By Shruti Menon Seeboo
LetsBe made waves in corporate wellness by sponsoring 28 participants from leading organisations for the prestigious CIEL Ferney Trail which was held on September 14, 2024. One of Mauritius’s oldest and most beloved trail races, the CIEL Ferney Trail attracts over 3,500 participants annually to La Vallée de Ferney. LetsBe was not only sponsoring these participants but also hosted a prize-giving ceremony for the 10-kilometer race and sponsored awards for the 18-kilometer and 35-kilometer categories. This sponsorship underscores LetsBe’s commitment to promoting health, fitness, and community engagement.
LetsBe has provided comprehensive support to the participants, including personalised advice from doctors, nutritionists, and psychologists, as well as access to fitness coaches and gym facilities for nearly three months. This approach reflects LetsBe’s dedication to integrating holistic support with its platform to achieve outstanding results in corporate wellness.
LetsBe is set to further transform the corporate wellness landscape in Mauritius with its revolutionary product, the Caval Smartwatch. Jayraj Lutchmun, founder of LetsBe dives more into the concept and impact of LetsBe platform and its integration of the Caval Smartwatch which marks a significant advancement in how businesses approach employee engagement and productivity. Excerpts:
- Can you share the story behind the founding of LetsBe? What inspired you to start this venture?
It all started during my first few months working in Oil & Gas in Nigeria. I got malaria and had to go to the hospital for treatment. At the doorstep of the hospital, there was an old lady who was very sick. She couldn’t get treatment as she had to pay 50% upfront for the expected treatment cost. As I continued my journey over the years in Nigeria, my experience about access and affordability to healthcare became more concerning. And this is how I started LetsBe – I wanted to start my own business to solve a Social Pain.
- What were some of the initial challenges you faced when launching LetsBe, and how did you overcome them?
Being Innovative in a value proposition is challenging. Vendors, health care professionals aren’t used to the new mode of service delivery. And same applied to the target market. Lots of educational and awareness must be done prior to real execution on the market.
- How did the idea for the Caval Be Smartwatch come about? What specific needs or gaps in the market did you aim to address with this device?
As each person is different, I needed to find a means to give a customised experience to each individual. And each day’s life experience is different for an individual. I needed a means to collect this information to give a refined service delivery. This is when I thought about the Smart Watch. Today, Smart watches are available at different price points and different models. However, this information given are looked at by the user over the first few months and then ignored. Moreover, it is an AI which relates the same information to all persons having the same lifestyle and age group.
But these pieces of information are of interest to health professionals who can better advise a person over time. There is the other aspect of reliability of the data. Many smart watches incorporate sensors at a certain quality and cost to be saleable at a certain price point.
- Can you walk us through the development process of the Caval Be Smartwatch? What were the key milestones?
Reliability of data is key for health professionals to take proper decisions. We worked for months on right sensors, intervals for data capture, presenting them in the right format. But just after Covid, it was very hard to travel to travel to the manufacturing plant in China and the supply chain of processors and sensors were disrupted.
To make things better today, we are partnering with a US based company which is specialised in medical data. This company has already 95 patents active.
The next generation of Caval will be a Band with higher quality systems and enhanced data treatment.
- How does the Caval Be Smartwatch integrate with the LetsBe platform? Can you explain how the watch and app work together to support users’ health and fitness journeys?
The data sent by Caval smart watch goes in our system and are treated for trend for each individual. These are then analysed by LetsBe’s Heath Professionals to advise each individual. The wearer will be able to see the trends on the App and notice the difference in health and fitness performance over time- based on the advice given by the health professionals.
- What are some of the standout features of the Caval Be Smartwatch that differentiate it from other fitness trackers on the market?
Caval smart watch isn’t just a watch. It is a statement that the wearer is working for his/her best self- in terms of health and fitness. It is a means to have health professionals monitoring and advising the user regularly. The next generation of Caval will be able to predict the potential diseases that a person can be subjected to in the near future and health coaches can advise preventive measures to cater for them now.
- Why was it important to develop a platform like LetsBe specifically for Mauritius? How do you see it impacting corporate wellness in the region?
A person is a single entity with his/ her own body challenges, life experience and aspirations. However, health professionals services today are in silos. For example, an individual may have work performance issues which might translate to be snacking more, taking more salt, and thus picking up on weight. Going to a doctor or nutritionist won’t solve the root cause issue in this case.
But a holistic approach where a board of psychologist, doctor, nutritionist and fitness coach trying to understand the root cause and empowering the person to get out of this issue would better suit the situation.
Mauritius has an increasing rate of diabetes, cardiovascular related issues and work stress. And Mauritius has people of different ethnicities which makes it a good test bench for LetsBe.
Companies already offer lots of Wellness programs for their employees. But it is very difficult for them to go to individual level and cater for several aspects of the lives of their employees and over extended amount of time. LetsBe and Caval are engineered just for this customised care and over extended period of time. Everyday can be good for a person, but when a sudden problem arises, that individual knows that there are health professionals who knows his/her and can give proper advice on the action to be taken.
- What feedback have you received from users and corporate clients so far, and how has this influenced your approach or product development?
Corporate staff couldn’t imagine that their employer could cater for their individual pains at that level and are so thankful to their company. This re-enforces their belonging and enhances staff wellbeing.
These remarks have driven us to gamify the experience of corporate users. Our new version will include many events that the company can initiate through the App.
- Looking ahead, how do you envision the role of AI and advanced technology evolving in the realm of fitness and wellness? What future innovations are you excited about?
New technologies are developed quicker today and these offers much more tools to service our customers. LetsBe will always privilege the human approach while using new technologies. Letsbe firmly believes that each individual is unique and has to be understood with human empathy.
- How do you plan to expand the capabilities of the Caval Be Smartwatch and LetsBe platform to further support individuals’ fitness journeys and family wellness in the future?
Caval as a smart wearable is a tool for LetsBe to better understand an individual. Continuous development and new technologies will be embedded in Caval for this purpose.
The other services which will be coming next year are under development and will be revealed after testing. I cannot give more details now.
- What led to the decision to focus exclusively on B2B and corporate wellness at this stage? How do you see this strategy benefiting both companies and their employees compared to other potential markets?
Companies have an increasing need to retain their talents. Moreover, different stakeholders want companies to be SDG compliant, and their product & services originate from personnel who are healthier. LetsBe enable companies to do this.
- Why did you choose to focus exclusively on B2B and corporate wellness at this stage? What advantages do you see in targeting this market segment over other potential audiences?
The working class represents the majority of the population demographic of Mauritius. These individuals face the highest stress of work life balance and increasing need for healthier behaviours. These persons are more prone to chronic diseases if they aren’t cared for correctly.
