Why We Built Izuke
I love running, marathon PB of 3:27, still chasing sub-3. But for years, wherever I lived or traveled, I ran alone.
Seoul, 6am, just me and the Han River. London, Osaka, Hong Kong, laps around parks full of people running the same route. Every city, same problem. No easy way to find a runner to run with, and I wasn't about to slide into a stranger's DMs and ask.
Even with friends it wasn't easy, someone always faster, someone always apologizing for slowing the other down. Same problem, just closer to home. Back in Ho Chi Minh City, running the same stretch of the Saigon river for the hundredth time, it hit me: this wasn't a Seoul problem or an Osaka problem, it was everywhere. People run alone not because they want to, but because there's no easy way to find the right person.
The hardest part was never the run, it's the night before, wondering if you'll actually get up. You will, if someone's waiting for you. That's the moment Izuke was built for.
My co-founder, an engineer who believed in it as much as I did, joined and we built it together. Izu means gathering, ike means strength, the strength you find when you show up together.
We're starting in Ho Chi Minh City, one run at a time. No one should have to run alone unless they want to. If that's you, come find your person.
Emmanuel, founder