After building a crypto social app to 500K users, serial entrepreneur Nilesh Rathore brings the same “make it feel simple” philosophy to health and fitness with KAAYA, now live on iOS and Android.
Most AI fitness apps are essentially chatbots grafted onto traditional calorie counting. KAAYA (https://kaaya.app), launching today with over 5,000 early users, takes a different approach: it’s designed to feel like texting a supportive friend who happens to know everything about your health data.
“People don’t fail at fitness because they lack information,” says founder Nilesh Rathore. “They fail because tracking feels like work, apps feel judgmental, and nobody’s connecting the dots between their sleep, stress, workouts, and nutrition. We built KAAYA to solve that.”
How KAAYA Works
KAAYA, co-founded by Rathore and Kamalveer Singh, pulls in health data from Apple Health: meals, workouts, sleep, recovery metrics, heart rate. Then it analyzes everything together through conversation.
The experience is simple. Chat naturally: “I had eggs and avocado toast for breakfast” and it logs calories and macros. Snap a photo of lunch, done. Ask for a leg workout, get a custom plan with form videos. Mention feeling tired, and KAAYA looks at your recent sleep and recovery data to give you context: “Your protein’s been 35g short daily this week” or “Recovery’s at 58%, maybe keep today’s workout lighter.”
What sets KAAYA apart from other AI fitness apps is the emotional side. Users pick their companion style: hype friend, chill buddy, tough love coach, or competitive partner. Early feedback keeps coming back to this. “First fitness app that actually stuck.” “Feels like someone’s genuinely in my corner.” That’s what users say.
The Builder Behind KAAYA
Rathore’s approach to KAAYA comes from a philosophy he’s developed across multiple products: build for people who just want things to work, not for engineers or investors.
His previous venture, Orb, showed this at scale. Built in 2022 at a San Francisco hackathon, Orb made crypto social feel as intuitive as Instagram. It hid technical complexity beneath an interface that required no blockchain knowledge. The product grew to 500,000 users, raised $2.3 million, and was acquired by Mask Network in 2025. That success led to speaking engagements at ETHDenver and appearances on Web3 podcasts.
“With Orb, people would tell us ‘I didn’t even realize I was using crypto,'” Rathore says. “That’s when you know you’ve succeeded. The technology disappears and people just get value. We’re doing the same thing with KAAYA and AI.”
Why AI Fitness Needs a Different Approach
The fitness app market is crowded with calorie counters and workout trackers. Most fail at long-term engagement. Traditional apps require manual logging that becomes tedious. Early AI fitness apps improved input methods but kept the same disconnected approach, treating meals, workouts, and recovery as separate problems.
KAAYA’s insight is that fitness is contextual. A workout recommendation means nothing without considering sleep quality. Nutrition guidance falls flat without accounting for training intensity. Recovery advice requires understanding stress levels and recent activity. The AI analyzes all these factors together, so guidance actually makes sense for each user’s situation.
The emotional component proved just as important. Fitness journeys are hard, especially for younger users who want support rather than lectures. Most apps are either coldly analytical or artificially enthusiastic. KAAYA lets users choose the approach that works for them.
What’s Next
With KAAYA live and growing, Rathore stays focused on the metric that’s driven every product he’s built: whether it genuinely helps people.
We measure success by whether users stick with it,” he says. “Not downloads, not engagement metrics. Do people actually want to use this a month from now?
Early signs are good. Users report that KAAYA is the first fitness app that became part of their daily routine rather than another obligation. That fits Rathore’s broader vision for AI: applications should feel less like software and more like having a capable friend who actually understands your goals.
Beyond KAAYA, he’s working on several other AI and crypto consumer products. All share the same philosophy: hide complexity, obsess over user experience, measure success by whether it actually helps. Technology changes. The approach stays the same.
About Nilesh Rathore
Nilesh Rathore is a serial entrepreneur and engineer based in San Francisco. He co-founded Orb (acquired by Mask Network in 2025, 500K users, $2.3M raised) and Dwellfood (served 100K+ meals), and has worked on apps serving over 100 million users. He holds an MS in Computer Science from Cal State East Bay. Outside of work, he stays active through workouts and trekking, cooks daily, and travels to get perspective on how technology can enhance real life rather than replace it.
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This story was distributed as a release by Sanya Kapoor under HackerNoon’s Business Blogging Program.
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