trivial task for a once-a-week thing, and it brings that integer number into the real world.
As far as the "why not charity", people often ask that. Our feeling is that if you want to donate to charity, great! Donate to charity! Don't entangle that with your goals. Besides, then your interest and the charity's interest are at odds. Consider donating your _winnings_ to charity, so your interests are aligned! You can check out the FAQ on the site for more of our thoughts on that.
Anyway I'm glad he shared the data.
Legal is tough, the weight loss industry can be kind of scary because people can get hurt. It is especially scary if you are doing something "weird". Most new websites or businesses will not need a custom TOS, PP, etc. They can tweak one that already exists.
I imagine the design could of been done for half the price, if you spent a bit of time looking on Dribbble or similar, and outsourced the code.
I've come from a background of having to find the cheapest person, but also equally as high in quality, and you find some great places and tricks.
Kidding aside, this is an interesting post. I feel like I might have committed less on the design side and then revisited it at some point, but I understand where you're coming from too. Good luck!
1) Can I lie and say that I lost the weight in order to get my money back?
2) Is there anything out there that works with positive reinforcement for weight loss? In other words, instead of punishing people (which may work for some), reward people with prizes (money, gifts, etc..)
2) Pretty much everything out there is positive reinforcement. We try our best to help you succeed, we would rather get a tip than keep your money because you failed to make your goals. For years I would try to lose weight for a couple of weeks and then my life would go back to normal. I wanted something where my life would be WORSE if I failed so I made LIOLI.
Eat less and move more.
I know how to lose weight, it's the sticking to it over a long period of time and not procrastinating that is hard. I built this for myself, and it is working great!