Tech Talk with Sam Leicht from Pridefit

Welcome to another tech talk where one of our clients shares their entrepreneurial journey and experience working with Redwerk. Expect to discover what it’s like to build and continually develop a community-centric fitness app. You’ll learn about the pivots, why it’s easier and much cheaper for startups to implement innovative solutions, and the results you can achieve with a dedicated development company working alongside your team.

We’ll also talk about trends in fitness and wellness, tough decisions along the way, and the personal beliefs that help drive steady growth. There’s a lot to learn in this tech talk, so stay with us until the end!

Meet Sam!

We invited Sam Leicht, Founder and CEO of Pridefit, to share his journey from a Broadway actor to a tech entrepreneur. He’ll discuss what it takes to oversee development as a non-technical person and the values and principles that Pridefit is built upon. He also shares why partnering with Redwerk has allowed his team to consistently delight their users with new features and capabilities. Let’s dive right in!

The Story of Pridefit

Hi, my name is Sam Leicht. I’m the owner of Pridefit, which is a fitness app for the LGBTQIA+ community.

My days really change all the time. It runs the gamut from working with our developers on new features in the app, to building new workouts, to coordinating with our coaches and our marketing team, to working with members every day so that they can continue to see fitness and nutrition results.

I had been a personal trainer and group fitness trainer in New York City before the pandemic. And when everything happened, everyone really needed fitness. They needed to move their bodies.

And I started posting on social media what I was doing for my workouts, different workout programs. And that’s when I really created this organic community of like-minded people. I didn’t set out to make a queer fitness program, but that is what Pridefit eventually became. We were originally called Lightning Health, which is a play on my last name, Leicht. And after a few months, it became very clear that a rebrand was necessary.

We’re not going to be the app that tells you that you’re going to lose 30 pounds in three months. Absolutely, we can help you do something like that. But making those promises to get people in the door, it’s not what we’re about. We’re founded on the principle of sustainable health. So we’re focused on how we can help you build long-term fitness and nutrition habits so that this can be the smallest part of your life for the rest of your life while still getting the results that you want to get.

During the pandemic, there was a really big boom on social media for myself personally, but then also for Pridefit. And we did a really phenomenal job of making sure that people had different types of workouts that they could do at home or that they could do at the gym as the gyms started to open back up. And the fact that we were able to cultivate this community on social media allowed it to be a very easy transition into a membership community as soon as we were ready to do that.

Our main goal at Pridefit is to make fitness accessible for everyone. So the main tenet that we abide by as a company, all of our employees, is how can we serve our members better? How can we help people feel more confident walking into a gym, feel like they deserve to move their bodies and be healthy?

Working with Redwerk

I met Redwerk at a time when we were making so many changes in our tech stack that I didn’t really understand. So one of my big requirements was just making sure that I was going to be working with a team who was going to be willing to slow down, hold my hand a little bit through this process, and teach me a little bit so that I can make sure that I am up to snuff in everything that we would eventually be creating within the app.

I am not a tech-forward person. I’m very focused on the fitness component of my business, which means that I need some kind of middle person to be able to connect me with what development is doing and what we are doing with our workouts. And project managers that can do that kind of collaboration, can do that kind of connection—it’s so essential. I’m learning every day about what development is, but project managers who are patient, who are incredibly communicative, who are incredibly respectful—it has been such a pleasure working with the project managers at Redwerk.

One of my really good friends is an app developer, and he referred me to Redwerk. I had interviewed probably 30 different app development companies, and none of them felt like the right fit. And it wasn’t until I had my interview with Redwerk that I thought, oh, I really think this is it.

And what really sold me was the way that they work with clients. Even in my initial meeting, the project manager who I was working with made such a positive impression. And not just because it felt like they were a really good person, but because their knowledge was so vast.

Once I interviewed with them, I was immediately impressed with the project managers who I was going to be working with. I knew that they were unbelievably talented, not just with their ability to manage people, but also in their ability to understand code and help me learn a little bit more about tech throughout the process. And they’ve turned out to be so patient, so kind, and most importantly, so unbelievably brilliant. They’re just some of the smartest people that I’ve ever worked with.

I’ve just been so unbelievably impressed with Redwerk’s ability to kind of run the gamut in terms of specialty. They have incredible coders, they have incredible project managers, and they have the ability to make this really seamless experience of creating an app.

I think what I was most excited about with these new program features that Redwerk developed was that we were going to be able to work with so many new types of members. We want to make sure that we have workouts in the app that are appropriate for all skill levels, all goals, all identities.

And when Redwerk and I develop a new feature, that just expands who we’re able to work with. So the biggest life change is that when we developed our new Bootcamp feature, we were able to allow for more Pridefit members to get their workouts in regularly, more Pridefit members to feel confident walking into the gym, more Pridefit members ultimately reaching their fitness goals.

