Interviewing Blaine Boyden from KovoAI

Welcome to Welty’s Words’ Interview Series!

There’s not much more I love than sitting down with someone who is passionate about their work, hobbies, or anything in life and having a conversation. At Welty’s Words, I aim to bring some of these conversations to life through a monthly (subject to change) interview series where I share insights from discussions with people building their careers.

Today’s Guest

Blaine Boyden, Co-Founder of KovoAI, is a friend of mine and current Senior at Wake Forest University, who not long ago thought he wanted to graduate and join a consulting firm like many of his peers. Recently, a combination of personal experiences and the sudden accessibility of generative AI changed his mind. When I chat with students, I often share that my biggest regret from college was not taking greater risks to build something, or at least taking advantage of the entrepreneurial resources available to students. That’s why Blaine’s story excites me so greatly. Let’s get into it, and I hope you enjoy the perspective of someone young and building!

The below responses have been edited for clarity and ease of reading.

What motivated you to start KovoAI?

Throughout most of college, I thought I wanted to study business and finance then join a consulting firm or bank. Until I studied abroad, which I understand sounds very corny, and greatly widened my perspective. I realized the flexibility and iterative mindset of the tech industry fits much more of what excites me in life. Not long after my realization, ChatGPT launched, and I couldn’t stop experimenting with it. I loved how the product easily enabled thinking through problems from different perspectives, and I began thinking of how I could use it to solve my own. I really enjoy fitness, but always struggle with the time and effort it takes to change up my workout routine, so I don’t get bored. Though my own personal struggle, KovoAI was born to help me, and now our users, have unique workouts every day.

How did you meet your Co-Founder? What is your working relationship like?

My Co-Founder Joe and I were friends before Kovo, and when I pitched the vision to him, he was immediately bought in. What’s great is he has the technical skills to build Kovo while I focus more on product vision, marketing, and overall user growth. It’s great for us to be able to bounce ideas off of one another, and we’ve optimized around our skillsets.

What advice do you have for other young founders who are hesitant to build?

Pick something that you are truly passionate about and take that first step. It will help you stay motivated if you believe in it. Another way I look at it is that most people never act on their ideas and take the first step. If you do, no matter whether you’re successful or fail, you will already be ahead for trying.

Shifting more toward KovoAI, can you share a bit more about the problem statement Kovo solves?

Absolutely, so as you know, Kovo was born from solving my own personal problem around building new workouts. There’s a ton of fitness information available out there, from classic forums to tiktok creators. However, there’s so much that it is often overwhelming both for people getting into fitness and people like me that are trying to change things up. I look at all this information as a vitamin or supplement. You can improve your existing routines relatively easily if you know exactly where you’re struggling. With KovoAI, we’re building a painkiller. We want our users to have a pain-free experience in building new workout plans and reaching their fitness goals, no matter their personal understanding of fitness.

AI is a hot space right now. What sets KovoAI apart from your competitors?

Our product is text-message based. We deliberately chose this as we feel many consumers have app-fatigue and want to provide a simple experience for our users. We hope our users focus on their workouts, and as a result, we’ve created Kovo to deliver text messages in an easily-accessible, frictionless manner

Earlier, you mentioned that ChatGPT ignited your desire to build KovoAI. What other AI tools are you using to accelerate building?

I continue to use GPT 4, particularly to help me with branding. Obviously, since I’m still in college, I have a lot to learn. What’s great about GPT 4 is I always have something to bounce ideas off of and refine them. Similarly, I use Midjourney to help sketch out visions for product and website design

What are you focused on this Summer for KovoAI? Any big new exciting features?

I’m super excited to focus on Kovo this summer. Right now, we’ve temporarily paused the product to rebuild part of our backend. We care intensely about user experience, and we now have the opportunity and time to make Kovo’s responses even faster and richer. Additionally, I’ve been focused on redesigning our UI to make it easier for new users to sign-up and onboard. Signup at our website and we’ll let you know when we’re back up and running!

Please note that KovoAI right now is paused for product improvements. If you’re interested in using Kovo, you can sign up and expect it to re-launch later this summer

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