#191: Yves Benchimol, CEO of WeWard — 20 Million Users. App Boosts Walking by 24%. Tens of Millions of Revenue. Behavioral Psychology.
08/01/24 • 45 min
WeWard is an app that rewards users for walking more each day. To date, they have 20 million users walking an extra 24% than before having the app. They provide rewards from corporate partners for hitting certain walking goals, and they’ve generated eight figures in revenue while doing so.
Yves has over 10 years of experience in creating and scaling innovative solutions for physical retail, as well as a background in machine learning, big data, web and mobile development, applied mathematics, and cognitive science, with degrees in entrepreneurship and Silicon Valley innovation from Ecole Polytechnique and UC Berkeley.
In this episode, you’ll learn these four important takeaways and much more.
- How he taught himself behavioral psychology to apply it to his ventures
- What he learned from Pokemon Go to build WeWard
- How they earn revenue from three sources and which is the biggest
- Why they’ve given $1M to charity as a startup themselves
Plus, you'll feel extra cool listening to this one because of his French accent!
🔗 PODCAST SHOW LINKS:
WeWard - https://www.wewardapp.com
Yves - https://www.linkedin.com/in/yvesbenchimol
Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products (book) - https://shorturl.at/Worpf
Influence, New and Expanded: The Psychology of Persuasion - https://shorturl.at/zpjFx
Lenny’s newsletter (product development) - https://www.lennysnewsletter.com
Duolingo (app to learn new languages) - https://www.duolingo.com
📈 JOIN EFI’S CLIMATE CEO PEER GROUP:
Become an EFI Climate CEO Fellow — Join North America’s top private peer group community for growth-stage CEOs in climate tech and sustainability. We’re a community of 80+ CEO Fellows, Alumni Allies, and Mentors (investors and post-exit CEOs) representing over $20B of market value or financial assets for climate solutions. Apply here: https://www.entrepreneursforimpact.com
📣 READ EFI’S NEWSLETTER:
Join over 20,000 entrepreneurs, investors, and innovators who get our three-minute read about changing the world through startups, finance, humor, and wisdom. https://entrepreneursforimpact.substack.com
✍🏼 LEAVE A PODCAST REVIEW:
To help more people discover the climate tech CEOs and investors we interview, please take one minute to review or rate this podcast. Since we don’t take any sponsors for this podcast, we appreciate this small gesture of your appreciation. Here are instructions: https://ratethispodcast.com/guides/where-can-people-leave-podcast-reviews
🤔 PODCAST HOST:
Dr. Chris Wedding is the founder of EFI (climate CEO peer groups), cofounder of Terraset (carbon removal), Senior Advisor at Javelin Capital (investment banking), Board member at World Tree (regenerative forestry), Board Advisor at DG Matrix (next-gen power electronics), Duke & UNC professor, ex-private equity investor, ex-investment banker, occasional monk, father of three, 2x ax-throwing champ (huh?), Time Magazine Person of the Year in 2006 (Google it), and super humble guy (as evidenced by this long bio).
WeWard is an app that rewards users for walking more each day. To date, they have 20 million users walking an extra 24% than before having the app. They provide rewards from corporate partners for hitting certain walking goals, and they’ve generated eight figures in revenue while doing so.
Yves has over 10 years of experience in creating and scaling innovative solutions for physical retail, as well as a background in machine learning, big data, web and mobile development, applied mathematics, and cognitive science, with degrees in entrepreneurship and Silicon Valley innovation from Ecole Polytechnique and UC Berkeley.
In this episode, you’ll learn these four important takeaways and much more.
- How he taught himself behavioral psychology to apply it to his ventures
- What he learned from Pokemon Go to build WeWard
- How they earn revenue from three sources and which is the biggest
- Why they’ve given $1M to charity as a startup themselves
Plus, you'll feel extra cool listening to this one because of his French accent!
🔗 PODCAST SHOW LINKS:
WeWard - https://www.wewardapp.com
Yves - https://www.linkedin.com/in/yvesbenchimol
Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products (book) - https://shorturl.at/Worpf
Influence, New and Expanded: The Psychology of Persuasion - https://shorturl.at/zpjFx
Lenny’s newsletter (product development) - https://www.lennysnewsletter.com
Duolingo (app to learn new languages) - https://www.duolingo.com
📈 JOIN EFI’S CLIMATE CEO PEER GROUP:
Become an EFI Climate CEO Fellow — Join North America’s top private peer group community for growth-stage CEOs in climate tech and sustainability. We’re a community of 80+ CEO Fellows, Alumni Allies, and Mentors (investors and post-exit CEOs) representing over $20B of market value or financial assets for climate solutions. Apply here: https://www.entrepreneursforimpact.com
📣 READ EFI’S NEWSLETTER:
Join over 20,000 entrepreneurs, investors, and innovators who get our three-minute read about changing the world through startups, finance, humor, and wisdom. https://entrepreneursforimpact.substack.com
✍🏼 LEAVE A PODCAST REVIEW:
To help more people discover the climate tech CEOs and investors we interview, please take one minute to review or rate this podcast. Since we don’t take any sponsors for this podcast, we appreciate this small gesture of your appreciation. Here are instructions: https://ratethispodcast.com/guides/where-can-people-leave-podcast-reviews
🤔 PODCAST HOST:
Dr. Chris Wedding is the founder of EFI (climate CEO peer groups), cofounder of Terraset (carbon removal), Senior Advisor at Javelin Capital (investment banking), Board member at World Tree (regenerative forestry), Board Advisor at DG Matrix (next-gen power electronics), Duke & UNC professor, ex-private equity investor, ex-investment banker, occasional monk, father of three, 2x ax-throwing champ (huh?), Time Magazine Person of the Year in 2006 (Google it), and super humble guy (as evidenced by this long bio).
