Aarti Gill, Creating a fitter and healthier world

While Aarti Gill was studying in IIT Roorkee, she discussed her business idea with her friends in college. The desire to build something valuable started while she was pursuing electronics and communication in college, but Aarti only started up after she graduated from INSEAD. “I came back to India to give wings to my dream of creating a healthier & fitter world!” says Aarti who started up FitCircle.

I was never able to start something for 4 years after graduating from IIT Roorkee!

Aarti began her career with a start-up in Technology (IP) consulting domain. She led teams in various consulting projects. After contributing significantly to the start-up, she moved to CapitalOne to establish their mortgage line of business in India. Coming from a family with a service background, one would say that Aarti was far from starting up a fitness platform, but the support from her parents helped her go a long way.

Roorkee is the place where my perspective towards life changed completely

About 3 years ago, FitCircle was able to raise a few lakhs to get started. However, within 6-7 months they were running out of cash. “We realized we had raised far lesser capital than it was needed to run the business initially for 12 months,” says the founder. Wellness & Fitness was in the very nascent stages and investors were not ready to jump in & take a bet. In the midst of all this, one of her friends back from college, who had started the business with her, decided to quit.

So, here I was out of cash, with no co-founder, due vendor payments & next month’s salaries to be paid.

Aarti believes that it was one of the lowest phase in the journey of FitCircle. “However, I was quite perseverant and decided not to quit and here we are after 2 years with having a strong team, generating good revenues and making great progress in our industry,” she says happily. A fitness freak, Aarti starts her day with some quick HIIT workouts from FitCircle App.

She keeps her team motivated every day. “If a technology team member launches a new feature, a new sales member team cracks the leads, an expert gets a great review – we celebrate all of it,” she says. Recognising small wins drives her team to work better.

Throughout the journey, Aarti plans to travel around the globe with her family which has been delayed for a few years now, but she does not regret it. While working hard towards making FitCircle a success, she believes that hiring the right set of people is crucial for an organization.

If you hire the right people who are as passionate about the business as you are, everything is taken care of.

Three years in this journey, Aarti says that she has become more humble, patient and determined than she used to be. “While I appreciate small wins, my dreams have become bigger,” she adds. She ends by advising future womenpreneurs to dream big and always believe in their vision.

Website Link: www.fitcircle.in