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Michael Horvath

Co-Founder & Board Member, Strava · 2 appearances on the record.

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founderexecutiveacademicLinkedIn ↗strava.com ↗Wikipedia ↗

Michael Horvath is the co-founder and former CEO of Strava, and previously co-founded enterprise software firm Kana Communications. Before entering technology entrepreneurship, he received a PhD in economics from Northwestern University and taught economics at Stanford University and Dartmouth College.

20statements → 14claims → 5claims resolved → 100%fully supported → 3.85/5average certainty → 1.4/5average debate potential → ≈4.5/5argument clarity, estimated → 3said about them ↓

5 supported 0 partly supported 0 contradicted 2 not yet assessed 7 not checkable as stated how the 14 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

14 assertions · 2 insights · 4 disclosures · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertions are the 14 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 5 are resolved, 2 are not yet assessed, and 7 name no date, number or outcome precise enough to check. Everything else (opinions, insights, what ifs, disclosures) can never be settled by the record, so it carries no assessment.

The record, in short

What the tape says about how Michael argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.

Their most notable supported claim

Assertion Supported
Strava made its Flyby feature opt-in to protect user location data
“And that's why, for example, making flybys something that you have to opt into was really important to us so that someone who joined, who may not even understand what that feature means, wouldn't inadvertently be sharing information that they didn't want to.”
Michael Horvath Feb 11, 2021 ▶ 13:47 How I Built Resilience: Michael Horvath and Mark Gainey of Strava

How they sound: not measured why? →

We measure speaking style by listening to the audio itself, and a fair number needs at least 2,000 words from one person on tape we have measured. There is too little of Michael Horvath on measured tape to publish a rate. This says nothing about how they speak.

Everything Michael Horvath said on How I Built This that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →

Disclosure
Strava moved free features to a paywall to ensure long-term sustainability
“Would we rebalance the equation between the free and the paid by moving some things from the free side to the paid side? Yes. We would do that in the name of building Strava to be sustainable, building it so that we can be here for the next hundred years.”
Michael Horvath May 2, 2022 ▶ 1:09:34 Strava: Mark Gainey and Michael Horvath
Insight
Founders do not need upfront answers to start building products
“You don't have to figure out all the answers to how you're going to build something. You have to start with something that gets you to the next challenge to solve.”
Michael Horvath May 2, 2022 ▶ 24:08 Strava: Mark Gainey and Michael Horvath
Insight
Founders should separate cleanly once they lack an active operational role
“It's almost like you're, you do have a, you have a better quality, and the company has a better quality of existence if you really separate as much as possible at some level when you don't have a role to play anymore.”
Michael Horvath May 2, 2022 ▶ 34:27 Strava: Mark Gainey and Michael Horvath
Disclosure
Strava's earliest business plans explicitly rejected advertising models
“I do remember the earliest business plans had the concept of sponsorship, but We said no advertising.”
Michael Horvath May 2, 2022 ▶ 55:55 Strava: Mark Gainey and Michael Horvath
Disclosure
Strava never sells user data or treats users as the product
“And if we're going to use data for any purpose, it's got to be anonymized and aggregated and not, we never sell anyone's private information. We never give away anyone as the product.”
Michael Horvath May 2, 2022 ▶ 57:43 Strava: Mark Gainey and Michael Horvath
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Strava achieved corporate profitability by 2022
“We've reached profitability at this point.”
Michael Horvath May 2, 2022 ▶ 1:11:54 Strava: Mark Gainey and Michael Horvath
Assertion Supported
Strava made its Flyby feature opt-in to protect user location data
“And that's why, for example, making flybys something that you have to opt into was really important to us so that someone who joined, who may not even understand what that feature means, wouldn't inadvertently be sharing information that they didn't want to.”
Michael Horvath Feb 11, 2021 ▶ 13:47 How I Built Resilience: Michael Horvath and Mark Gainey of Strava
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Strava's monthly user signups surged from 1 million to 3 million
“We went from adding about a million new athletes to the platform every month to, at some points, three million a month, and it's settled down to about two million a month now.”
Michael Horvath Feb 11, 2021 ▶ 18:29 How I Built Resilience: Michael Horvath and Mark Gainey of Strava
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Kana Communications built its first prototype using FileMaker Pro templates
“We took an off-the-shelf software called FileMaker Pro, found a, someone who knew how to create custom templates for it, and asked them to basically build what Mark just described, that, that placemat sketch from the sixteen-year-old turned into a FileMaker Pr…”
Michael Horvath May 2, 2022 ▶ 28:57 Strava: Mark Gainey and Michael Horvath
Assertion Supported
Davey Kitchell prototyped the Strava segment leaderboard by summer 2008
“What he comes up with by the summer of 2008, spring of 2008, is what we now know as the Strava Segment Leaderboard.”
Michael Horvath May 2, 2022 ▶ 45:22 Strava: Mark Gainey and Michael Horvath
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Strava did not have a viable mobile app until 2012
“It wasn't until the, 2012, until we really had a viable mobile app into the market. We launched something in 2011 that, that didn't work, but it took us a while to shift off of that.”
Michael Horvath May 2, 2022 ▶ 53:59 Strava: Mark Gainey and Michael Horvath
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Early cyclists resented Strava for allocating product resources to running
“They were jealous that we were spending any time devoted to a sport that they didn't love.”
Michael Horvath May 2, 2022 ▶ 1:01:32 Strava: Mark Gainey and Michael Horvath
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Strava doubled its headcount to nearly 350 employees during the pandemic
“We're close to 350. We entered the pandemic with about a 180. So we've almost doubled since then.”
Michael Horvath May 2, 2022 ▶ 1:11:44 Strava: Mark Gainey and Michael Horvath
Disclosure
Strava announced collaborative group challenges launching by mid-2021
“We're building a capability for you to challenge a few of your friends, and it could be collaborate with a few of your friends to accomplish a goal together. But that we can bring this so that you can decide what you want, what you find would be motivating for…”
Michael Horvath Feb 11, 2021 ▶ 24:16 How I Built Resilience: Michael Horvath and Mark Gainey of Strava
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Building an interactive virtual locker room was technically impossible in 1995
“Turns out it wasn't. That's what we found out when we went out to talk to some people who actually knew how to build things on the internet or build things out of software.”
Michael Horvath May 2, 2022 ▶ 20:13 Strava: Mark Gainey and Michael Horvath
Assertion Open · timeframe May 2022
DFJ led Kana Communications' $700,000 Series A round in 1996
“Our series A led by Draper, Fisher, Jurvetson, DFJ. We closed that round in, I believe it was 1996, and 700,000 dollars.”
Michael Horvath May 2, 2022 ▶ 30:55 Strava: Mark Gainey and Michael Horvath
Assertion Supported
Strava did not expand beyond cycling in earnest until 2012
“And some of the biggest chant, you know, say the discussions we had was when do we start expanding into other sports? And we didn't really do it in earnest until 2012.”
Michael Horvath May 2, 2022 ▶ 51:38 Strava: Mark Gainey and Michael Horvath
Assertion Supported
Garmin GPS devices were the only compatible hardware at Strava's launch
“You had to have a Garmin GPS device. That was the only device that would work with Strava in those early days.”
Michael Horvath May 2, 2022 ▶ 51:54 Strava: Mark Gainey and Michael Horvath
Assertion Supported
Horvath stepped down as CEO in 2013 after his wife's cancer diagnosis
“So he steps in in December because in September of that year, a few months prior, my wife, Anna, had been diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer.”
Michael Horvath May 2, 2022 ▶ 1:04:08 Strava: Mark Gainey and Michael Horvath
Assertion Not publicly verifiable
Strava reached one million daily active users in 2015
“So I believe we hit a million daily actives in 2015.”
Michael Horvath May 2, 2022 ▶ 1:07:54 Strava: Mark Gainey and Michael Horvath

