E148: Strava Founder: How I Motivated 100 Million People To Stay Active: Michael Horvath

The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett

FlightStory

Society & Culture, Business, Education

4.6 • 13.2K Ratings

🗓️ 2 June 2022

⏱️ 86 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Michael Horvath is the co-founder of Strava, the app to track and improve peoples fitness that’s used by millions of people worldwide. It’s his second business success, after he built a thriving online business in the 1990s.

But it hasn’t all been plain sailing for Michael. Initially quitting his first business, he spent several years as a family man before boredom launched him into starting his second. What he didn’t appreciate is that his calling as a family man would come back for him in a way he could never have imagined.

Michael took 5 years off from Strava to care for his wife until her tragic death, and then care for his children in the aftermath of that. When he returned to a struggling Strava as CEO in 2020, he had to build it again from the ground up. It was something he was ready equipped for, because it’s something he’s had to do many times before.

Topics:

What made you different?
What role do you play in keeping life balance within your team
Strava's journey
How does Strava motivate people to stay healthy and fit?
How did the pandemic impact your work community?
What were the hardest challenges you faced when starting up?
Work-life balance & stepping down
What did you learn from the passing of your wife
Returning to Strava
Difficult moments in Strava

Michael:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/mtkhorvath/

Watch the episodes on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheDiaryOfACEO/videos

Sponsors:

Huel - https://my.huel.com/Steven

Craftd - https://bit.ly/3JKOPFx

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	We have reprogrammed our lives to be remote.
0:02.5	And so we are stuck in patterns
0:04.2	that are really difficult to get out of.
0:05.6	I actually, I don't know if I'm gonna get counsel for this,
0:08.0	but I think that Michael Hobarth,
0:12.3	the CEO and co-founder of Strava.
0:14.6	With over 76 million athletes, you track your activities,
0:18.2	turn those activities into a post.
0:20.0	That's when the Strava and the head do happen.
0:22.0	If you wanna be as good as you possibly can be,
0:24.0	you have to strive to be the best.
0:25.4	But can you be okay also with not actually achieving
0:28.8	the goal of being the top of everybody?
0:31.1	Win or lose, that's the feeling you're looking for.
0:33.9	How are you doing in your personal life?
0:36.0	My wife has diagnosed with a terminal illness
0:37.8	in September of 2013.
0:39.9	I think I prepared a lot for how to live my life
0:43.0	caring for her.
0:43.8	I wasn't prepared for how to live my life
0:45.2	when she was gone.
0:49.3	I had to not rediscover who I am.
	...

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