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Weigh in: FinishLine hopes to combine the surge in social networking with the increasing popularity of running and cycling. The problem: there's already a strong player in this field. Should FinishLine come up with a new strategy, or try to out run the competition? Check out the videos and story below and give us your take.

FinishLine promises to be the most exciting online application on the market for athletes. Unlike any program that exists today, it brings together powerful individualized training features with the unparalleled social networking capabilities of Facebook.

It targets amateur athletes in solo sports — at first runners, then cyclists and potentially many others further down the road. Consumers will love FinishLine because they will never have seen anything like it.

FinishLine will seamlessly upload the runner's time, calorie, and geographic information with no more than the press of a button on their cell phone. Not only does the application track people's run times, but it maps their running route, all automatically.

Later, the user can log in and compare her information — as much or as little of it as she likes — to that of other people in the FinishLine online community. She can share her information and, crucially, her goals and accomplishments, with everyone in her Facebook circle of friends. FinishLine also works with her to set realistic goals based on her personal information. As she progresses towards those goals, she will get words of praise and congratulations. If she falls behind or overexerts herself, the program might suggest changes to her routine.

The site will sponsor a leading Kenyan pro runner, who will share tips and advice with members of the community. FinishLine also offers her discounts on athletic gear as a thank-you for being a member and participating in the community. Finally, the program will feature product reviews.

Current programs available through Facebook are not in the same league. They simply track run time, spit out simple charts, and compile very basic rankings. The user must input times manually.

Outside of Facebook, the market leaders are MapMyFitness, Nike+ and Bones in Motion. The first offers manual mapping and some community features, but little more. The second is highly sophisticated, although it lacks mapping technology, but it requires the purchase of special pedometer and an iPod Nano. The third is the closest offering to the FinishLine from a technology perspective, but the distribution model is different in one very important way. Specifically, distribution through a telecom carrier (AT&T) via subscription model is a high psychological barrier to trial and user adoption.

The FinishLine business model is based on dual sided network economics. Its aim is to build a high involvement relationship with athletes by delivering a compelling and highly useful application and extract revenues from an advertiser base - the "money side" of the network. It offers advertisers a highly specific niched market audience, and will be poised to benefit from the shift in marketing spend from traditional media to online and mobile media as the advertising industry catches up to the where consumers are now spending their time. Behavioural marketing and geo-targeting technologies are hugely valuable to marketers, and the firms that own the relationships with the targets will be the winners.

In addition, Finishline will amass highly detailed information about its users. Consumer insight reports are highly valuable to firms catering to this segment, and the sale of aggregate user data is another significant revenue stream for Finishline. Later, after a critical user mass is established, a premium featured application is offered on a subscription basis, but this is assumed to be small incremental revenue, and the business model is not dependant on it.

As there are already participants in this market space, FinishLine must be rolled out quickly in order to have a chance to capture its share of the market.

Business Overview

Mission Statement

FinishLine is a Facebook-integrated application for amateur athletes in solo sports, initially runners and cyclists. It generates profits from highly targeted advertising, user fees and marketing partnerships. To attract and retain traffic, it offers route mapping, analytics, mobile alerts, training feedback, exclusive content, discounts, and the ability to share, compare and connect with other athletes.

Value Proposition

The FinishLine business model has two customer sets: runners and cyclists who use the application and marketers who want to advertise to them. To the marketers, FinishLine provides a direct, highly focused communications channel to their target market, namely runners and cyclists. To the athletes, FinishLine provides the simplest, most pleasing to use route mapping and training log application available from a mobile handset that also satisfies social needs by taking full advantage of the powerful Facebook social networking platform.

Brief Market and Product Description

FinishLine targets the tech-savvy, intermediate solo amateur athlete market, beginning with runners and cyclists. The archetypal customer is one who has probably not run a marathon, but may be interested in doing so one day and takes running fairly seriously. She runs two to four times a week and owns specialized shoes, clothes and other equipment.

FinishLine offers this person valuable services. It helps her track her improvement by logging her run data over time. It tabulates that data and gives her feedback on her progress, and sends her personalized tips for how to reach her goals as well as a newsletter with high-quality content and product reviews. It shows her popular running routes in her city. It connects her other runners to share tips and get insights, including some from including Olympic athletes who offer their expertise in discussion forums. It lets her share as much or as little of this as she likes: she can make her goals and achievements public, share her route and training data, or arrange to run in groups with friends old and new. If she has a compatible cell phone or a specialized running device, she can do all of the data uploading—route, distance, time, heart rate (with special devices)—seamlessly and automatically, making whole process even easier than a pencil and paper.

Company Description

FinishLine, Inc. is located in Toronto, Canada. Because its business model is extremely low capex (as described below), the company's staffing needs will vary as the software is developed, but will be quite low throughout. As of today, no staff have been hired. For most of the first four years, the entire operation will need no more than a staff of six (two unskilled and four skilled) in addition to two founding partners who do whatever needs to be done day-to-day.

Management Team

Since FinishLine is a simple, scaleable and low capex concept, its management team will be composed of just two active partners, one of whom has yet to be recruited.

Pieter de Koning, MBA '08 — product development expert Pieter has extensive experience as a product and development engineer and team leader at a major multinational. He is the impetus behind FinishLine, its chief evangelist, and a committed, self-taught industry expert. Pieter is closely connected to all members of the board of advisors.

Mobile device technology expert The second partner will be a software architect with extensive mobile handset experience, strong people skills, and management experience.

Advisors

Raja Khanna, LL.B. — high-tech and wireless entrepreneur Raja is founder of Snap Media and co-founder of QuickPlay media, both successful Toronto firms specializing in high-end wireless media. Clients include Bell, Rogers, Telus, CBC, and CHUM.

Vik Aurora and Wallace Trenholm — mobile device integration entrepreneurs Vik and Wallace are co-founders of Epoch Integration, a firm recently acquired by RIM. Their product allowed IT administrators' access to servers via their BlackBerry. Clients include NY Times, Interpol, and Mercer.

Bill McEvily, Ph.D. — corporate strategy and social networking expert Bill is a professor of strategic management at Canada's leading business school, the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto. He is an expert on social networking-based corporate strategy.

Gordon Henderson- Fund Manager at Tailwind Capital and Pro- sponsored IronMan Gord is a passionate and committed tri-athlete who competes professionally several times a year in IronMan competitions and marathons several times a year. He is intimately aware of all products and trends in the running and cycling Industry. Additionally, he is a Harvard graduate, and is a valuable sounding board on business strategy.

Michael Kosic — Engineer, MBA, Entrepreneur and Investor. Amongst Mike's broad spectrum of interests in technology and business, he is an early active investor in SkyMeter, a start-up resident in the MaRS centre. Through this investment, Mike has amassed significant subject matter expertise in GPS technologies. As an INSEAD graduate Mike enthusiastically debates any and all business concepts — a valued critic and problem solver.