Ep #022 - Create a Social Platform for Massive Growth w/ Strava co-founder Mark Gainey
Aug 1, 2017
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Mark Gainey, co-founder of Strava, shares the startup story and growth tactics of the social platform for cyclists. They discuss gamification, device agnosticism, attracting venture capital, selling data to municipalities, and pivoting to better serve their audience.
Strava's success can be attributed to its device agnostic approach, gamified experience, and user-friendly interface.
By targeting a specific niche, such as the cycling community, Strava was able to tap into their enthusiasm for data and grow rapidly.
Strava's transition to a mobile-centric platform, along with their focus on speed over greed, has been instrumental in their growth and investor success.
Deep dives
Building a Platform for Athletes
Strava has created a platform that brings together athletes from different backgrounds and devices, uniting them in a gamified experience. By making it device agnostic, Strava has made it more engaging and viral, leading to its rapid growth.
The Origins of Strava
Strava was initially conceived as a virtual locker room for friends to connect and motivate each other through the internet. By supporting the cycling community, which was underrepresented in the market, and tapping into their enthusiasm for data, Strava found its niche and began to grow.
Expansion to International Markets
Strava expanded its reach globally, targeting cyclists and runners across different countries. The platform's ability to cater to different sports and the enthusiasm for cycling, in particular, has contributed to its continued growth in various regions.
Premium Subscriptions and Future Developments
Strava's premium subscription model is a major source of revenue for the platform. By offering additional features such as heart rate analytics and personalized leaderboards, Strava aims to provide a differentiated and valuable experience for its members. In the future, Strava plans to further enhance and tailor premium offerings, expand partnerships, and introduce new features like athlete profiles and social posts to foster engagement within the community.
The Challenge of Transitioning from Web to Mobile
The company faced the challenge of transitioning from being a web-based service to offering a seamless mobile experience. Initially, they assumed users would transition from the mobile app to the web platform, but they realized that mobile users preferred to stay within the app. This challenge prompted them to retool their team, hire people with running expertise, and invest in mobile-centric development. They successfully raised capital and shifted their focus to mobile, which proved to be a beneficial move.
Speed Over Greed: Importance of Investor Partnerships
Strava's founders emphasized the importance of speed over greed when it came to bringing investors on board. They acknowledged the pros and cons of accepting investor funding and recognized that having a smaller slice of a larger pie could be more valuable in the long run. Rather than holding onto a majority stake, they prioritized building a great team, offering ownership stakes to employees, and positioning Strava as a definitive leader. By doing so, the focus on doing the right thing ultimately led to positive financial outcomes.
Strava has created THE unifying platform upon which cyclists share their rides, amassing tens of millions of users, and creating a massive platform of paid subscribers and valuable data. They did this by making it device agnostic, gamifying the experience, and making it incredibly easy to use. The result? A service that's able to push more services and products to their customers, sell aggregated data to municipalities, and attract massive venture capital. Here, co-founder Mark Gainey shares their startup story and growth tactics.
