Hevy · B2C · gym workout tracking app
Let users follow each other's workouts and suggest the most active users to newcomers
Strangers formed their own groups in-app; main growth engine behind 2M users
Workedproduct-viralityword-of-mouthretention
What they did
Hevy was designed from day one as 'Strava for weightlifting': users follow friends and see and compete on each other's workouts. A 'suggested users' cell used a rudimentary algorithm that put good, active users at the top, so newcomers without friends in the app still found people to follow. Social is treated as the main growth engine and a retention driver, since users invest both their training data and their community in the app.
What happened
Small communities of strangers following each other (and mini-influencers) formed in the app, the founders' 'this is real' moment; growth accelerated to 2M users with under $15K of ads. K-factor is still hard to measure.
In their words
Sub Club by RevenueCat · Cultivating Organic Growth with Viral Loops — Guillem Ros Salvador, Hevy“it was when we started realizing that little communities were forming on the app of people that we had no idea who they were.”
“people are forming these like little communities and like little almost influencers are forming inside the app with like the super rudimentary like algorithm we had for suggesting users. Good users would go to the top of that suggestion.”
“And it actually becomes like a pretty important retention driver, cuz not only do you invest so much into the product with your own data and tracking and analytics, but also with the community that you form on the app.”
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: 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
- 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