DOJO, a fitness, and sports oriented virtual company is the brainchild of our founder sir, Mr. Akshay Bavkar. A thought that struck him at an early age, while looking for a martial art class, came into existence and started functioning from June 2019. The initial team was set-up, and the company started running for the back-end work, technology, as well as the database. In November 2019, the DOJO Sports application was launched, which is accessible to all and free to download on the Play Store. After a few positive preliminary feedbacks and knowing it is what the people want, it was determined that the company would be officially registered, which happened in December 2019.
Now, having a black belt in karate, Akshay sir could not find any martial art classes at an early age. Having no technological advancements in those days, it was hard for anyone to search for classes near them. Since then, this idea stuck with him. Even after a few years, the same thing was observed. Google was there to find the nearby classes, but the relevant information required by the customers was not there. Studio or the class owners did not know how to handle the information online, what information is to be handed out and as such, they were clueless. So that is where it all began.
People usually ask, “Why the name DOJO?” And there is an interesting story behind it. DOJO is a Japanese word, meaning a practice center. In Japan, any center which practices martial arts is referred to as DOJO. So, the name DOJO was plucked out from there.
But when this name was pitched to the co-founder, Mr. Sugam Thale, and the initial team, they blatantly rejected it. They wanted a particular meaning behind the word, and the relation to the practice centers was not sitting well with them. The next thing they knew, Akshay sir came up with the meaning — DO Just Outdoor SPORTS. The team really liked it and they moved forward with this.
Failing and learning from our mistakes is something that we all do. Same goes with Akshay sir. DOJO Sports being his 2nd start-up, he learned a lot from the failure of his 1st one. Learning, failing, experimenting, on how to put forward the best one in the market. And thus, we got an improved version of the deal.
When he started his first venture, his focus was on fitness. He wanted to offer people a much more convenient way to get fit. We Indians like things that are easily available, so keeping that in mind, he worked on it. But that did not bear any fruit.
After a few years, he came up with DOJO Sports, which initially was meant to fill the gap. Being a martial artist himself, he knows that there is a lot of raw talent available on field, but because of lack of appropriate infrastructure and opportunities in states and cities, most athletes do not get the deserved recognition, and they miss out on big opportunities to turn their passion of sports into their career. DOJO Sports was initially all about this.
Gradually, there were modifications. Sports still being a major component of DOJO but now the focus is shifted more towards fitness. This variation happened due to the lockdown. Being chaotic, people’s lives were disrupted during the lockdown and eventually people grew more concerned about their health and fitness. When we researched on this, we became acquainted with the fact that not only athletes/players were concerned but citizens were concerned too. As human beings, when we delve into something or when we invest in something, we ponder upon lots of options. Giving people the ultimate freedom to choose from various fitness centers, gyms, or yoga studios, of their choice, is what we at DOJO offer people.
“When I say that we give the freedom to choose, then I am talking about the options we provide. We are not a center/gym/studio. We are just an application that facilitates customers to find the nearest possible fitness center/gym/studio without any hassle. We provide all the relevant information with due verification about your search and hand it to you on a plate, so you don’t have to look elsewhere.”, says Akshay Bavkar, CEO of DOJO Sports.
There are various other players in the market having a similar business model, for example — Justdial, but DOJO’s educational purpose is “fitness”.
We partner with fitness centers / gym / studios, and list them on our app as well as our website. Before this pandemic, our scope was limited to Mumbai and Navi Mumbai. But now, we provide online classes as well. And so, we are working all over India.
We at DOJO impart the following services:
1. DOJO It
DOJO Sports being the name of the company, we wanted to focus on the main reason it was started. Sports. @dojo_it is our social media platform where we explain about our application, and keep our followers entertained with fun posts on sports. After the gradual transformation to fitness, we keep our users informed on all things related to fitness. We have graphics in the form of quizzes, news, puzzles, comparisons and much more. We love to keep people informed about all the new happenings, with the app and the sports in general.
2. DOJO Athletes
DOJO Athletes (@dojo_athletes) is another one of our social media accounts, where we foster upcoming talented and hard-working athletes. As mentioned earlier, there is an abundance of raw talent available on the field and we do not want it to vanish. So, we help and promote athletes by sharing their achievements, their stories. We also conduct live sessions with various athletes in different fields and get to know their journey, on Instagram.
3. DOJO Sports
Our application is remarkably simple. Hassle free and detailed. Alike every other app, one must register with us to use the app. Once the user searches for a session or a class nearby, he/she will receive a list of the best classes nearby, which have been verified by our team. Further, the user can compare a particular session with the information provided like the price, packages, discount offer, etc. To keep our customers in loop, we have provisioned an option to directly contact the center/trainer, thus having a human touch and get additional information if need be.
4. DOJO Basics
DOJO Basics has been the latest addition to our company. DOJO Basics is a personalized membership experience, a platform for our partners to build their social presence through the services provided by us. We know the importance of social media in today’s age, and we help our partners to create a brand name online that upholds their reputations throughout.