SPAR! - Challenge your friends. Put money on the line. Get better.

Hey Product Hunt! We're excited to share our app Spar with you. It's BY FAR the most effective way we've ever found to get off our asses and do things we aren't good at. The idea is simple: Make the cost of laziness higher than the cost of action. What started as a small side project by Matt, is now a product that has simply transformed our lives. I don't think I had read a whole book since 1993, and since I started using Spar I've read like 15. It combines financial and social incentives to help everyone get better together. Some of our favorite challenges are: Be ready to go by 8 am, Do 75 push-ups (every day), Read a chapter (every day), Drink 100 oz of water (every day), practice an instrument (2 hours per week), meditate 20 min (every day), and go to the gym (3x per week). You can use it to quit doing things too — I'm Sparring with Blake and his wife in a "no refined sugar" challenge for all of January. How it works: 1. Challenge up to five friends — Spar works best with friends because there is some social accountability. Spar doesn't strictly enforce rules, it provides a framework for you to do challenges with your friends. 2. Set a penalty — When you miss checking in for a challenge, you'll be charged the penalty. That's right, you get charged real money each time you fail to check in to your challenge. The money goes into the pot, and whoever has the least misses at the end of the challenge wins the pot. The higher the penalty, the less likely you are to miss a check-in. The more it stings, the better it works. 3. Prove you did the challenge by checking in with a quick video — This makes Spar super flexible (your challenge can be anything) and social (you share your progress with the friends in your challenge). It's kinda like a shared snapchat story with your friends who joined you in the challenge. And we didn't just make this up: it's based on psychology called loss aversion (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lo...). Basically, losing money really sucks. We hope you like it and that it helps you as much as it's helped us. Feel free to ask us anything!

I was a beta tester for SPAR in 2016. This app helped me go from no exercise (couldn't even finish a mile) to running a half marathon. The combination of loss aversion, competition and social accountability is super effective in creating new habits. Congrats to the team for launching!!

Definitely checking this one out. How did you come up with the name? Spar, or spara, means to save money in Swedish! 🇸🇪

Love the artwork on the home page!!!!

I love this idea and the illustrations. It's a great way to incentivize people to stick with their goals.

love this idea, I have had the same thought with some of the more difficult things in my life that I don't always get motivated to get done. Put money on the line. Very Smart!

This is so cool, I can't wait to use it with my friends!

I love simple ideas that leverage on human psychology. I'm going to download it today. PS: Quick idea: if all participants fail money are sent to charity ;)

Can't wait to give this a try. I downloaded the app and wanted to send invites to my friends. Is this a functionality that will be in the next release? Do you see this being expanded to groups larger than 5? Our office is in a constant struggle to eat healthy and this would be perfect for it!

Love the entire app is built based on a simple idea. A perfect illustration of the power of simplicity in execution. And the landing page really stands out!