Hevy · B2C · gym workout tracking app
Hire support first, then devs, a designer and a marketer, instead of staying two founders
Team of 10; bigger vision and far fewer co-founder arguments
Workedteam-process
What they did
About 2.5 years before the episode, the co-founders chose to hire rather than stay an ultra-lean, near-zero-cost indie duo. Order of hires: support, a developer, another developer, a designer, a marketer; 10 people now. Guest's rule: hire when your ambition outpaces your pace of development.
What happened
Able to amplify the product vision; co-founder product/tech arguments dropped sharply because they no longer hand work to each other.
In their words
Sub Club by RevenueCat · Cultivating Organic Growth with Viral Loops — Guillem Ros Salvador, Hevy“So, we just kind of gave it a try and we realized that we were just able to like amplify our vision for Hevy so much more.”
“Like we rarely have discussions anymore, just cuz the main thing that made us get into arguments was like I was doing product and he was doing tech.”
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
- 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: Charge $24 a year and don't keep testing prices, so users happily tell friendsGrew to 2M users on word of mouth; guest admits revenue isn't maximized
- 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