Ever since he arrived in the US from Iran in 2012, Salar Shahini has found community through fitness groups. “Everyone said when I came here, if you want to meet people, the first thing you do is you go to a bar, you go to a nightclub,” he says. “But that wasn’t a comfortable environment for me.” 

Instead, Salar found the easiest way to bridge cultural differences and forge new connections was by going for a run with someone, rock climbing, or playing soccer. This was the case while he was studying computer science, and even more so after he completed his post-grad and founded a deeptech startup to help municipalities monitor and manage infrastructure assets. Salar was travelling to cities all over the US for work and each time he landed somewhere new, he looked to tap into the local fitness community. “But it was always difficult to find where these experiences were happening, or people who were interested in them,” he says. “I realised there was no platform built for this purpose, and I couldn't stop thinking about why this doesn't exist…”

A digital third space for sports 

In 2022, after selling his first company, Salar teamed up with co-founder Mandi Zhou to launch Sweatpals – an Austin-based social fitness platform designed to connect people to local sessions and events. As well as making it easier for people to find out what’s happening in their area, Sweatpals provides the tools for trainers and organizers to organise ticketed events, making it easier for people to monetize their specialisms. 

The point, Salar says, is to create a digital third space that can “empower grassroots fitness communities,” something that was lacking with existing platforms that were either top-down, too complex, or did not have the integration of social elements with transactions and payments. The fitness apps market in the US is already valued at $4.23 billion and is set to double by 2030, but it is a fragmented market. Some of the best-known apps are focused on specific sports; Strava, one of the biggest social fitness platforms, is just for running, cycling and swimming. Shahini believes Sweatpals can make its mark as an inclusive platform for fitness fans of all tribes and abilities. 

2 million monthly users 

Early momentum for Sweatpals started with Antler. Salar and Mandi joined the residency in Austin when Sweatpals was still just an idea, and left with a fine-tuned proposition as well as an initial investment. Since then things have started to snowball. Over the past year Sweatpals user base has grown from 40,000 to 800,000 registered users and it has around 2 million people coming to the platform every month. The company itself has grown to a team of 41 and it is active in 24 US cities and counting. Last year Sweatpals received a $3m funding round, led by a16z SPEEDRUN and Pear VC. 

Salar attributes the early growth to the fact that Sweatpals is, at its heart, a social platform, but now it is gaining brand recognition. “People recognize it in these cities, people share about it,” he says. “And it just resonates with people.” In many ways, Sweatpals is riding a wider cultural shift; Salar is far from the only person looking to non-competitive fitness groups for their socialising – be it a bouldering gym, or a run club. These days, young people are more likely to work out with their friends, than go drinking with them. “Especially since COVID, people's relationship with fitness have changed,” says Salar. “So people are using it not just to work out, but also to meet people, to date.”

Sweat, wherever you are 

So far Sweatpals has been predominantly US-focused. Now it is focusing on perfecting its product before pushing out to other regions. “There's going to be lots of building over the next year,” says Salar, who is still in startup mode with Mandi, clocking off at midnight nearly every day. “Expansion is going to be next.” Ultimately, Salar wants Sweatpals to be a go-to platform for people all over the world – exactly the sort of app he’d have had years ago during his own travels. “In the next five years, we definitely want this to be a very, very established platform,” he says. “So if you go anywhere, you can open Sweatpals, and that's how you work out, or that's how you get your entertainment, or meet people. It's all through movement and through sweating with other people.”

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