Strava founders talk COVID-19, new features and more on recent podcast

In a recent episode of NPR’s How I Built This podcast, host Guy Raz interviewed Mark Gainey and Michael Horvath, the founders of Strava. As one might guess from the podcast title, How I Built This takes a look at successful companies and brands and discovers how they got where they are today. In their episode, Gainey and Horvath take Raz through Strava‘s inception, explain how the pandemic has affected their business and discuss their goal of constantly evolving and improving their app. 

Watch @NPR's broadcast: Strava Founders On Building Fitness-Based Communities | How I Built This with Guy Raz | NPRhttps://t.co/LQXo9IOpJW

— Stella☆ y Tigre (@StellaNelaStnza) February 5, 2021

Getting started 

Gainey and Horvath met at Harvard, where they both rowed on the school team. After graduating, they teamed up as business partners and focused on the internet, which then — in the 90s — was in its infancy. “We kind of missed that feeling of being connected to a bunch of people around fitness,” Horvath told Raz. “What if the internet could solve that problem for us? [What if it] could create the virtual team with this new technology?”

RELATED: Strava tips for new runners

Over a decade later, they created that virtual team, and Strava was officially launched in 2009. Gainey said their goal has been to reach one person since releasing their app. That person? The athlete. “If you sweat, you’re an athlete,” he said. “It doesn’t matter what pace you run, it doesn’t how hard you go.” Strava has managed to reach 76 million different athletes worldwide since its launch, and the number of subscriptions has only continued to rise in the past year.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CIynF_SncaE/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Making it through COVID-19

Already struggling when COVID-19 hit (Strava had to lay off a significant portion of its staff a few months earlier), Gainey and Horvath weren’t sure what would happen to their company during the pandemic. “How will we get through this?” Horvath recalled thinking. They didn’t need to worry, however, as they saw an explosion of interest in Strava, starting early last year and continuing through to 2021. 

RELATED: 7 more Strava excuses we’re tired of seeing

Horvath noted that Strava saw multiple months in 2020 with up to three million new subscriptions. “It’s settled down to about two million a month now,” he said. To keep up with this influx of athletes, the team at Strava worked to brace their system so it wouldn’t crash from overuse. They also continued to develop the app’s content, and Gainey and Horvath said Strava added a whopping 70 new features in 2020. 

Enabling accountability 

Athlete accountability and motivation are the main focuses for Gainey, Horvath and Strava as a whole. “We’re investing in [accountability],” Horvath said. “What people are lacking is that connection with others. So we’re building specifically around how you can use Strava together with the people that will help you stay accountable to your goals [and] get more out of the time you spend being active.” 

RELATED: Strava’s Year in Sport report tells the story of running during COVID-19

In the coming months, Horvath says Strava users can expect to see new challenges added to the app. Unlike Strava’s traditional challenges (broad, pre-planned challenges that users can enter alongside thousands of other subscribers around the world), these will be individualized. “We’re building a capability for you to challenge a few of your friends,” he said. There will even be group challenges that users can do with their friends, rather than against them. 

A lot has changed in the past year, and while in-person racing is not an option for many runners worldwide right now, Strava has helped keep athletes motivated to train. Horvath and Gainey seem to be intent on keeping it that way, and it sounds like Strava users are in for even more motivating features in the coming months.