#320 - Michael Horvath - Strava - You are what you do every day

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.