For the founders of Plyo, a rewards app for college students who exercise on campus, the Minnesota Cup opened doors. Now it’s time to walk through them.
Plyo came out on top in the student category this year, winning $30K and giving the team a chance to present during the Minnesota Cup final. Peter Schultze, CEO of Plyo and one of Minne Inno’s 25 under 25, said while the Minnesota Cup provided a welcome boost, he’s glad to be back to focusing on the company. The winnings will help Plyo launch on five more campuses over the next year, beginning with one in the spring.
“We have met lots of mentors, gained lots of connections and potential future investors if we decide to raise capital at some point,” he said. “The overall attention has made things a lot easier for us.”
Schultze, a junior at the Carlson School of Management studying entrepreneurial management, came up with the idea for Plyo during his first year at the University of Minnesota.
“I’m really into health and fitness,” he said. “When I hit college, I was shocked at the lifestyle habits of my peers, as you can imagine.”
He learned that university administrators not only agree this is a problem, they’re pouring millions of dollars into trying to fix it, starting with new wellness facilities.
“They have all these programs, but student engagement is still really low,” Schultze said.
Schultze hopes to work toward a licensing agreement with universities. For now, the University of Minnesota is partnering with Plyo to support development of the app. That includes offering rewards on campus – like with UMN Dining and the bookstore – and advertising the service.
Schultze piloted the app on campus in the spring. It got enough attention to warrant spending the summer preparing for a more “official launch,” he said. He teamed up with Justin Buhl, co-founder and chief technology officer, to build iOS and Android apps. Plyo launched here about six weeks ago.
With the app, Plyo users earn points toward rewards while working out at one of three university recreation facilities. Rewards, like half off coffee at Starbucks, a $10 gift card to Lululemon, or a free Punch Pizza, come from nearly a dozen merchants of all kinds that pay a subscription fee to be featured in the app.
So far, users have logged more than 100,000 hours and redeemed more than 9,000 rewards while using the app, Schutlze said. Plyo has about 3,300 active users on campus.
