CEO of NB FIT startup on how much it cost to build an MVP for entering the US market and how Silkway Accelerator helped

Syrga Tilekova, city — Bishkek, CEO of the FemTech startup NB FIT.

How it all began

I am the CEO and co-founder of the women's IT startup NB FIT. My specialization is Growth Product Marketing. I handle audience acquisition and optimize the cost of this process.

NB FIT is two years old. It all started during the lockdown. My friends and I were laid off from our jobs. We were free, so we tested one hypothesis. We settled on an online fitness service. We hit the right idea at the right time. We got our first 200 sales and launched the service.

The team consists of four co-founders: Nurgazy Ordabaev — a product designer performing multiple roles; Stanislav Kazantsev — a full-stack developer; Nurilya Barpieva — a women's health specialist with over 15 years of experience. A small but powerful team of professionals from various fields allowed us to create an IT business.

About the project

There is a gap in the world in the Femtech segment related to women's health. We help women during the most vulnerable period of their lives — after childbirth. NB FIT offers everything needed for post-pregnancy recovery. For the user, our service is a personal team of specialists.

Our programs consist of physio and fitness workouts, educational lessons, and webinars from trainers, psychologists, nutritionists, and specialists in other fields. The uniqueness lies in the fact that all content is created taking into account the features of the female body, whereas information on the Internet is usually suitable for male anatomy. We are also implementing machine learning. Based on it, we will predict user behavior and provide personalized content.

Over two years, we attracted 14,000 premium users from 73 countries who pay for content. The top countries by number of users are: Kyrgyzstan, USA, Turkey, UAE, Germany, Kazakhstan. More than a million unique users have passed through our service.

In 2022, we became winners of the Astana Hub Battle — an IT startup competition in which 97 best projects from all of Central Asia participated. Additionally, NB FIT went through the Silkway Accelerator, a joint program of Astana Hub and Google for Startups, having been selected from 330 applications.

What participation in Silkway Accelerator gave us

Silkway Accelerator is a kind of MBA, as a result of which we learned to manage serious business processes and build a scalable product. The program has excellent mentors. One of them, Alisher Hasanov, showed a different approach to running a business, urging us to test our developments sooner. Here, step-by-step instructions are not given, but the right questions are asked, and by answering them, you restructure your work processes.

After completing the accelerator, we began making decisions faster. We reduced the team. Now we are 8 people. We set up predictable sales. We changed the business model from E-commerce — one-time purchases — to subscriptions. NB FIT is the first women's health service in Central Asia operating on a subscription model.

About scaling

During the Silkway Accelerator, we tested our product in English in Los Angeles and Chicago. We created an MVP in two weeks with a budget of $700.

We chose the US market not by chance. In this region, we already had Russian-speaking users. For a long time, their number grew organically, thanks to a quality product. We understood that there are many difficulties with the medical system in the USA. It is complex and multi-level, and health startups try to simplify it. We found a problem and a target audience segment.

Entering a new market is like launching a new startup. Sometimes a founder has a great idea that, in their opinion, will solve a major problem. They create a high-tech product, release it a year later, and face reality where their idea is not needed by the market. We went the opposite way. We tested several videos through social media, made the first sales, and then created a service that we later refined. This allowed us not to create a long and expensive product while facing a lack of customers and marketing costs.

I do not recommend entrepreneurs follow standard stories in the market. First, ask yourself the questions: "Who and how will use my product?" and "How to find a client?". Talk to your potential audience. Conduct CustDev. This is the Holy Grail of any IT business.

During the accelerator, we also increased the percentage of payments from the USA and Europe from 20% to 30% without increasing the marketing budget. We started working with existing clients. We came up with a proper referral program that motivated people to invite their acquaintances.

In the next two years, we plan to grow in the CIS and US markets. In 2024, we will segment into the UAE market.

Recommendations

Be consistent. Entering the international market is individual for each business. Start with a small story. Make it successful in your city, country. Work out the business model.

Conduct thorough research. Learn about user behavior patterns and existing solutions in the new market. Try to make the first sales without investment. Pay attention to local business culture.

Ensure you have resources. Make sure the money does not run out halfway when things are just starting to work out. If you miscalculate, you can go into the red in the existing market and fail in the new one.