Andrea Baba, FitCo: Digitizing Fitness Centers in Latin America, Ep 125

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><span style= "font-size: 24pt;">Andrea Baba, FitCo: Digitizing Fitness Centers in Latin America, Ep 125</span><br /> <br /></span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Andrea’s first experience as an entrepreneur was starting her own Zumba studio when she was 18 years old. Within a year of operating, she started to expand her business, hiring more instructors and gaining more clients. However, Andrea saw that managing her business solely on Excel spreadsheets and notebooks was limiting her company’s growth. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;"> </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In true entrepreneurial spirit, Andrea decided to find a solution to her own problem. Together with her co-founder Alex, they set out to build a tool that would help fitness centers in Latin America to scale their businesses. And Fitco was born. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;"> </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">I sat down with Andrea to talk about how she combined her passion for fitness and her background in finance to start Fitco in Peru’s budding startup ecosystem. We also discuss their experience at Techstars’ Boulder Accelerator as the first LatAm startup to be accepted into the program and how Fitco has responded to the COVID-19 pandemic.</span></p> <h3><span style="font-weight: 400;">Becoming Fitco’s first client</span></h3> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Managing a Zumba studio meant that Andrea was doing everything from teaching classes to answering Whatsapp messages from clients to managing the payroll. To take the next step in her business, she needed a tool that would help her scale her business in an efficient way. After several mockups, Andrea put her product to the test and her Zumba studio became Fitco’s first paying customer. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;"> </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Listen to this episode of</span> <em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Crossing Borders</span></em> <span style="font