Jogging to success
Published 3 December 2010
Tony Piedade has gone from business administration student to social entrepreneur after setting up a jogging website which has users in 66 countries.
Joggingbuddy.com was set up in August 2008 and has just relaunched with new features, including a facility to log your runs, an events function and a one-million-mile challenge leading up to the 2012 Olympics.
Tony, who graduated in 1999 and has worked in e-commerce, banking and as a strategy consultant, has set up a series of activity-based social networks, mainly around his own interests.
Joggingbuddy.com was the first and was inspired by Tony's awareness that it is easier to go jogging if you have someone to do it with. "I built some of the sites around my interests as I realise that in order to be successful you need to know your customer," he said. He has now extended the buddy brand to encompass other activities, including motorbiking and expeditions, and owns 240 site names.
There are 11,000 people registered on the Joggingbuddy.com site, 7,000 of them in the UK where it started. Joggers register for free and are asked what their goals are, ranging from keeping fit to running a marathon. Women can say if they don't want to jog with a man. They are then matched up with other joggers in their area. Tony describes it as "like Facebook groups, but more interactive".
Find out more at www.joggingbuddy.com.
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Contact: Marketing and Communications, University of Brighton, 01273 643022
