How Strava Found Its Way to 100M+ Users

Lessons from Strava Co-Founder Mark Gainey

Author

Fabian Tausch
March 07, 2025

Building a company that engages millions of people worldwide is no easy feat—but Strava, the leading fitness and social networking app, has done just that.

With over 100 million registered users, 2 million new users joining monthly, and a presence in 195 countries, Strava has become a cornerstone of the global fitness community.

But how did it all begin, and what lessons can founders learn from the journey of its co-founder, Mark Gainey?

In an in-depth conversation, Mark shared his insights on starting Strava, scaling the business, and navigating growth challenges while staying true to their mission. Whether you're a founder, product manager, or growth strategist, Mark's lessons are timeless and provide a blueprint for building a successful and sustainable company.

Start Small and Stay Patient: Early Friction Fuels Better Products

Every great company starts somewhere, and for Strava, those beginnings involved a lot of hard work and friction. When Strava first launched, users needed a Garmin cycling computer to upload their activities. These devices weren’t cheap, requiring users to connect them to their computers to upload data manually. Yet Mark and his co-founder Michael Horvath didn’t let this barrier stop them. Instead, they embraced the "do things that don’t scale" approach: they bought Garmin devices in bulk from Costco and handed them out to friends and early testers.

Mark recalls, “We weren’t trying to scale at first. We wanted to prove the concept. We knew we had something if we could get just a few users deeply engaged.”

This early friction taught the Strava team valuable lessons about their product and users. By listening to feedback and iterating on the experience, they were able to reduce barriers over time.

The launch of Strava’s mobile app was a game-changer. It removed the need for expensive devices and made the platform accessible to anyone with a smartphone.

Key Takeaway:
Don’t be afraid to start small and embrace friction in the early days. Focus on deeply engaging your first 100 or 1,000 users. Their feedback will help you refine your product and prepare it for larger-scale growth.

Find Your Niche and Go Deep Before Expanding

When Strava started, it didn’t try to appeal to everyone. Instead, the company focused on a particular audience: middle-aged men in Lycra (MAMILs), or avid road cyclists passionate about their sport. This laser-sharp focus allowed Strava to build features and experiences tailored to this group, creating a deeply resonated product.

Mark explains, “We wanted to be an inch wide and a mile deep. If we could serve this audience exceptionally well, we knew we could expand to other groups later.”

Strava eventually expanded its focus to runners, swimmers, and other athletes, but it took time to get it right. Mark admits that transitioning from cycling to running wasn’t as simple as it seemed.

“You’d think you could just take what worked for cyclists and apply it to runners, but it doesn’t work that way. We had to hire runners, understand their culture, and build features that felt authentic to them.”

Key Takeaway:
Start with a specific niche where you can deliver an exceptional experience. Once you’ve nailed product-market fit for that audience, you can expand thoughtfully to new demographics or use cases.

Engagement First, Growth Follows

Strava’s core philosophy has always been prioritizing engagement over growth at all costs. Mark emphasizes that focusing on making the platform fun, helpful, and engaging for existing users leads to the best growth results.

“Whenever we focused purely on growth, we weren’t very good at it. But when we put our energy into engagement, growth followed organically.”

Strava’s success is rooted in its ability to create a joyful user experience. Whether through social features like kudos (Strava’s version of likes), competitive leaderboards, or detailed data insights, Strava keeps users coming back.

Mark shares a key metric that guided their focus on engagement:

“We tracked the ratio of time spent in the app to time spent being active. For every minute someone spent on Strava, they were spending 50 minutes being active. That’s what we wanted—to encourage activity, not just app usage.”

Key Takeaway:
Engagement is the foundation of sustainable growth. Build features and experiences that delight your existing users, and they’ll become your best advocates, driving organic growth through word of mouth.

Be Flexible with Business Models: Iterate and Find What Works

Strava’s journey to monetization wasn’t a straight line. In its early days, the app used a usage-based subscription model, where users could upload a limited number of activities for free before needing to pay. This worked well initially, but the model created new friction when Strava launched its mobile app. Asking mobile users to stop tracking their activities after a specific limit didn’t make sense.

Mark and his team pivoted to a feature-based freemium model, offering free users access to core features while reserving premium features—like training plans, advanced analytics, and leaderboards—for subscribers. While this transition wasn’t easy, it ultimately allowed Strava to scale its user base while generating significant revenue.

“We learned that our free users are incredibly valuable,” Mark says.
“They create content and enhance the platform for everyone. But we needed to build enough value into our premium features to make them worth paying for—and that took time.”

Key Takeaway:
Be prepared to iterate on your business model as your product evolves. Listen to your users and find a balance between accessibility and monetization.

Build for the Long Game: Patience, Persistence, and Perspective

Strava’s journey to 100+ million users wasn’t an overnight success. It took years of experimentation, iteration, and learning. Mark reflects on staying patient and focused, even when growth feels slow.

“Exponential growth starts small. You go from 10 to 20, then 20 to 40—it feels slow at first. But if you stay persistent and focus on engagement, the flywheel starts to spin.”

Mark also emphasizes the importance of maintaining perspective.

“At the end of the day, we’re not curing cancer. We’re trying to help people stay active and have fun doing it. That perspective helps us stay grounded and focused on what really matters.”

For founders navigating the ups and downs of building a company, Mark offers this advice:

“Get comfortable with being uncomfortable. Entrepreneurship is tough, but it’s worth it. Surround yourself with a great team, stay focused on your mission, and don’t let the business define who you are.”

Key Takeaway:
Building a successful company takes time. Stay patient, persistent, and maintain perspective. Celebrate small wins, and remember that growth is a marathon, not a sprint.

Final Thoughts: Build Something That Brings Joy

Reflecting on Strava’s success, Mark credits much of the company’s growth to its ability to create a joyful experience for users.

“If Strava remains fun and entertaining for its members, good things will happen.”

For founders and builders, the Strava journey reminds them to focus on creating value for their users, stay patient during the early days, and never lose sight of the bigger picture. Whether they’re building for 100 users or 100 million, engagement, focus, and persistence principles remain the same.

Thank you for reading,
Fabian & the Unicorn Bakery Team