Hevy · B2C · gym workout tracking app
Charge $24 a year and don't keep testing prices, so users happily tell friends
Grew to 2M users on word of mouth; guest admits revenue isn't maximized
Workedpricingword-of-mouth
What they did
Hevy launched below competitors (who were ~50% pricier) because it felt it hadn't yet earned more, then kept the price: $3/month, $24/year, $75 lifetime, with a generous free tier. It avoids running price experiments ($25, 50, 70, 100, 150/year) because in a social network people talk and constant price changes erode trust. Goal: make Pro 'an absolute steal' so recommending it is easy. Guest says jacking up to $75/year plus Facebook ads would not get them to 100M users.
What happened
Organic growth to 2M users with almost no ad spend; guest acknowledges pricing is 'not the most optimized'.
In their words
Sub Club by RevenueCat · Cultivating Organic Growth with Viral Loops — Guillem Ros Salvador, Hevy“If we're constantly experimenting with pricing, $25 a year, 50, 70, 100, 150, that user trust, especially because it's a social network and people talk, starts eroding over time.”
“And we think that people are more likely to tell their friends about it if it's like an absolute like steal and it's like absolute no-brainer.”
“It's definitely not the most optimized way to set up pricing for the app. But we have to balance something else, which is our main growth engine, which is social.”
Related topics
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More from this episode
- Hevy: At launch, go after the same search keywords your competitors use5-10 downloads a day at first, slowly growing
- Hevy: Let users follow each other's workouts and suggest the most active users to newcomersStrangers formed their own groups in-app; main growth engine behind 2M users
- Hevy: Pick three core pillars and ship a bare version of each, cutting everything elseShipped 1.0 quickly; some features designed then are still unbuilt years later
- Hevy: Keep contacting Apple after launch to get featured on the App StoreGot 'Apps We Love' in the US; COVID closed gyms the next day, erasing the boost
- Hevy: Keep building the gym app through COVID instead of switching to home workoutsRough 2020-early 2021, then compounding growth to 2M users
- Hevy: Ask for feedback inside the app all the time and stay in email contact with usersGuest calls it a great way to gather feedback; no numbers
- Hevy: Live on unemployment benefits, then at your parents' home, until the app paysReached ramen profitability about 1-1.5 years after launching paid plan
- Hevy: Spend almost nothing on ads, then hire a head of marketing to test paidUnder $15K ever spent, mostly ad credits; paid ads not cracked yet
- Hevy: Hire support first, then devs, a designer and a marketer, instead of staying two foundersTeam of 10; bigger vision and far fewer co-founder arguments