FASTEN YOUR BOLTT!

For the 21-year-old Arnav, it all started because of his unending urge to learn. For him, normal was actually boring. He, like most of us, didn't just aspire to take the road less travelled by, but actually took it. So, he dropped out from high school and that was not because of bad marks, but to fulfil his dreams.

When Arnav was younger, he was an international level tennis player and won various tournaments.Consequently, his childhood dream was to take up tennis professionally. Since he was a tech freak and a fitness fanatic he always was curious to find out ways to better his performance. For this, he always tried to track his fitness levels and incorporated variations in his workout. To achieve the same, since the early 2000s, he bought various fitness tracking devices and was always updated about the new products in the market and which could enhance his training experience. But unfortunately, owing to an arm injury, he had to leave this dream behind. But, that was clearly not the end of his obsession. Back at home, he was raised in an entrepreneurial environment. He was largely influenced by his dad, Mr. Lalit Kishore and wanted to follow his ‘foot’steps. Since he was 16, and before investing himself completely into Boltt, he worked with his dad in order to gain the necessary practical knowledge in this field. His dad is the one who brought international sports lifestyle brands like Nike and Lotto in our country. His dad started out as a licensee of Nike in India and eventually founded Lotto’s master franchisee Sports Lifestyle Private Limited (SLPL). 

Additionally, he also launched ‘Globalite’ on which Arnav worked extensively. Globalite, as known to everyone, is one of the first budget sportswear brands and was launched in order to carter the needs of those who could not afford expensive sportswear but still wanted apex quality. From there Arnav realized that the same is true when it comes to sports wearable technology and hence Boltt was born to provide the perfect balance between money and quality. So, even though it might sound all ‘sorted’ for him professionally, it actually wasn’t, and that was primarily because of the high expectations that came from home.Therefore, these were majorly the two reasons which compelled Arnav to create Boltt and motivated him to strike a balance between hardware, software, and service, which could actually make one fit. 

Building Boltt! 

Till now, it was just an idea. An idea which motivated Arnav and later the rest of his team. An idea which was exceptional and had the ability to be something huge. But, it was nonetheless just an idea. Hence, there had to be something done to express this idea and this was the beginning of a real struggle. For this, Arnav started extensively studying and researching on the sports wearable technology market. He started attending various conferences so that he could understand the nuances of this field better. One of the conferences that Arnav attended in Canada, was a huge milestone in the building of Boltt. In that conference, as he recalls, “there was a speaker who extensively spoke about a topic that was of my interest, and he said that even though there are a lot of ways to record data but the meaning is still missing”. This struck a chord with Arnav. After the conference, he met that speaker and discussed his idea with him, from there Arnav found his path and knew what needed to be done. Consequently, Arnav started building his team in India and one of the first person he employed was Sarthak Gandhi. Sarthak is the creative lead of the team. When I asked him that what made him join Boltt, which at that time was a ‘one man army’ and led by Arnav, his forthwith reply was that “I joined Boltt because of the clarity of thought that Arnav had, it was something unheard of, it was something new and with this it was like reinventing my own self’. Sarthak also told me that there was no office, to begin with. They used to brainstorm and work in different hotels and restaurants, sitting on their couches in their lobbies and were even thrown out of many of those places. But, that didn't deter them from pursuing their collective dream. Later, for the purpose of getting the sensors manufactured, both of them went on a work trip to China. But considering the idea was so novel and contemporary, they faced a lot of rejections from the manufacturers they met in the beginning, as those manufacturers could not visualize the end product. This came to an end when they approached Garmin which is a pioneer in wearable sensors and finally for the first time the idea was expressed in a physical form, i.e. the sensor was created. After Sarthak, there were another three of them who formed a part of the initial team. Prior to joining Boltt, all of them had pretty stable jobs, which they left. The reason behind that was only and only their belief in the notion of Boltt. So the mutual passion and conviction is what helped them sail through the initial hard days. Since then the team has grown in size and presently has 42 members.

What is Boltt?

Everyone who has ever used a fitness band or tracker would be aware that it is just a tracker (emphasis supplied). It only provides you with information which one might or might not be able to comprehend and even if one decrypts the information one still doesn’t understand the full use of it and how the information can be used to enhance one's fitness. Hence, the tracker is technically of no use to the consumer as it is unguided, and only knowing that you have taken 10,000 steps would be meaningless unless other fitness-related variables are also constantly monitored. Thereby, this gap in the realm of sports wearable technology is what Boltt strives to fill. It strives to scientifically improve one’s overall fitness levels with the help of Artificial Intelligence. At Boltt, the goal is to deliver the next generation of highly advanced connected technology, which the world has not seen till now. For this, they have partnered with Garmin. The company has come up with a unique type of sensor that is innately capable of capturing all forms of body data. This makes technology pervasive as it interweaves into one’s daily life. Hence, Boltt would not only keep a check on health and performance metrics but also at the same time would be analyzing, recording and attuning ones progress. All other activity trackers and wearables only give data, but Boltt’s takes leaps and bounds ahead by inferring the data and giving it meaning. To fulfil this goal, Boltt has its two flagship applications, the ‘Boltt Training’ App and the ‘Boltt Life’ App. 

Boltt Training is an app that will help you run and workout more effectively as it has hundreds of scientifically designed workouts and training plans. One of the most compelling feature that it has is a voice coach, the Boltt Voice Coach. This takes the unguided-ness out of the training and is like a ‘Pocket Coach’. It is a powerful Artificial Intelligence Voice Coach that will give dynamic audio feedback based on the user’s real-time performance and training. So, all you got to do is, put on the earphones when you are all set to workout/run and the Voice Coach will direct you what exactly needs to be done. It’s uncanny and wonderful at the same time. The second app, Boltt Life, is for the wholesome health and fitness. It, by analyzing the user’s sleep, activity and nutrition data via its sleek auto tracking features, provides guidance on these throughout the day. To fulfil this, it has a ‘Nutrition Panel’, ‘Activity Panel’ and ‘Sleep Panel’. Further, it is the most detailed analysis ever attempted by any mobile health application. This also has in itself, Boltt Interactive, which is a 24*7 text coaching. Boltt Interactive guides and supports the user in eating healthier, getting more active, and building better lifestyle habits. The more you chat with it, the more insights and information you get to this point. Its objective is to help accelerate the quality of life and to serve the same, it promises to keep the user engaged with insights on health, diet plans, fitness, sleep, etc. Hence, these two Apps make Boltt highly customizable and a range of one of the most sought after products. Why must one buy? Even if the gazillion features I mentioned above haven’t made you excited about the product, then just keep one thing in mind that this is not going to cost your pocket a lot, but not buying this would certainly cost your health a lot, and that my friend, is irreversible! Need another reason to buy? It is definitely way cheaper than any gym membership, exercise coach or the likes, hence give it a shot. So, mark your calendars now as October 2016 is around the corner and Boltt will be unveiled!