'I don’t think anyone just looks at a cricketer’s face and puts in money' — Zaheer Khan

Zaheer Khan. (Image: Reuters)

As a strike bowler Zaheer Khan’s job was to get batsmen to depart. As a fitness entrepreneur his goal is to make users stay.

After an outstanding career which, despite several injuries, fetched him 593 international wickets and the World Cup trophy, Khan became a health entrepreneur. He set up ProSport gyms, where former Indian cricket trainers Adrian Le Roux and Andrew Leipus are consultants. In 2019, he co-founded StepSetGo (SSG), a fitness app, with Shivjeet Ghatge (CEO), Mishaal Turakhia (CPO) and Abhay Pai (CTO). Earlier this month, it received Rs 5 crore in seed funding from Huddle, BeyondSeed, Dexter Angels and Seeders LLP.

SSG rewards users with coins for their sweat, with which they can buy products on the app’s marketplace. “We have iPhones as well,” Khan, 43, says with childlike glee during a Zoom call with Moneycontrol on December 20.

His challenge, he says, is to bridge the gap between the app’s 9 million downloads and 500,000 active users.

“Even though we have 9 million downloads, the daily active users are about 500K,” says Khan, currently the Director of Cricket Operations with Mumbai Indians. “When you talk about gyms anywhere in India, it’s the same. Thousands take admission but active users are maybe one tenth of that number. At SSG we want to change that.”

Excerpts from the interview with Khan.

You already have a fitness venture (ProSport). What is its status and what prompted you to get into the fitness app space?

I do have a fitness venture. And it’s around customised fitness solutions in the gym, right? It’s going pretty good. SSG is an app. It is to get people on their fitness journey in the simplest way possible. It is about rewarding users for every step [with coins]. That’s how we’re intending to get them started on their fitness journey and then get them to progress to bigger and better things.

What is your business model for the future?

We have 9 million downloads, that’s a big number. Of that 500,000 are daily active users.

It’s not only with us, any fitness portal will have similar statistics. Our brainstorming has been predominantly around this [raising the number of active users], where once you have someone on this fitness journey, they get hooked on to it. If we can authenticate every user’s fitness journey, then we are setting ourselves apart from the various things [apps and wearables].

(In terms of revenue, CEO Shivjeet Ghatge said, “As of now because it’s a free app the revenue is strictly based on ads. We are also doing insurance tie-ups where your insurance premium reduces depending upon which levels you sustain on SSG. We have an intensive corporate employee engagement structure that is already executed, we are working with the likes of Aditya Birla and Lodha. That is also another revenue stream that has recently been added.”)

What type of products can be bought with the coins?

We have iPhones as well. There were some bikes also. We had done a campaign around bikes that inspired a lot of people to achieve their fitness goals. We have 250-plus brands associated with us. We have some cashbacks also with different portals. We have various discount offers.

Did you gain a lot of health knowledge through your injuries? Is that what motivates you to be in the health space?

Those experiences have certainly set me up to achieve things around the fitness space. I have seen how the approach is around injuries, how much easier it can get when you have the right kind of support system around you. The experts are there [in the team], with tech and all that. But when it comes to understanding the fitness space, that is where I come into the picture because of my other venture and my cricketing journey.

Do you attend investor meetings? What is it that investors look for in a startup?

I do attend some meetings. First and foremost, they [investors] look at growth. The second part they see is would you be able to sustain it.

These are two things I feel are very important for any startup. Ups and downs are always going to be there. You are not always going to have a rosy path laid out for you. As long as you know you will be able to get through rough phases and can stay on that path you will see success down the road.

Zaheer Khan co-founded StepSetGo, a fitness app, in 2019.

Does being a cricketer help secure funding?

I don’t think anyone just looks at a cricketer’s face and puts in money. That’s not how it works. End of the day, your product has to stand on its own. You can get that initial push, you can grab someone’s attention. But after that it’s about how good your product is.

Your former captain, Sourav Ganguly, has been facing heat recently due to the BCCI’s handling of the captaincy issue. Any message for him?

He’s the best, you know. He doesn’t need my advice. If you are not party to the conversation [about team selection], you won’t have an idea, right? Cricket should be the focus, that’s what I will always say. India have a good chance to win in both formats in South Africa. Our fast bowlers are going to enjoy the conditions there.

One dish you find hard to resist.

(Laughs) Mutton biryani. You know you have to really take a measured call with it, but it’s never a measured call.

(Interview edited and condensed for clarity)