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.