About Us

Mike Vinogradov and Egor Akimov have been working side by side for the past 10 years to create Zihi. Mike is a world-class coach in the sport of orienteering and also holds a PhD in economics. Egor is a PhD-level sports scientist and former professional Nordic skier.

In 2012, Egor and Mikhail came up with the idea to collect their accumulated scientific and coaching experience in one place. If they were able process this information with mathematical algorithms to create sports science-based training plans, this would be a great tool for endurance athletes everywhere. Egor and Mikhail’s idea was not to be tied to one single coaching technique but used proven knowledge of several dozen top coaches, as well as published scientific evidence. The alpha version of their platform was called "Coach Decision Support System Using Fuzzy Logic Algorithms".

In 2016 the first sketches of Zihi as a web platform were created by a designer. Two developers have joined the team. A prototype of the platform began to form.

In the same year, Egor tested a triathlete who came to the sports laboratory in Wisconsin where Egor was working.. After the test, they discussed Egor’s plans for Zihi. This is how Egor and Revere, the third co-founder of Zihi, met for the first time. Revere, a strong triathlete, raced in the Ironman World Championships in Nice and Kona in 2019. He is also a serial entrepreneur in the behavioral health and sports tech spaces.

In 2020, a Wisconsin-based venture capital fund, The Idea Fund of LaCrosse, became Zihi’s first outside investor. Zihi raised a pre-seed round, which enabled Egor, Mikhail, and Revere to hire a strong team of developers.

In the summer of 2021, nine years after the first discussions of Zihi algorithms, training plan generation functionality for runners was launched. After that, the Zihi team made progress by leaps and bounds:

• In 2021, The team was joined by the first ambassador from Denmark - Viktor Hald Torup - a participant in the Beijing Olympic Games in speed skating.
• Since mid-2021, Zihi mobile apps have been available in App and Google Play Stores.
• In December 2021, almost 200 athletes became beta-testers to provide feedback on Zihi’s Nordic skiing training plans.

In early 2022, Zihi’s XC-ski training program became available to everyone. The approach is based on thousands of coaching rules and patterns including the Norwegian polarized model: roughly 80% aerobic training and 20% high-intensity training.

As of early 2022, the Zihi team consists of nine professionals, including an expert digital marketer, our newest team member. We have begun development of training plans for cycling and triathlon, and will launch these later this year.