Written by Will Jones
The AI-powered wellness app represents a new wave of companies emerging from Dallas–Fort Worth’s technology boom
Michele Balco spent more than two decades leading large technology transformations at a Fortune 100 financial services company. But the problem that turned the Dallas executive into a founder came from her own experience with health and fitness.
Her nutrition app did not know when she had slept poorly. Her workout app could not account for how well she had recovered or whether she had eaten enough to support her training. Even after working with trainers and studying nutrition, performance and recovery, Balco was still responsible for comparing the information and deciding what to do next.
That frustration became the foundation for QBod, a Dallas-based artificial intelligence fitness and health coaching app that connects food, workouts, sleep, recovery and personal goals.
“I came to see that people weren’t short on health data,” Balco said in written comments for Texas Developer. “What was missing was a system that could connect the information and help them understand what it meant.”
QBod and DFW’s Next Technology Wave
QBod is emerging as Dallas–Fort Worth strengthens its position in the North American technology market. Site Selection’s 2026 North American Tech Hub Index ranked DFW No. 1 overall, ahead of Washington, Atlanta, Chicago and the San Francisco Bay Area.The index weighs technology employment and job growth, digital connectivity and corporate facility investment. DFW added 47,100 tech jobs from 2022 through 2024, more than any of the 50 U.S. and Canadian markets in CBRE’s tech-talent analysis, according to Site Selection.
QBod reflects a new phase of that growth: experienced business leaders using the region’s technology expertise and advances in AI to build companies in new markets.
A Founder Shaped by Texas and Technology
Balco traces her approach to leadership back to her childhood on a West Texas cattle ranch, where responsibility was shared and the work had to get done regardless of the circumstances. She carried those lessons into financial services, leading strategic portfolios, building teams and overseeing complex technology initiatives.As AI became more important to that work, Balco began considering how technology used to organize complicated business information could be applied to personal wellness. At the same time, she was working more than 70 hours a week, raising a family and trying to prioritize her health.
“I had watched AI reshape the way businesses handle complicated information,” Balco said. “I began asking why that same capability couldn’t make personal health easier to understand and manage.”
Building a Coach, Not Another Tracker
QBod’s central feature, Coach Q, is designed to interpret a user’s information together and recommend what to do next. A change in sleep or recovery can shape a workout recommendation, while a schedule disruption can lead to an adjusted plan.The app includes nutrition and exercise logging and a Q-Score measuring daily progress across nutrition, fitness and recovery. QBod describes the platform as AI-native because the technology was built into its original architecture. Coach Q draws on published studies, peer-reviewed research and established coaching methods.
Turning Information Into Action
QBod is designed for people with specific health and fitness goals who cannot organize their lives around a trainer’s schedule. Active users range from busy executives and parents to athletes and people focused on building muscle, losing fat or improving performance.The company is betting that the next phase of fitness technology will be defined less by how much information an app collects and more by whether it can turn that information into useful action.
“Consumers shouldn’t have to act as analysts for their own wellness data,” Balco said. “Our aim is to connect the information and turn it into guidance they can actually use.”