It’s funny because it’s all important. The data connection, the analytics, the ability for us to have a tech stack that seamlessly integrates—that is unbelievably important. And of course, the flashy things are the new features that Redwerk has developed in the app. And I can’t really say that one or the other is more important. They both need to happen, and they’ve done such an amazing job of making those things happen.

When we look at the new features they’ve developed—a new type of workout program which has been unbelievably successful with our members. They’ve also allowed for us to have new onboarding flows and funnels that make it so much easier for us to get members integrated into the Pridefit community.

I think members are always so excited for new features to be dropped. So we’ve had overwhelmingly positive feedback in any of our drops that we’ve done. And it’s really exciting to get further feedback from members about what they want to see next. Because I know that that kind of development, that kind of coding, is absolutely in the wheelhouse of what Redwerk does. And so I know that it’s just the next step in the journey.

You know, all new businesses—there’s a lot of uncertainty. And any business partner that can help alleviate just a little bit of that uncertainty is a really phenomenal asset. And because Redwerk has so much experience in the app space, it felt really comforting to be able to collaborate with people who hopefully were able to bring that past experience to your business and lead you, very gently, in a direction that ended up being positive for you.

The collaboration process is just easy. I have the best project manager in the world who, in addition to being the smartest person in the room, always, incredibly timely, unbelievably kind, is just fun to chat with. I mean, come on, that makes it so that my job is so exciting every day.

To me, the baseline with any development partner is the ability to do the code. And what I think sets Redwerk above the rest is our ability to communicate effectively. Because that communication aspect can be the make or break in a relationship.

Everyone who is doing this app development should be able to do the baseline coding. What may not always happen is the ability to have the conversations about what the expectations of the project are, have the conversations about cost, have the conversations about what is and is not working. And that has really been the best part of my experience with Redwerk.

I went to school for music theater. I took a lot of classes on singing, acting and dancing. And that means that one of the most invaluable assets to me are my collaborators. So finding Redwerk—finding a development company that had such immense experience in the app space—that was going to fill a lot of the different holes that I had in my experience. And I think that that has been the absolute thing that I’ve been the most impressed with: Redwerk’s ability to bring the experience they’ve had with different apps in the past and make Pridefit the best app that it can possibly be.

I was absolutely nervous about outsourcing. I was nervous about the time change being really challenging to work together with my team. I was nervous about language barriers because that can end up being really costly when we’re not able to communicate properly. And I’ve been proven wrong in both of those counts. I’m so unbelievably happy with our choice to outsource to Redwerk, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

I’m not going to lie, development is a big part of my day and I wouldn’t have it any other way. This is kind of the bread and butter of developing an app. And I think it’s very telling that I’m excited to be working on development every single day. There’s always something new to work on. And the only reason that’s a really exciting thing is because the team at Redwerk is so phenomenal to work with.

Lessons in Leadership

You know what’s great about being a small business is that you’re never at the forefront of anything. And as much as that can be a very daunting prospect, it also can be really liberating.

You know, I look at something like Peloton where they have a phenomenal product and they are spending millions and millions of dollars on research and design of their product. And I can look at that and I can say, what part of this product would be really phenomenal for the Pridefit app?

And then I can go to my development team and they can say, oh, that’s already been made. It’s so much easier and cheaper for us to put that in your app now than if we were trying to do this first.

The biggest tech anti-trend that I’m excited about is getting rid of AI in fitness. Sure, AI can be helpful in so many different areas of life. I also am a firm believer that there are going to be parts of our lives that we really want one-on-one human contact with.

And I don’t know about you, but having AI create a fitness program for me without any kind of personalization, without knowing who I am, what my challenges are, what I’m working through, that’s not what I’m looking to. And I’m excited for Pridefit to continue to focus on that human interaction because that’s what’s going to really motivate people to want to be better, to want to improve their health habits. It’s not AI.

It feels a little cliche because I do own a fitness app, but fitness is where I look to really challenge myself because I know that if I am willing to challenge myself on a day-to-day basis with whatever fitness challenge it is, whether it’s training for an Ironman or learning a new sport or doing CrossFit, I know that that is going to make the rest of my life feel so much less challenging. And I think that if I want to be a better leader, a better partner, a better friend, that requires us to do hard things sometimes.

I know this is cliche, but I do work out a lot. I move my body a lot. And I do think that that enables me to have a drive in other parts of my life. I’m a big fan of studying dopamine (sounds very nerdy). And I know from experience and from the research that when we put our body through hard things, that enables us to be more motivated to do other hard things.

