What's the Best Fitness Newcomer in San Francisco?

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Welcome to the Racked Awards, our annual celebration of the best in local shopping and stye.

It's that time of the year when we highlight our city's best stores and services with Racked Awards, and the first category is Best Fitness Newcomer. While there were a number of solid options that joined the fitness scene over the last year —SoulCycle, Barry's Bootcamp, and Avant Barre, just to name a few— the Racked Award goes to Fitmob. Not only is this fitness startup the reason that Racked SF readers have been gifted with awareness of Hottest Male Trainer Blake Harrison's abs, it's also the reason why over 15,000 folks in the city and Marin have added variety and community into their daily fitness plans.

Fitmob incentivizes clients to work out more frequently by lowering the price per class when clients take more classes in a week. Go once, pay $20 per class. Go three or more times in a week, pay only $10. It's no wonder that CEO and Co-Founder Raj Kapoor tells us that he's in the best shape of his life.

Raj started Fitmob after discovering personal fitness through P90x. The program made him realize that there were enough materials and classes for people to find fitness without a gym membership, yet he knew that obesity was steadily increasing. He wanted to find a solution. Raj combined his background as an entrepreneur and a venture capitalist to develop a product with a built-in community to motivate the user to get up and move. The first version of Fitmob launched in January 2014 and an update is due out later this month.

Community is the highlight of the platform. "Mobbers" leave ratings for classes and workouts on the app, which helps other clients make better choices. Fitmob also allows the user to see who else is heading to a class, which adds a social component to working out. Both of these community aspects are about finding motivation, the major block to exercise, according to Raj. With consistency, variety, and a community-curated class selection, fitness success is within reach for anyone willing to give it a go.

But this is just the beginning for the startup. Over the last nine months, Raj and his team have been adding options in every neighborhood to ensure Fitmob's ongoing success and expansion, and the company will announce a second city by the end of the year. In the mean time, the app is here and growing with new Mobbers joining in to experience a new model for fitness every day.
· Fitmob [Official Site]
· Racked Awards 2014 [Racked SF]