Better Know A Barcelona Startup: Mammoth Hunters (@MammothHunters1)

I’ll admit that Mammoth Hunters is one of the odder names I’ve come across for a tech start up, but the founding team assures me that it perfectly conveys what they are trying to accomplish and embodies their spirit. It also works as a perfect starting point for the history behind the dream of three guys: Néstor, Xavi and Oriol.

Oriol has a PhD in Molecular Biology and is an expert in mathematical modeling of biological systems (yep he’s smart). He is also a passionate mountaineer, climber and runner. Néstor is a physical therapist, expert in natural therapy, sport performance and nutrition and is an old friend of Oriol having trained together for many races.

While in the U.S., Oriol asked Néstor to help him train for several races (the Vancouver Marathon, the Mountains-to-Sound triathlon and many others). Néstor at the time was developing a new training method called Paleo Training that tried to simulate the natural way of movement of  ancient hunters gatherers given that this is how humans are adapted to do exercise. They agreed that Oriol would test out the method and would provide his scientific feedback. Néstor then proceeded to send Oriol a personalized training plan by email.

Oriol discovered that the Paleo Training was a revolutionary new way to train. He achieved his best times ever training only half the time he had done before and with no injuries at all!

Time passed and Oriol moved from Seattle to the Bay Area, there he began drinking from the startup culture of Silicon Valley and one day, hiking in Kings Canyon National Park, he was enlightened with a vision: to create an online personal trainer to help people (like himself) get in shape in an efficient, fast and fun way.

In his next visit to Barcelona, Oriol and Néstor met for a coffee in a bar near Plaça Molina and there, on a napkin, they sketched the first draft of what would become Mammoth Hunters. This might sound almost like a cliché but there was really a napkin in this story. Oriol is a romantic and he wanted a napkin!

The team had a missing link, however. Oriol knew how to create the AI behind the program (and after an MBA at ESADE, how to run the company), Néstor as expert on nutrition and training had all the knowhow, but any decent technology startup needs THE ENGINEER and this one was Xavi.

Xavi is a Telecommunications engineer and expert on online security, project management and systems. He joined the team after experiencing himself the effects of a busy life on his health and lured by the dream of creating a company that would do good to the world.

The rest, as they say, is history. Oriol left his job and spent some months learning to write PHP and made the first prototype. Néstor worked hard with his patients to create an efficient and motivating training program that even people that had never done exercise could do. He conducted many tests in in his clinic with dozens of patients getting amazing results. Xavi, meanwhile, took care of setting up all the infrastructure, he managed the development and organized schedules, releases and all the quasi-magical things that engineers do.

They launched their first very early Beta in December 2012 and by May 2013 they had gathered enough feedback from users to know that the idea was viable. Shortly after, they launched a crowdfunding campaign and raised 20,000 EUR. There was however a crucial moment in December 2013 when they realized that they were heading in the wrong direction. They had spent their resources on developing a web app and focused only on training. After a thorough survey with their users they found out that what they really needed was a mobile app and also nutrition programs. So they decided to pivot, heading back into the development phase and created a mobile APP that was just released last Friday for Android.

Now they are in growing at a rocketing pace. They have received some financing from ICF and a couple of developers thanks to Telefonica Talentum  and are now hiring more!

Mammoth Hunters is now the official app for Paleo Training, a quickly growing gym franchise. It is also the perfect complement to the Paleo Diet, which is the main trend in nutrition in the US and soon in Europe.

The future?

Knowing the team they are going to give everything to make this app an indispensable tool to have a healthy life. They have the talent to succeed and most importantly, an almost insane will to help people be stronger, healthier and happier.

So, what does Mammoth Hunters do?

Mammoth Hunters is a tool to shatter all the barriers between you and healthy life:

You want to get in shape or lose weight but don´t know how?

Mammoth Hunters helps you with a personalized training and nutrition program and plenty of information and resources so you learn all the tricks.

You don´t know what to eat to have a healthy life and lack the motivation to follow a diet?

Mammoth Hunters will give you nutrition plans, let you track your weight and set achievable goals to keep you motivated.

You don´t have time?

Mammoth Hunters training program only takes 15 min 3 or 4 times a week. This is enough!

You don´t want to go to a gym?

No worries, Mammoth Hunters helps you train at home and with no need of equipment, just your body is enough!

You are afraid of injuries?

Mammoth Hunters’ training program is 100% personalized and maximizes the return on sweat while minimizing the risk of injuries.

A personal trainer is too expensive?

Mammoth Hunters is ridiculously cheap for the cost of a couple of beers (one if you are in the US) you get a 100% personalized plan! This is 100 times cheaper than a personal trainer!

You get bored easily, lose motivation and don´t enjoy working out.

All workouts are fun and surprising and always variable so you never get bored.

Mammoth Hunters takes care to remind you when to train and the guided workouts make it easy for you to do so. And the program is so efficient that in just a few days you see results, you feel stronger, healthier and happier, the best reward ever after a good training session!

Overall our aim is to create extrinsic incentives to motivate people until they develop their own motivation.

Here a video made by Oriol explaining how the APP works.