Wishroute founder and CEO Jessica Lynch has always been passionate about health. When her brother Danny was diagnosed with juvenile diabetes over 20 years ago, her entire family's lifestyle changed.
Upon the diagnosis, Lynch's mother quit her job and devoted all of her time to researching treatment options. Through her research, she found that small lifestyle changes were the only sustainable way to improve health.
"We'd go for walks after dinner, put spinach in our smoothies. She transitioned us from white bread to wheat," said Lynch. These incremental changes later became the foundation for Wishroute.
Lynch, a two-time Babson valedictorian, kick-started her company through the Babson Summer Venture program with David Chang in 2018.
Wishroute describes itself as a personal accountability service. Unlike in-person accountability coaches that can cost hundreds of dollars per session, Wishroute's team helps you to sustain healthy habits through personalized text messages from real people.
"You can't be accountable to a robot," said Lynch, referring to many AI-driven wellness apps and services. Most of these services have an 80 percent drop-off after week one, said Lynch. Wishroute has many users that have been using the service for over 10 months.
"We all wake up with these good intentions to take care of ourselves. We have everything we need but life just gets busy and we get tired and forget about what's important to us," said Lynch. "Suddenly it's the end of the day and we haven't followed through."
Wishroute offers two tracks—healthy eating and exercise, each at $30 per month. "The reason why people fail with change is because they take on too much up front. We broke it down so you can focus on just one thing at a time," said Lynch.
The coaches, called "wish guides," are available from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. to keep their clients on track. Wish guides could be personal trainers, nutritionists, or even stay at home parents who are just passionate about helping others. Regardless of their backgrounds, all wish guides are trained with Wishroute's specialized coaching methodology, which is inspired by Lynch's mom and the idea of incremental lifestyle change.
Wishroute works with existing fitness services and gyms such as Lynx Fitness Club, Club High-Rise and AMP Fitness, to keep its clients on top of their goals. "We are that missing piece to the puzzle—we want you to use the apps on your phone and the gym and help you stay accountable and keep using them. So we are not a competitor to those services," said Lynch.
Wishroute is still in its early stages, but has already accomplished a lot. The startup is currently halfway through an angel fundraising round, and its customer base is expanding fast. Its four full-time employees work out of the Babson Boston space, in addition to 10 remote employees.
"Everyone deserves a cheerleader, someone who cares and will help them feel encouraged and motivated to follow through," said Lynch. "That's what we want to be to our Wishrouters."
BostInno readers can try Wishroute free for a week and access the founding member pricing at $20 per month with code THEBEAT.
