Sessions has been acquired!
On February 8, 2011, just after leaving Boxee, I wrote the following email to a close friend and advisor.
I want to build and lead a meaningful business (meaningful in terms of its mission and scale) and I want my next 10 years to be about creating something that matters.
My instinct right now is to build expertise in health, wellness and behaviour change. And if I cast the vision bigger, Iād like to create a workforce of ālifestyle coachesāāāāan entirely new industry that exists to help people to do what the healthcare system doesnāt empower them to.
This is the seed from which Sessions grew.
When we started Sessions at Rock Health, I did all the coaching and Ben sat beside me watching, learning, and turning our frustrations into product features.
We started so manuallyāāācalling people, asking them questions, and listening to hundreds and hundreds of stories about peopleās lives and their universal struggle to build the best version of themselves.
We learnt that we had two challenges: to build a product that actually worked and to make sure people loved it.
Through everything, we held true to that, and the time we spent with Sessions members reinforced that weād made good progress towards our goals.
Late last year, we were introduced to MyFitnessPal. From the first call, we knew weād found kindred spiritsāāāMFPās founders Mike and Al spoke about MFP members in the same language we did. We could see they cared and were listening to their users. Most of all, they had built something that tens of millions of people loved.
Thatās why weāre so excited to share today that Sessions has been acquired by MyFitnessPal.
MyFitnessPal represents an opportunity for us to scale up our vision drastically.
As of this month, the Sessions team is joining MFP in their San Francisco office. Though our program is going to have to be reimagined for MyFitnessPalās 50MM+ users, our mission and vision remain unchanged.
Weāre thrilled to be their first acquisition.
For me personally, this is a big step. The feeling isnāt āyou made it!ā. Instead, itās a feeling of satisfaction that weāll be able to keep working on something we love into the foreseeable future.
MFP is a continuation for us, an opportunity to build the scale and reach of Sessions way beyond what we originally conceived.
Starting a company is hard. Selling a company is hard.
For long stretches Sessions has been an incredible grind. Pushing a boulder up a hill you canāt see ending is a fair description. The fear, the uncertainty, and the constant motion have required all of my will to maintain.
I am fortunate that I havenāt had to do it alone.
To Ben, youāve been a star. Steady, never down and better every day. You should be proud of what you did. Most peopleās first companies donāt turn out like this. For having faith and taking the leap when no-one around you understood, you have my eternal admiration.
Glennie, from the day Clare introduced us, you always felt like one of us. Your energy, your compassion for everyone that Sessions touches, your relentless positivity... we needed those to succeed.
To Sessions members, we learnt everything from you. For taking our calls and emails and messages while you cooked dinner for the family, snuck out at lunch-time or got ready for the weekend, thank you.
To our investorsāāāCraig, Joshua, Robert and Nikiāāāwe could not have done this without you. Thank you for your support, counsel and friendship. You gave us the fuel we needed to get this far.
To Halle and the Rock Health team, without your kickstart, none of this would have been possible.
To my mentors John, Daniel, Jeremy and Stephanie. Thank you. Youāve known all the ups and downs of this past two years and when things threatened to come apart, I relied on your help to keep them together.
To the Elephants, we did good. Thereās much more to come.
To my friends and family, for the love, advice, couches, money and careāāāyou know who you are and how important youāve been.
Most of all, to Jules. Thank you for trusting me, for being super-humanly patient and for never resenting how much of me Sessions has demanded. Your encouragement on the hardest days made carrying on possible. You are smart, fierce, funny, kind and more beautiful than I can comprehend. I promise you this will all pay off. I love you.
This is just a start. All the hard work is still ahead of us.
The journey is just beginning.