Allen Chen is the cofounder and CEO of Fitbod, a strength training app launched in 2015 that has since scaled to $38M in ARR. Prior to Fitbod, Allen started his career as a software engineer building high frequency commodities trading platforms. He holds a bachelor's degree in computer science from UCLA and a partially completed master's degree in mathematics and finance from Columbia University.
Key Takeaways:
- Fitbod was first founded in 2015, after Allen Chen left his lucrative finance career to team up with his former college friend, Jesse Venticinque, to build the strength training app they both wanted for their own workouts.
- For years, Allen and Jesse kept Fitbod lean and built the product to meet their own needs, choosing to bootstrap the company and focus on building a highly retentive core product before raising outside capital to accelerate growth.
- Inspired by Nir Eyal's "Hooked" framework, Allen and Jesse built habit loops into Fitbod around natural muscle recovery cycles that bolstered subscriber retention, as well as extrinsic triggers to bring subscribers back to the app more often.
- Fitbod has grown subscribers exponentially through two primary growth loops: organic word of mouth amplified by viral hooks built into the product experience, and performance marketing through Meta and other paid user acquisition channels, which the company optimizes based on LTV/CAC and payback period.
- Fitbod is already using AI to hyperpersonalize workouts for its many subscribers, and as AI continues to evolve, Allen expects it to unlock all sorts of additional applications within the fitness category that will further benefit human health.
Allen Chen:
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