Plenty of apps already track your miles, and Strava and Garmin do it well. Receipts, on the other hand, lives at the front desk: you tap-in when you walk into your studio or meet your run club in the park, and you earn toward rewards just for being there. Gyms get the retention tool they can’t build themselves, for free. Brands reroute the money they’d have burned on Instagram into the exact communities they can’t fake their way into, and convert at a far higher rate. Nike is already using it to power check-ins across its Project Moonshot marathon program.
Receipts is betting on the front door, not the feed.
We sat down with the founders, Victor and Steph, to chat about what they’re building, why they’re betting on IRL, and how they’re handing brands the keys to reaching in-person community.
Victor: Both of us have different narratives of how we got into the fitness world. But for me, it’s something that has been a huge part of my life for a really long time.
I was in a serious accident when I was four years old, so I think fitness, sport, being active has been something that I really try not to take for granted–ever. Fast forward a couple decades living in New York, I discovered the NYC running community, and that really changed my life for the better forever.
[Steph], you know, only started running a handful of years ago, and it was, like, BQ for Boston three times.
Victor: We relaunched in June, but in our chats with a lot of different people the past year–gyms, studios, brands, and our community of runners and athletes–we realized that there was one part of Receipts that was missing.
From the last year and a half [we built] the IRL component. So, this new version of Receipts now rewards people for showing up in person, and typically at the places they’re already at with their friends. There’s fitness studios, run clubs at public parks, and other spaces in New York City. We help those businesses drive foot traffic and engage their members.
And then on the flip side, we also help brands who are currently spending a lot of money on ads repurpose the money they’re already spending to directly reach folks, and in turn reward them for supporting local businesses.
Victor: It functions like a tap in. So you download and you’re earning towards rewards as you go and check in and show up continually with your community.
It’s still early days for us, but the attraction has been really wonderful. So far, we’re in almost 100 locations around New York and, yeah, I mean, we’re growing.
Check-ins are growing week over week, and on the brand side we’re also converting–from our understanding–at a much, much higher rate than Instagram.
MacKenzie: What’s the feedback been like from the gyms and studio owners?
Victor: So, before we fully rolled this out, we were just kind of experimenting with a few locations in New York.
A couple F45 studios, a couple of our local gyms here. And retention’s a really big problem for the industry. Especially in New York. They expressed a hard problem to solve: they want an engagement or loyalty program, but there’s only so much that they can offer.
We took that idea and kind of pocketed it for Receipts, because there’s all these brands on the demand side that want to reach these IRL communities
Tatum: That’s incredible.
Victor: We actually don’t charge the gyms or studios. We help them for free–and help solve the retention member engagement issue–and we make money on the brand side. And if this all works out, people get rewarded for being more active with their friends, in person.
Gyms and studios generate more revenue, brands convert at a much higher rate, so everyone wins.
Mackenzie: You’ve created a business model where you’re essentially a community pillar for these people, too.
Victor: We’re just bringing more to the user, especially in a lot of sports that are really expensive.
Mackenzie: Absolutely. Take running: if you’re marathon training and you have to fuel yourself before, during, and after, and Iyour shoes only last for so many miles. And to go to an event, not only are you going to participate in the event, but if you don’t live there, that’s a travel weekend.
I think the way that you’ve positioned yourself as a community pillar is really interesting, especially positioning the brands as the buy-in here.
You’re there to keep people coming back. I think you’ve really hit on something that’s missing, especially the IRL piece that I think a lot of people are missing and are flooding back to.
Image courtesy of Fit Insider
Victor: We leave our puck with some info cards at the front desks of our gym and studio partners. So, when folks come in, they see it and understand what is happening. They simply tap in on their phone.
We have some in public parks and on bridges around New York City, and these are great because people are running with their friends and they’re checking in and tapping as they go.
Hopefully, their friends are asking, “what was that?” And they’re kind of onboarding their friends on their long run.
Tatum: Do you guys have partnerships? I know you have gym partnerships, but for run clubs or those kind of organizations, how do you navigate that?
Victor: Yeah, we do. We’ve been giving pucks to some friends who are the leaders of some run clubs in New York City, and that’s been really great for us.
Video credit @lorragram on instagram
Mackenzie: I’m so interested in the way you’ve connected these three thing–studio and fitness, person, and brand–in a way that I think that like Strava or Garmin or some of these other apps are doing but not necessarily in person.
I want to hear more about the conversations you’re having with brands. How are you differentiating your business? Because I can’t imagine that you sell this to a brand and they’re not immediately saying, “yes, let’s do this.”
Victor: Great question. I mean, it’s like, it’s early days for us too. And so we now have our first handful of paying brands on the platform.
We’re working with Nike, Function Health, Hyperice, Create, Fazit, Myo Physical Therapy, Cadence, Pao Labs, SWEETFEET, Freaks of Nature, Huron, Pruzan, and have more in the tank we’re working to add.
There’s a natural inclination for all these brands to want to access IRL communities, you know, and it’s really tough to build that community yourself.
And it’s just a lot of work and it’s outside of the primary business that they’re focused on. And so allowing folks to direct access to these communities and high intent, high value customers. So, creating this other channel for these brands to really drive demand for the products that they’re offering is valued highly.
Tatum: What’s been like maybe your biggest surprise or challenge as you guys have been building this thing–pouring so much love into it, trying to bring people together.
Victor: The biggest challenge? Wow, I don’t know. I think one of the challenges, and we’re still trying to navigate this, is people really want custom experiences for their communities.
So we’re powering the rewards experience for Nike Project Moonshot as well. So Nike has a marathon training program in New York City every year. This is the first year where it’s open to everyone, and we’re powering their check-in and reward experience for the entire program for New York.
So every four check-ins, when you arrive at Nike events you get rewarded by Nike and their partners. This is a custom experience for them, and we’re finding out that more people want custom experiences.
We’re kind of just starting to explore what we can do with this kind of physical presence and verification technology that we’re exploring, so it’s been challenging to balance that with the core business of the network that we’re trying to build.
They kind of tie in together, and there’s a lot of interesting stuff we could do.
“Receipts is building a platform that rewards people for being offline and active, while supporting local communities, and helping brands repurpose money they would’ve spent on social media ads. Everyone wins except big tech.”
Receipts is available in the App Store.
Check ins are live in 100+ locations in NYC and spreading to more cities quickly (tell your gym or local run club if you want to get involved!).