Sub Club by RevenueCat
Cultivating Organic Growth with Viral Loops — Guillem Ros Salvador, Hevy
Wed Jun 28 2023Description
Guillaume Ross, co-founder of Hevey, shares his journey in the app industry, from starting as an app developer to creating a workout planning and tracking app. The app's success is attributed to its social aspect, community building, revenue milestones, user engagement, pricing strategy, organic growth, and plans for social growth without paid user acquisition. The company's team expansion, co-founder relationships, hiring practices, and use of a podcast platform are also discussed.
Insights
The Social Aspect Drives User Retention
The social element of Hevey's app is an important retention driver for users, creating a sense of community and competition.
Building a Lean MVP with a Focus on Social
Hevey focused on building a lean MVP with tracking, analytics, and social features. They excluded non-essential features and successfully launched the app.
Community Building and Growth Strategies
Little communities formed on the app, leading to more users inviting their friends. Measuring the K-factor was crucial for growth.
Reaching Revenue Milestones and Accelerated Growth
It took time for Hevey to generate enough revenue, but they reached milestones and experienced accelerated growth through product improvements and leveraging New Year's resolutions.
Success Factors: User Engagement, Pricing, and Organic Growth
User engagement, low pricing, and organic growth contribute to Hevey's success. They focus on teaching algorithms great results, use ratings as a ranking factor, and rely on organic growth instead of ads.
Building a Social Growth Engine and Team Expansion
Hevey aims to build a social growth engine without paid user acquisition. They are currently focusing on product development and organic marketing, with plans to experiment with paid channels.
Co-founder Relationships, Hiring, and Running the Business
Removing technical constraints improved co-founder relationships. Hiring the right people allows for multitasking and focusing on future goals. The ability to hire 10 people indicates success and growth of the business.
Chapters
- Guillaume Ross's Journey in the App Industry
- Building a Lean MVP with a Focus on Social
- Community Building and Growth Strategies
- Reaching Revenue Milestones and Accelerated Growth
- Success Factors: User Engagement, Pricing, and Organic Growth
- Building a Social Growth Engine and Team Expansion
- Co-founder Relationships, Hiring, and Running the Business
Guillaume Ross's Journey in the App Industry
00:01 - 07:08
- Guillaume Ross started building apps at a young age after realizing the limitations of physical product development.
- After working as a product manager at a fitness app startup, Guillaume teamed up with his co-founder to create Hevey, a workout planning and tracking app.
- Hevey aimed to bring the social element to weightlifting through their app, creating a sense of community and competition among users.
- The social aspect turned out to be an important retention driver for users.
Building a Lean MVP with a Focus on Social
06:42 - 13:12
- The founders focused on building a lean MVP with three pillars: tracking, analytics, and social.
- They excluded non-essential features from the MVP and launched successfully.
- The COVID-19 pandemic affected their momentum, but they believed it would pass eventually.
- They aimed to be better prepared than competitors who pivoted to at-home workouts.
Community Building and Growth Strategies
12:43 - 19:00
- In the early days, the app was getting around 5-10 downloads a day, but little communities were forming on the app.
- The social component acted as a flywheel, leading to more users inviting their friends.
- Measuring the K-factor was difficult but crucial for growth.
- The founders bootstrapped the app until it started generating enough revenue to support them full-time.
Reaching Revenue Milestones and Accelerated Growth
18:36 - 24:50
- It took around a year and a half for the app to start generating enough revenue to provide a living for the founders.
- Unemployment benefits in Germany helped during the initial stages of building the app.
- Reaching ramen profitability allowed founders to start thinking bigger picture and reinvesting in their business.
- The app reached one million downloads after three years, but accelerated to two million downloads within five months.
- The growth was attributed to product improvements and taking advantage of New Year's resolutions as a growth opportunity.
Success Factors: User Engagement, Pricing, and Organic Growth
24:31 - 31:05
- The app's success is attributed to teaching the algorithms that it provides a great result through user engagement and spending.
- Ratings are an important factor for ranking downloads, serving as a proxy for deeper product signals.
- The app's pricing is intentionally set low to attract users and encourage them to switch from competitors.
- Pricing also allows the app to create opportunities and differentiate itself from competitors.
- The company has not heavily invested in acquisition through ads, relying more on organic growth.
- The long-term vision is to reach 100 million users through social growth and building a great product.
Building a Social Growth Engine and Team Expansion
30:50 - 37:08
- The company aims to build a social growth engine without relying on paid user acquisition.
- Comparisons are made to successful companies like Facebook, Microsoft, and Google that grew without paying for user acquisition.
- The company is currently focusing on product development and organic marketing.
- They have hired a new head of marketing to experiment with paid channels and accelerate growth.
- Hiring additional team members has allowed them to amplify their vision for the company and reduce conflicts between product and tech.
Co-founder Relationships, Hiring, and Running the Business
36:51 - 40:53
- Removing technical constraints has improved the co-founder relationship and allowed for more big picture thinking.
- Having a team or good managers can help buffer and refine ideas.
- Co-founder relationships often experience conflict in the first few years.
- Learning to avoid fighting about certain topics can be beneficial for the company.
- Bringing in other people and becoming a boss is a big leap in building a company.
- Hiring the right people allows for multitasking and focusing on future goals.
- The ability to hire 10 people indicates success and growth of the business.
- The platform provided by the podcast host has made running the business easier.