The other half of the tape: Michael Horvath's own voice is left out of every number here. 3 statements on the record name them. every mention, with the transcript →

Statements about Michael Horvath, by other people (3)

Disclosure
Strava founders negotiated with Costco to source Garmins for early users
“There was a whole period of time where Michael and I were negotiating with the likes of Costco and others, just literally trying to buy Garmins so that we could Either sell them or give them away to friends so that we could get people onto the platform.”
Mark Gainey May 2, 2022 ▶ 52:49 Strava: Mark Gainey and Michael Horvath
Assertion Supported
Gainey handed the Strava CEO role to Horvath in 2010
“And so by early 2010, it was, hey, Michael, I really need you to run this.”
Mark Gainey May 2, 2022 ▶ 1:02:46 Strava: Mark Gainey and Michael Horvath
Disclosure
Strava was modeled on Patagonia and Virgin rather than tech peers
“We made a list of if we had been founders of XYZ company, what would it have been? And it was telling because It wasn't a bunch of Silicon Valley companies. I don't think there was, I mean, maybe, maybe we put Apple on there. I can't remember, but otherwise it…”
Mark Gainey May 2, 2022 ▶ 42:23 Strava: Mark Gainey and Michael Horvath

Appearances (2)

EpisodeDateSpeaking time
Strava: Mark Gainey and Michael Horvath May 2, 2022 20m
How I Built Resilience: Michael Horvath and Mark Gainey of Strava Feb 11, 2021 11m

Played on the show (1)

Episodes where a recording of Michael Horvath was played rather than Michael taking part, or where the tape carries an address with nobody putting questions to them. Listed because the words are on the record, kept out of every score on this page because they were not said on this show. We read this off the tape: who was spoken to, who was asked something, who answered whom.

EpisodeDateOn tapeWhat it is
Meet The HIBT Fellows: Mark Atlan & Zach Correa May 18, 2021 50s clip played
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