Our Story

My name’s Dylan, the builder of Risers.

The origins of this app go back many years: to 2016, in second year of university in Waterloo, Canada.

Back then, my girlfriend Klaudia (now my wife) and I were what we liked to call “gym buddies”. We helped each other get our butts to the gym when the other didn’t feel like it. We started to build amazing consistency…

…until…

…we got internships in different cities. Suddenly, I’d lost my gym buddy. The idea for an app called “GymBuddies” was born: a simple app to post a pic once you showed up to the gym.

I got to work, and we even pitched the idea at the University of Waterloo’s 5K Velocity Pitch Competition under a new name: “Huddle”.

Dylan on stage with a microphone, presenting a slide that reads “Introducing Huddle — for iOS and Android”.
Pitching “Huddle” at the 5K Velocity Pitch Competition, University of Waterloo.

I ended up shelving the idea, but vowed to one day bring it to life. Nearly a decade later, tools like Claude Code gave me the chance to reignite the project.

I’ve gotten back to work, and have spent countless nights and weekends working away.

Though fitness was the initial direction, I realized the formula of plans + witnesses was so much bigger. Health is just as much about the mind and spirit as it is about the body.

“Huddle” evolved into “Risers”: a social health app for you and your partner or inner circle. My obsessions with health and fitness, with self improvement, and with human-centric technology have found a home to flourish and come together.

And I’ve never lost sight of my north star:

What’s the app that I’d love to use with Klaudia every day to build consistency together?

We hope you and your inner circle love it too.

— Dylan