A ranked gym workout app · Stronger competitor
Copy a rival's strength score and add game-style ranks for each muscle
Performed 'brilliantly' per the guest; Stronger later added ranks too
Workedpositioning-nicheretention
What they did
A competitor copied Stronger's strength score, added a rank for each muscle, and went all-in on gamification ('League of Legends for the gym') instead of mixing social, gamification and stats. Guest notes this appeals most to 15-23 year olds.
What happened
Guest says they 'ended up performing brilliantly'; Stronger then added ranks, but not as a core feature
In their words
The Superwall Podcast · Peter Gillan - My App Makes $600k/Year Using This Easy Growth Strategy (copy me)“That was one of our competitors that copied the strength score, but they kind of evolved it and went down the full gamification route. It was like League of Legends for the gym, which was such a great insight to see. They just went down one hyperspecific niche and ended up performing brilliantly because of it.”
Related topics
Get tactics like this every Monday
New tactics from the week's founder interviews, each linked to where it was said.
More from this episode
- Stronger: Post the same 6-second fade-in app screenshot Reel over and overEst. 150-300M views, a 100M-view month; low conversion and now fading
- Stronger: Copy a winning video across many accounts, changing a few words or colors each timeAdopted after a rival did it with ~10 accounts; no separate numbers
- Copy a rival's viral video format and post it from 10 accountsDownloads visibly ramped up; out-scaled the team that invented it
- Stronger: Design every feature to look great as a screenshot for social postsScreenshots are the main money-maker; founder claim, no numbers
- Stronger: Post 2-3 slide TikTok carousels of real, unpolished app screensHistorically their best-converting channel; weaker in the past year as 20 rivals copied
- Stronger: Post a rough founder video of a fun app feature before launch~15K followers in week one; then hit #3 in Health & Fitness at launch
- Stronger: Reply to comments with videos showing their lift as random objects in the appA series of viral videos; likely most of the account's 4.9M likes
- Stronger: Make everyone start a free trial first; free version only after they cancel~25% boost, their biggest ever; few complaints, but less sharing
- Stronger: Test when and how often the paywall shows before testing its wordingFounder says they now monetize per user among the best workout trackers; no numbers
- Stronger: Turn workout numbers into a strength rank users can show off12 months with no copycat; became the main marketing asset
- Stronger: Adapt viral video formats from other app niches, then test hooks by watch timeHow they find each new format; no numbers given
- Stronger: Keep content in-house; hire agencies only to scale a proven formatTwo founders make almost all content; few affiliates
- Stronger: Fund the app with government grants instead of investorsStayed bootstrapped; no amounts given
- Runna: Give each running influencer their own workout plan in the appGuest says it built a strong brand and rocketed up the charts; no numbers
- Build the new app as a tile-based game that AI tools can't copy yet