---
title: "Interviewing Stepan from Wyder.io: building Belgium's social coaching app — Bright Signal"
url: "https://brightsignal.fm/episodes/interviewing-stepan-from-wyder-io-building-belgiums-social-coaching-app/"
description: "Stepan from Wyder.io: Building Belgium's social coaching app. A founder interview on Bright Signal, the European tech podcast."
---

EPISODE 036 Founder 09 JUN 2026 54:56

# Interviewing Stepan from Wyder.io: building Belgium's social coaching app

[Download MP3](https://media.transistor.fm/a1010a3f/a8c8966d.mp3)

![Episode 36 artwork](https://img.transistorcdn.com/ZsJO2n6mgOlIn2q6BaH5rU-aXRab4RBhDZSJxOa6KBw/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:1400/h:1400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS8zODE3/MjBkYTg3M2RjNDQ4/ZjMwNWJhYTJhNTlh/NjZmNC5wbmc.jpg)

ORIGINAL EPISODE COVER · E36

EPISODE **36** DATE **09 JUN 2026** DURATION **54:56**

[Download transcript](https://share.transistor.fm/s/a1010a3f/transcript.srt) [View chapters](https://share.transistor.fm/s/a1010a3f/chapters.json)

EPISODE NOTES

## Show notes

Great conversation with Stepan Krivosheev, CEO and co-founder of Wyder, the Leuven-born endurance app betting that training should be social and personal at the same time. 🏃

We dig into the origin story, what makes Wyder the "first social coaching app," and how the three first-time founders went full-time just three months ago. Stepan walks us through the marketplace model for finding training partners at your pace, the new AI coach (€14/month, self-hosted on AWS Bedrock for GDPR reasons), and the brutal reality of integrating with Garmin, Coros, Polar and Suunto. We also get into their city-by-city growth playbook (1,400 users in Leuven, now with the move to Antwerp), why micro-influencers care more about brand alignment than money, the willingness-to-pay puzzle among triathletes, and the structural challenge of raising B2C money from European VCs. Plus a fully bootstrapped status update, fresh VLAIO grant in hand, and what the next twelve months and ~30 target cities look like.

🙋‍♂️ Guest: Stepan Krivosheev, CEO & Co-founder, Wyder (Leuven, Belgium)  
🔗 Website: https://wyder.io  
📩 Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stepan-krivosheev/  
📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wyder.app/  
🎵 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@wyderapp

-   (00:00) - Who Wyder is + meet Stepan
-   (01:46) - Origin story: from Ironman burnout to a founding team
-   (06:50) - What makes Wyder stand out + the ideal athlete
-   (10:00) - How it works: the workout marketplace
-   (14:18) - Cracking the cold start: 1,400 users, Leuven to Antwerp
-   (21:40) - Monetization: the €14 AI coach + the B2B lever
-   (25:27) - Wearables, Garmin's gatekeeping & the data battle
-   (29:05) - Inside the AI coach: structured vs free-form plans
-   (38:04) - GDPR, the AI Act & self-hosting the models
-   (40:08) - Bootstrapped, a VLAIO grant & why EU VCs avoid B2C
-   (47:45) - The next 12 months + where to find Wyder