Hevy · B2C · gym workout tracking app
Pick three core pillars and ship a bare version of each, cutting everything else
Shipped 1.0 quickly; some features designed then are still unbuilt years later
Workedfeature-development
What they did
Guillem designed a broad first version; co-founder Desmond cut it down. They defined three pillars (workout tracking, analytics, social) and built a minimal but valuable version of each, aggressively excluding anything else, since it was two bootstrapped founders. Features designed 4.5 years earlier still haven't been built.
What happened
Got a 1.0 out quickly with a two-person team.
In their words
Sub Club by RevenueCat · Cultivating Organic Growth with Viral Loops — Guillem Ros Salvador, Hevy“So, from the very beginning, like we kind of had three pillars, which was tracking, analytics, and social. And we had to build an MVP of each of those three pillars.”
“And it turns out that I had features designed back in the day, 4 years ago now, 4 and 1/2 years ago, that still haven't been built to this day.”
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: 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