From the outside, Gymtrack looked like it was working.
Gymtrack was building connected fitness technology that used sensors embedded in gym equipment to automatically track workouts, with the long-term vision of making strength training smarter and more personalized.
The team had a bold vision. They were raising capital. Getting into top accelerators. Attracting attention from investors and large companies.
It looked like momentum.
And in many ways, it was.
But what makes this story valuable is not just the trajectory. It’s what was happening underneath it and how quickly things can shift when you’re building something ambitious from scratch.
1. Building Early Momentum While Still Figuring Things Out
Gymtrack started at a moment when wearables were just beginning to take off.
Instead of going direct-to-consumer, Pablo and his co-founder made a thoughtful strategic choice. They decided to go B2B and sell to gyms, embedding sensors into equipment to track workouts automatically.
It was a strong idea.
It also meant they were taking on a technically complex problem from day one.
Hardware, software, real-world environments, and user expectations all had to come together. And unlike many software products, this wasn’t something you could easily iterate with a lightweight MVP.
So from the beginning, they needed capital.
They started small. Grants, friends and family, angel investors. And like many first-time founders, their understanding of how much they needed evolved over time.
What helped them was momentum.
They didn’t try to raise a large round upfront. Instead, they kept building toward a number, getting closer, and then expanding as they learned more. That made it easier for new investors to come in, because the round always felt close to being done.
At the same time, like most early-stage companies, the product itself was still taking shape.
Not in a negative sense, but in the very real sense that building something new often means discovering the problem as you go.
Lesson: Early momentum and product clarity often evolve together. One doesn’t wait for the other.
2. When Story, Timing, and Environment Come Together
Getting into 500 Startups became a turning point.
Suddenly, the company had credibility beyond its local ecosystem. That helped unlock more investor interest and accelerate the fundraise.
At the same time, the vision itself was easy to understand and compelling.
The idea of walking into a gym and having everything automatically tracked, combined with the possibility of virtual coaching at scale, created a clear picture of what the future could look like.
That clarity mattered.
It helped them stand out in the batch. It brought in VCs. It led to a larger-than-expected round.
And importantly, it started attracting inbound interest from strategic players in the space.
This is often how things compound in startups.
A good idea, combined with the right timing and early signals, can create a strong narrative that travels faster than the product itself.
That’s not a flaw. It’s part of how early-stage companies grow.
Lesson: When the story is clear and the timing is right, momentum can build quickly across multiple fronts.
3. When Strategic Interest Turns Into Something Bigger
One of those inbound signals turned into something much larger.
A European fitness equipment manufacturer reached out after seeing the company’s progress.
Initially, they wanted to invest.
The team had to make a decision. They were already deep into a VC-led round, with signed term sheets and ongoing diligence. Walking away from that for a strategic investor introduced real risk.
So they stayed the course and closed the VC round.
But the story didn’t end there.
A month later, the same company came back with a different angle.
If not the seed round, then the next one.
That quickly turned into something even bigger.
Instead of leading a future round, they started exploring acquiring the company altogether.
What followed was an intense, highly emotional negotiation process.
Hours of back-and-forth. Large gaps in valuation. Gradual convergence.
At one point, they reached a handshake agreement.
For founders in their early twenties, just a couple of years removed from university, this was a surreal moment. The kind of outcome that changes everything.
And for a while, it felt real.
Lesson: Strategic conversations can evolve quickly, and sometimes lead further than expected.
4. How Deals Come Together (And Fall Apart)
After the handshake, the process moved into formal territory.
Term sheets. Legal documents. Due diligence.
The acquiring company sent engineers to evaluate the product. Teams got involved. Details were examined more closely.
This is where things naturally become more grounded.
Gymtrack was building something technically ambitious. Achieving the level of accuracy required in a real gym environment was not trivial.
As Pablo explains, even small inaccuracies mattered. “If I did 20 reps and you tell me 19, that’s just wrong.”
That level of precision takes time to reach.
At the same time, some of the product decisions the team had made along the way also shaped how the acquirer viewed the opportunity.
One example was the "smart pin," a sensor-enabled replacement for the standard weight-selection pin on gym machines. It automatically detected which weight a user selected and helped track their workout. The acquirer had initially found it particularly compelling. However, the team moved away from it after realizing the technology wasn't reliable enough with the sensors available at the time.
From a product perspective, that was a thoughtful decision.
From the outside, it changed part of what made the company exciting.
These things rarely come down to one moment.
They’re the result of multiple inputs. Technical feedback. Internal discussions. Shifting confidence.
And then, eventually, a decision.
As Pablo recalls, "One call… and it was over." After months of negotiations, the acquisition was called off, ending what had once seemed like a near-certain outcome.
Lesson: As deals progress, the evaluation becomes deeper, and perspectives can change along the way.
5. What Happens After the Turning Point
When the acquisition fell through, the situation changed quickly.
The company still had capital, but also a meaningful burn rate. Decisions had to be made fast.
The team reduced size. Reassessed direction. Tried to find a more focused path forward.
They eventually built a simpler product, one that helped gym operators make better equipment decisions using data.
It worked better technically.
But it didn’t gain strong traction.
Not because it lacked value, but because it wasn’t a top priority for customers compared to other problems they were facing.
Looking back, that became one of the clearest insights from the entire journey.
Not all useful problems are urgent.
And in startups, urgency matters.
Lesson: Even a well-built product needs to align with a problem customers already care deeply about.
Final Thought
What makes this story valuable is not that something went wrong.
It’s that it shows what building something ambitious actually involves.
There were strong ideas. Real momentum. Meaningful opportunities.
And also uncertainty, iteration, and decisions that only became clear in hindsight.
That combination is not unusual. It’s the nature of building from zero.
For founders, the takeaway is not to avoid ambition.
It’s to stay close to what’s real as you pursue it.
Because the companies that endure are usually the ones that balance vision with steady, grounded progress.
Where Is Pablo Srugo Today?
Gymtrack eventually shut down, but Pablo's entrepreneurial journey didn't end there.
Today, he's a Partner at Mistral Venture Partners, where he invests in early-stage startups across Canada and the U.S. He also hosts The Product Market Fit Show, interviewing successful founders about the lessons they learned building companies from zero to one.
The experiences from Gymtrack continue to shape how he thinks about founders, product-market fit, and venture investing today.
