HealthyWage, one of the startups that debuted onstage today at the TechCrunch50 conference in San Francisco, is a startup that incentivizes users to stay fit by paying them a reward.
At the beginning of the year, a person can submit their health basics, weight being the most obvious, and set a target at the end of the year. If they meet the goal, HealthyWage either pays them a reward, or matches and raises the user’s bet that they’ll meet their target.
With the nutrition data users enter, HealthyWage can track the protein, fat, carbohydrates and sodium a person consumes. It also has a social networking function so people can get together in groups to meet a goal.
Some judges at the conference provided some feedback about the company:
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Tony Hsieh, Zappos CEO: If we can get more employees not to be obese, that would help us. It’s a really interesting concept. The idea of paying someone to do something is interesting. You may want to figure how to separate the incentives. Not everyone is going to want to log-in twice a week.
Marc Andreessen, founder of Andreesen Horowitz, creator of Netscape: Loves the idea of rewarding employees for being healthy. There might be an adverse selection problem where people who need this the most are unlikely to participate.
Marissa Mayer, Google’s vice president of search product and user experience: Has some skepticism. You’re paying people to be healthy. The competition seems pretty stiff. What’s to stop WeightWatchers or other companies from rolling out similar technology? (HealthyWage says it’s free unlike WeightWatchers, which charges consumers around $400 a year).
Roelof Botha, partner at Sequoia Capital: Wonders about the incentives. Should it be to pay the employees to meet the target or should it penalize them for not meeting the targets?
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