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:

• #300 - Mathieu Blanchard - Ultratrail et Aventure - Commencer le running à 26 ans et devenir une légende de l’ultratrail
• #306 - Fanny Moizant - Vestiaire Collective - Bâtir un empire de la seconde main pour une consommation plus responsable
• #220 - Adrien Miniatti - Luni - Créer en 3 ans un leader mondial autofinancé sur l’Appstore

With Michael, we spoke about:

• Strava
• Swim, Bike, Run : Our Triathlon Story - The Brownlee brothers
• The Diary Of A CEO - Steven Barlett

Michael recommends to read: 

• The power of giving away power - Matthew Barzun
• Be Water, My Friend: The Teachings of Bruce Lee - Shannon Lee 

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.