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://strava.app.link/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 


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.