New Year’s is just around the corner, and you know what that means: Get ready to be bombarded by Jenny Craig commercials, gym selfies and professions of “#cleaneating” on every social network imaginable. That’s because on the heels of holiday parties (often filled with food and booze), most people tend to use this time to focus on improving their well-being.
Although there’s a broad spectrum of ways to help born-again health junkies attain their goals, not many of them are effective long-term, while remaining economically friendly. That is, until Ladder – an upcoming health and wellness platform – launches.
Ladder serves as a one-stop shop for all of your wellness needs, setting you up with coaches dedicated to making you the best version of yourself – and for very little money. I chatted with Brett Maloley, CEO and co-founder of Ladder, and he laid out how this platform differs from other solutions, as it’s more sustainable from more standpoint than one.
One step at a time toward health
Maloley and fellow co-founders, Jonny Arakelian and Alex Karsos, want Ladder to take a more holistic approach to wellness compared to other tools, zeroing on people’s personal patterns in numerous areas affecting their health. Which is why the platform doesn’t simply ask users to name their specific (sometimes vanity-centered) goals. Instead, Ladder picks people’s brains to reveal what’s really going on with their health.
“Any user who comes on to our platform first goes through a Cognitive Behavioral Therapy survey, which uncovers their needs in each pillar of health and wellness that we’ve identified: fitness, nutrition, sleep and stress management,” explained Maloley. “We use that data to generate the best coach match for a user.“
From there, health and wellness coaches, as well as Ladder team members, are able to design a program for each user that will address the areas in need of improvement. The coach will work with the user to ensure goals are met, being available to chat online, meet in-person (when requested) and provide weekly progress reports for accountability.
Ladder recognizes that health is always a work in progress, and a user’s needs will evolve over time. So the platform will also be dynamic. Each month, users will have to retake the Cognitive Behavioral Therapy survey to reasses their changing needs. If necessary, they will be matched with another coach who can better accommodate whatever areas on which they should focus next.
Let it be known, though, that Ladder isn’t trying to replace your current gym regimen. Maloley made it clear the platform is meant to supplement other wellness efforts that people are already making. It’s a tool to amplify individuals endeavors to be healthier, keeping them on track and filling in any gaps that they’re overlooking with guidance and additional services when needed.
Money is no longer an excuse
Oftentimes, people cognizant of their health and well-being don’t cut corners because of lack of effort. Money can be a major obstacle. While most of us would love to drop hundreds of dollars on personal training sessions and check-ins with nutritionists, that isn’t always feasible. Ladder doesn’t want tight finances to impede people’s wellness, which is why the startup’s team has worked out a way to have health and wellness professionals provide services while reducing costs for consumers.
“We’re leveraging the platform business model so we can reduce the barrier of entry for consumers,” Maloley started.
“In comparison to in-person training sessions, people end up paying an average of $335 per month,” he shared. “If we’re talking about other digital options, consumers will pay an average of $100 each month. But with us, consumers will be able to pay as low as $19.99 per month for health and wellness professionals.”
How Ladder is moving forward
Coming off of its closed beta, the Ladder team is working with a development firm to sort out the final details for their platform and the startup is intending to do a full launch in March. The team, which has local roots, is hoping that the Boston ecosystem, which has a heavier focus on health and medicine, will help make Ladder a quick success.
“Boston is where we’re from and we have a really good understanding of what problems people have, here, and how we can solve them,” Arakelian, the co-founder who’s also heading up Operations at Ladder, wrote. “We built this product because it’s something we need and we’re psyched to offer a solution that can help people find happiness through health and wellness…March can’t get here soon enough!”
“Boston provides a unique environment for us,” Maloley said. “It has an abundance of commercial fitness facilities with which we have or would like to have relationships. Boston also has much innovation in the health care space with more proactive entities moving towards a preventative medicine movement. So we’re here because of logistics, but also because it’s the perfect place for us to gain early traction.”
Date: December 28, 2015