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

Génération Do It Yourself

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.

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You can follow Michael Horvath on LinkedIn and Strava.