To balance out the bro-ey culture of dopamine, I’ll say my other big passion is music theater. I was an actor for my first seven years in the city. I was on Broadway in a show called The Lightning Thief, and I love singing and acting, not so much dancing. And I think that theater is such an incredible way for us to connect with each other, for us to tell important stories, for us to learn about compassion and see from other people’s perspectives. And I think that being an actor and being interested in the arts is one of the best things that you can do to be a better business person.

I don’t know if people don’t agree with this necessarily, but there’s a school of thought that positive reinforcement makes you weak. And I think this couldn’t be further from the truth.

When you look at people like David Goggins, who say that the only way that they can better themselves is to be real and to make themselves feel horrible so that they have the impetus to get better. I just asked myself, “How much better could you be if you would have just been kind to yourself?”

And I know from my experience anecdotally, but then also from what the research says, that lifting people up, helping them succeed, being kind, not treating yourself so poorly ends up getting a much better result.

I think people have a really hard time with the idea that positive reinforcement is the best way to go about relationships, the best way to get a certain product that you’re trying to get.

For whatever reason, we have in our heads that in order for us to achieve something great, whether that is maybe weight loss, whether that is making your own business, we have to be so mean to ourselves.

I don’t think that people disagree with this in theory, but in practice, we don’t think this way. And that is that positive reinforcement will get the best results 99% of the time.

I had to make the decision to split up with business partners, and I think that’s always a really challenging thing and yet a year later I know that it was absolutely the best decision that I possibly could have made for the company.

In the moment, it was horrible. It felt so world-ending. And yet, I think it’s a really good reminder that when you’re running a business, there are going to be roadblocks every single step of the way. And you need to trust your gut. You need to trust your friends and your family and your mentors. And you need to take all of these data points and make the decision that you think is best for your business. And that is all we can do.

I had to decide to walk away from acting. That was pretty challenging. I went to school for something and I did it for five years. Ended up being on Broadway for about a year before the pandemic happened. And I decided to walk away from that, especially in a position where I didn’t feel like I necessarily succeeded at everything that I wanted to do with it. It was absolutely the best thing that I could do for myself.

I wanted autonomy. I wanted for the work that I put into something to be reflected in what I got out of it. The best way to do that is through entrepreneurship, is by starting your own company. So is there a possibility that I will be an actor again someday? Maybe. But was it absolutely the hardest but best decision to walk away from acting and focus on Pridefit?

I’ve had to make a lot of tough decisions throughout the course of Pridefit, and who’s to say if they were the right decisions? But you go with them, you try and make the best of it, and you just keep on moving forward.

I have a couple of books that I would recommend and all for very different reasons. I really love the book Untamed by Glennon Doyle.

One of my favorite books is Mindset by Carol Dweck. It really talks about how we think about someone like LeBron having all this innate talent to start with, when the research is actually really clear. The reason why LeBron is as good as he is is because he practiced. And it’s so liberating to see research that shows that, hey, if you put effort into something, if you practice something and you continue to really try to get better at it, you will.

And it’s not about you being born with this innate talent. It’s that if you see someone who is incredible at basketball, they worked hard at it. And that means that you also can get incredible at basketball if you’re willing to work hard at it.

Another book that I read recently was How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie, which had been on my reading list for forever and I finally read it. And I was so amazed by how applicable it was today, even though it was written so long ago. He was very much a business person who believed in positive reinforcement and making people want to do business with you through kindness. And it’s one of the most important business books that I’ve ever read.

And just recently I read Let Them by Mel Robbins. And I ended up being so pleasantly surprised with the simplicity of the message and how easy it was to apply to my everyday life.

I’ve got a couple personal mottos. One is it’s okay to work hard. I think that Gen Z is a little, not to call them out, but Gen Z is a little bit allergic to looking like you’re working hard. It’s okay. It’s okay to want something. It’s okay to really strive for something.

I also think that when I’m looking for friends, when I found my partner, the thing that I’m most drawn to is when people are interested. Not interesting, being interested is very, very appealing to me because the world is so unbelievable. There are so many different facets that we can zoom in on, and if you’re not interested and you can’t see that, that there’s so much to be interested in, it’s a signal to me that you’re just not looking.

And I would say the third thing is that being a good person is worth it.

Closing Thoughts

Sam’s story is a powerful reminder that you don’t need a Computer Science degree to found a tech company. What you really need is passion and expertise, a desire to create value for your community. At Redwerk, we’ve had the privilege of working with a wide range of founders, from highly technical to those who are less tech-forward. We’re not afraid to take on projects that others have struggled with, because we are confident in our skills and committed to your long-term success.

If you need help upgrading an existing app or building a new solution from scratch, reach out to us for a free consultation. Tell us about your project, and we can start building a solution together.

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