Hevy · B2C · gym workout tracking app
Keep building the gym app through COVID instead of switching to home workouts
Rough 2020-early 2021, then compounding growth to 2M users
Workedpositioning-niche
What they did
When gyms closed in 2020, Hevy did not adapt to at-home workouts. The founders bet COVID would pass and that they'd come out better prepared than competitors who pivoted, and kept investing in the gym product.
What happened
About a year of stalled growth, followed by growth the guest attributes to compounding product work and New Year's surges.
In their words
Sub Club by RevenueCat · Cultivating Organic Growth with Viral Loops — Guillem Ros Salvador, Hevy“But we just had the thinking of like COVID will pass at some point, we'll come out the other end, and when we do come out, we'll just be better prepared than other competitors who maybe pivoted and wanted to do at-home workouts or something.”
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: 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: 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