Amal Wakim founded Equalution, the Australian wellness app, with the aim of helping others transform their lives, drawing from her own weight loss journey.
Equalution offers personalised programs to cater to individuals' diverse health goals, without requiring them to sacrifice their favourite foods. By adopting this approach, the Equalution team helps its community maintain a well-balanced diet, resulting in long-lasting results — so don’t think burgers, ice cream, cheese, and wine are off the menu.
Below, Wakim opens up about the inspiration behind Equalution and the big pinch-me moment that made years of hard work worth it.
“My own 30kg weight loss transformation inspired my business venture. Much like many females, I’ve tried every fad diet possible, which only resulted in a rebound due to extreme methods that weren’t sustainable. I was on a quest to find a solution that allowed me to achieve and maintain results while enjoying life. As I became educated on nutrition, I discovered that you don’t need to restrict yourself to reach your health goals, and upon realisation and success of my transformation, I knew I needed to share this with the world.”
“A pinch-me moment was when we moved into the tech space and launched our mobile app. After years of manual work through FB messenger, WhatsApp and Google Sheets, we finally built our platform, allowing us to streamline everything, creating operational efficiency, and improving the user experience for our members. Being a non-technical founder, it took years and millions of dollars of investment to build the platform (many failures, too), so it was a surreal feeling the moment we were live on the app store. There were lots of celebratory tears and emotions felt at the time!”
“1. Collecting and understanding data is crucial, be a data-inspired company early on, as data doesn’t lie! 2. Hire slow, fire fast. The wrong people on the bus can be disruptive to the organisation. 3. Learning and development should never be neglected. You only know what you know - so keep learning!"
“It’s essential to support female-founded businesses as there needs to be more support in this area. A female is less likely to take the plunge and start a business due to the negative stigma that society places on female entrepreneurship, so empowering females in this space will give them the confidence to take the leap and belief in their abilities to do so, too!"
