#6. How Apps Can Change the Habits of People - Yves Benchimol (WeWard)

Yves Benchimol is the CEO and co-founder of WeWard, an app on a mission to make walking a more rewarding part of people’s lives. In this episode, Yves and Tommy discuss the three pillars of motivation that WeWard uses to inspire people to get outside and take a walk: gaming, social, and rewards. You’ll hear the strategies behind their success in helping 20 million users increase their number of steps on average by 25 percent.WeWard is a free mobile app that converts steps into digital currency, which can be redeemed for offers, coupons, products, or cash. Yves has a master's in engineering and entrepreneurship and lives in New York with his family. Questions Yves Answered in this Episode:How did you become the CEO and co-founder of WeWard?What’s one business you find inspiring?Why did you start WeWard?How does your app motivate people to walk more?Of the three pillars, which impacts your consumers the most?Do you have any examples of features that didn’t work that you thought would?How did you decide when it was time to expand into other countries? And how did you decide what countries to expand to first?Does the U.S. present unique challenges or rewards to WeWard’s expansion?What approach did you take to amplify your rewards system, and why was that important for WeWard?What’s your favorite walk of the day?Timestamp:3:06 Yves’s background7:14 WeWard’s origin story & the beauty of walking11:11 The 3 motivational pillars13:38 What motivates people the most?18:58 Deciding when to kill a feature22:35 How we decided to expand to other countries31:05 Amplifying our reward strategy with games36:04 The BEST walkMentioned in this Episode:Yves Benchimol’s LinkedInWeWard