The winner of the 2016 Outstanding Growth Award has a lot to teach us about what makes a tech company successful. Sure, fancy, cutting-edge software helps, but the most advanced technology on the planet is worthless if it doesn’t solve the daily complaints of the customer.

“We’re bringing new solutions to age-old problems,” said Woody Scal, chief business officer of Fitbit, Inc., winner of this year’s first prize at the 2016 ACG SV Grow Awards. He told Lisa Martin (@Luccazara), cohost of theCUBE, from the SiliconANGLE Media team, the problem Fitbit solves is one that people have thrown non-tech solutions at for eons.

Fitbit helps people “sleep better, manage their weight, eat smarter, and even be mentally and emotionally healthier,” Scal said. Those are not novel objectives, but Fitbit is approaching them in a novel way. “That’s really what I attribute our growth to,” he added.

Hard numbers

Scal offered some evidence to back his claims about Fitbit. He cited a program at Indiana University’s healthcare system where employees are using the device. “Since they started the program, 60 percent of them have lost weight, and 40 percent of the people who have diabetes have lowered their A1C,” he stated.

Fitbit is heavily involved in corporate partnering. He said that Target subsidized Fitbit trackers for all 330,000 of their employees “because they really saw it as a great way to get their whole company to be healthier, more active, and more fit.”

He said that half the employees at Fitbit are in R&D, so the company’s focus on software innovation is significant and will continue into the future.

Watch the full video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE and theCUBE’s coverage of the ACG SV Grow Awards 2016.

Photo by SiliconANGLE