How Ladder grows

Three feedback buckets: (1) acute pain via in-app feedback forms that flow into Slack; (2) ad hoc plus recurring surveys, including an end-of-year survey of 80-90 multiple-choice and open-ended questions taking 45+ minutes, parsed with AI; (3) dogfooding by staff (encouraged, not required). Gives little weight to 5-10 person interviews in a diverse consumer base; takes care to write unbiased, non-leading questions.

Journal layer inside each workout: user logs reps and weights (distance for cardio). Next time that movement comes up, recommended weights are prefilled from the logged data. After each workout a recap shows progress since starting (e.g. '62% increase in dumbbell bench press'), PRs across movements, and journal history lives on the profile, building stored state that makes the app sticky.

A 'welcome workout' where the coach voiceover explains the exercise and why, and also tells users to pop up the journal, swipe up and input weights, and why it matters. Coaches keep dropping reminders in regular workouts ('check your journal for last week's weight'). Same approach used to drive widget adoption. Push/email come after as outer layers.

Runna skipped the casual tracking market Strava owned and targeted runners training for a specific race (marathon, 10K) with a customized plan that adapts to logged runs. Ladder similarly mapped segments (home vs gym, men vs women), sized each pocket, recruited coaches/personalities to attract each one, and adjusts sets and weights from logged workouts (progressive overload). Onboarding quiz answers seed the personalization.

Went through all five-star reviews; the common theme was 'getting results'. In fitness, results = consistency, so they set a north star of 4 workouts a week, later ratcheted down to 3 (backed by science). Product ethos 'don't make me think': user opens app, presses play, does the workout. Check marks, streaks and widget are all built around hitting 3 per week.

Calendar widget lights up each day a workout is completed and launches workouts. Not shown as the first thing (trust not yet earned); positioned later, made to look good, with step-by-step install instructions since most people don't know how to add widgets. Acts as a home-screen billboard reminding users of their third workout, and strangers who see it ask about it.

Nutrition was the clearest signal in the end-of-2024 survey. Researched from first principles what methods work and what users use today; built over ~a year (started early last year) and launched. Because 100 days is too short for retention, they judge it with compressed indicators: week 2/3/4 retention and whether users log consistently on day 1 and day 2. They segment 'hybrid users' who use both workouts and nutrition.

Onboarding asks many questions about who you are and what you want from a workout app, then pairs you with a specific coach whose style fits; different coaches serve different jobs (e.g. host vs his wife). Coach pre-selects the week's workouts, which can be customized in seconds.

Ladder added a live cheer feature so other users can cheer someone on while they work out.

Ladder signed actress/singer Hilary Duff for brand ads.

General Catalyst's growth fund finances up to 80% of a month's user acquisition spend (e.g. $8M of $10M in January), tracks that cohort, and is repaid from that cohort's earnings at ~10% annualized interest, however long it takes (e.g. 3 years). Non-dilutive and not a recourse loan. Available only to much larger, proven apps. Ladder used it.

Keep the in-product 'game' very simple: a check mark for each completed workout; three check marks in a week earns that week's streak. The widget carries the streak outside the app.