Usually, apps invite us to stay home and do as little as possible.
Meanwhile, Strava’s creators ask us we do the exact opposite:
Get outdoors as often as we can and make big efforts.
Strava started as a simple running app and now offers more than 140 sports activities, welcoming between 1 and 2 million new users every month.
How can we explain such success?
In this episode, my guest is Michael Horvath, the co-founder and CEO of Strava, to answer that.
According to him, he owes his success to 5 principles:
- Start small;
- Stop talking and take action;
- Study the role of V.C;
- Listen to your customers and not potential investors;
- Whenever possible, live according to Bruce Lee.
From Harvard to Silicon Valley, Michael Horvath’s life and career could have the appearance of a classic American success story.
That's without counting on his Swedish pragmatic side, without bullshit or business books.
Discover in this episode:
- What a Sweden-infused company implanted in the USA looks like;
- Why comradery can also be useful to capitalists;
- What are the (dis)advantages of bootstrapped growth vs. VC growth;
- How the Strava community can prevent 127 Hours-type dramas;
- Why it's better to flirt on Strava than Tinder;
- The KPIs to aim for when developing a freemium product;
- Why it's always better to treat your employees like stars.
As a bonus, Michael offers a 60-day free trial to Strava's premium service. To benefit from this offer, please visit https://www.strava.com/subscribe/gdiy
TIMELINE :
- 00:00:00 - Introduction
- 05:17:00 - A few words on Strava
- 06:25:00 - A few words on Michael Horvath
- 00:21:10 - The importance of camaraderie, whether on a boat or in a company
- 00:37:33 - How Michael created and sold two companies in the wild wild web
- 01:16:48 - The killer features that made Strava… strive
- 01:29:24 - How to consistently add value to an app
- 01:48:41 - The reasons why Michael is looking for a successor
- 02:21:27 - The traditional ending questions
With Michael, we referred to previous GDIY episodes:
With Michael, we spoke about:
Michael recommends to read:
If you've enjoyed this episode, please leave a comment on our LinkedIn and Instagram posts. You can also tag a friend to share this episode.
Enjoying the music theme? I owe it to Morgan Prudhomme. You can contact him here: https://studio-module.com.
Interested in sponsoring Génération Do It Yourself or in building a partnership? Please contact my label Orso Media via this form.
You can follow Michael Horvath on LinkedIn and Strava.
