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A Kiwi who has cooked for the likes of Michael Schumacher and the royal family is on a mission to promote physical activity.
Scotty Diamond, along with co-founder Benji Pritchard, hopes to launch an app, called Fit Rewards, in the coming months that incentives exercise through a points-based system.
Theidea for Fit Rewards came to Diamond after he had a successful career working in kitchens, cooking for rock stars and royalty in China and London, but he had humble beginnings.
“I got kicked out of school in my last year and tried to get a job at Subway, but I couldn’t even get that. I ended up washing dishes at a restaurant called Serrano’s, which turned out to be one of the best places to start.”
“I ended up working at some cool events in London, like the Natural History Museum and the O2 arena, cooking for Kings of Leon, Metallica and the Pussycat Dolls. I had a contract role at Lord’s Cricket Ground during an Ashes series catering for close to 100,000 people over 10 days.”
Diamond also worked a stint at Buckingham Palace and was a chef on tour with the Mercedes Formula One team where Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg were teammates.
Diamond says his life was split between working hard and even harder partying, but that all changed in 2013 when he was involved in a serious car crash in Sweden. The crash led to six weeks in ICU, requiring lifesaving surgery and a year-long recovery. During this time he discovered the benefits of exercise, not only on the body, but on the mind.
“I started questioning if I was really passionate about being a chef,” he says. “I never really wanted to be one, but I just kept on working with really good people who saw potential in me.”
His introspection led him to get a degree in sports business, and while studying he had the idea for Fit Rewards.
“I wanted to combine my passion for health and wellness with my newfound business degree. So, I started Fit Rewards to promote health by rewarding people for taking action on their health.
Fit Rewards encourages healthy habits by rewarding users for daily physical activity with a unique points-based system. Photo / Supplied
“We don’t want to make it really difficult to earn these points. We like people having the opportunity to [get rewards doing] something they enjoy. The hope from there is that a 30-minute walk every day for a month would lead them down a different journey, like maybe joining a gym and changing their lifestyle.”
Diamond’s concept gained recognition through the Massey Grand Ideas competition, where he won the Māori Entrepreneur Award and the People’s Choice Award last year. He also joined the Creative HQ Impact Accelerator, where he refined his business idea and developed a prototype.
Diamond also brought on his start-up coach, Benji Pritchard, to be his technical co-founder, and the pair are hoping to release their minimum viable product (MVP) soon.
“We’re about to release the beta version and start testing with users. Our goal is to launch in New Zealand by the end of the year and expand from there.”
Luke Kirkness is the sports planning editor for the NZ Herald. He’s an award-winning journalist who also covered consumer affairs for the Herald and served as an assistant news director.