Previous Episode
#190: Andrew Hsieh, CEO of Liminal — $35M Tech to Improve Battery Quality in Manufacturing. Ultrasound and Machine Learning. Late Night Idea Generation. Startup Genesis from YouTube video.
Liminal uses ultrasound and machine learning to create a new way to inspect battery manufacturing, elevate cell quality, and improve cost and safety. They’ve raised over $35M from investors such as our friends at ArcTern Ventures, EIF, and Northvolt, as well as the federal government, including ARPA-E and NSF.
Andrew brings a PhD and post-doc work at Princeton University to the creation of this venture. He’s also an Active Fellow and Board member, as well as a skilled photographer.
In this episode, you’ll learn these four important takeaways and much more.
- How they sell to customers (it’s not what you think)
- How they generate revenue from three sources of value
- How a random Youtube video about bouncing batteries led to the creation of this technology
- How he reads the late-night scribbles on the notepad by his bed each morning
🔗 PODCAST SHOW LINKS:
Liminal - https://www.liminalinsights.com
Andrew - https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-hsieh
Acquired (podcast) - https://www.acquired.fm
📈 JOIN EFI’S CLIMATE CEO PEER GROUP:
Become an EFI Climate CEO Fellow — Join North America’s top private peer group community for growth-stage CEOs in climate tech and sustainability. We’re a community of 80+ CEO Fellows, Alumni Allies, and Mentors (investors and post-exit CEOs) representing over $20B of market value or financial assets for climate solutions. Apply here: https://www.entrepreneursforimpact.com
📣 READ EFI’S NEWSLETTER:
Join over 20,000 entrepreneurs, investors, and innovators who get our three-minute read about changing the world through startups, finance, humor, and wisdom. https://entrepreneursforimpact.substack.com
✍🏼 LEAVE A PODCAST REVIEW:
To help more people discover the climate tech CEOs and investors we interview, please take one minute to review or rate this podcast. Since we don’t take any sponsors for this podcast, we appreciate this small gesture of your appreciation. Here are instructions: https://ratethispodcast.com/guides/where-can-people-leave-podcast-reviews
🤔 PODCAST HOST:
Dr. Chris Wedding is the founder of EFI (climate CEO peer groups), cofounder of Terraset (carbon removal), Senior Advisor at Javelin Capital (investment banking), Board member at World Tree (regenerative forestry), Board Advisor at DG Matrix (next-gen power electronics), Duke & UNC professor, ex-private equity investor, ex-investment banker, occasional monk, father of three, 2x ax-throwing champ (huh?), Time Magazine Person of the Year in 2006 (Google it), and super humble guy (as evidenced by this long bio).
Next Episode
#192: Evan Caron, Co-founder of Montauk Climate — Venture Studio Business Model. Incentivizing Top Talent. AI Using 10% of World's Power. Parametric Climate Insurance Innovation.
Montauk Climate is a venture studio that launches and grows startups in the mobility, adaptation, energy, decarbonization, and sustainability sectors.
Evan is a serial founder, power trader, board member, and investor with 20 years in the energy sector, including roles as Head of Venture Investing at Riverstone, a $40B energy investment and infrastructure firm.
In this episode, you’ll learn these four important takeaways and much more.
- How a venture studio works
- How he incentivizes experienced corporate executives to help build and lead the startups they launch
- Why compute is the current of the future, and how AI could be using 10% of global power in the years to come
- Why adaptive insurance using IFTT parametric functions is needed in a future disrupted by climate change
🔗 PODCAST SHOW LINKS:
Montauk Climate - https://montaukclimate.com
Evan - https://www.linkedin.com/in/evanc1
📈 JOIN EFI’S CLIMATE CEO PEER GROUP:
Become an EFI Climate CEO Fellow — Join North America’s top private peer group community for growth-stage CEOs in climate tech and sustainability. We’re a community of 80+ CEO Fellows, Alumni Allies, and Mentors (investors and post-exit CEOs) representing over $20B of market value or financial assets for climate solutions. Apply here: https://www.entrepreneursforimpact.com
📣 READ EFI’S NEWSLETTER:
Join over 20,000 entrepreneurs, investors, and innovators who get our three-minute read about changing the world through startups, finance, humor, and wisdom. https://entrepreneursforimpact.substack.com
✍🏼 LEAVE A PODCAST REVIEW:
To help more people discover the climate tech CEOs and investors we interview, please take one minute to review or rate this podcast. Since we don’t take any sponsors for this podcast, we appreciate this small gesture of your appreciation. Here are instructions: https://ratethispodcast.com/guides/where-can-people-leave-podcast-reviews
🤔 PODCAST HOST:
Dr. Chris Wedding is the founder of EFI (climate CEO peer groups), cofounder of Terraset (carbon removal), Senior Advisor at Javelin Capital (investment banking), Board member at World Tree (regenerative forestry), Board Advisor at DG Matrix (next-gen power electronics), Duke & UNC professor, ex-private equity investor, ex-investment banker, occasional monk, father of three, 2x ax-throwing champ (huh?), Time Magazine Person of the Year in 2006 (Google it), and super humble guy (as evidenced by this long bio).
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