Founder stories
Workout tracker and planner app for weightlifting with social features and progress tracking.
How Guillem acquired customers
Tools used to build Hevy
Guillem and Desmond built a Strava for weightlifting that grew almost entirely through word of mouth.
I'm Guillem, co-founder of Hevy. I've been in the fitness world for a decade, working in the biggest fitness apps, and now building Hevy with my co-founder Desmond.
Desmond says it was the isolating side of the gym experience that inspired us to invent Hevy. We wanted to create the community-focused experience that Strava provides for runners, but for weightlifters.
We built the first version in about 75 days. The app tracks workouts, monitors progress, and has social features to share with friends. The key differentiator was focusing on the social aspect - following friends, sharing workouts, and celebrating PRs together.
How do you get to two million downloads with just $15k in ad spend? You don't necessarily need paid marketing for growth to snowball. We focused on building features that naturally create viral loops - sharing workouts, inviting friends, celebrating achievements.
Hevy now has over 10 million users and generates $160K+ MRR. We grew the team to about 13 people, all while remaining bootstrapped and profitable.
Social features create natural viral loops and word-of-mouth growth
You can grow to millions of users with almost zero paid marketing
Focus on building features users naturally want to share
Community engagement on Reddit can drive significant organic growth
Inspired by Guillem's journey? Generate a business idea in the Health & Wellness space using AI and real founder data.
Guillem achieved 3 milestones on the path to $100K ARR
$10,000
$1,900,000
The journey, decisions, and context behind this milestone
See the complete breakdown: launch strategy, validation methods, startup costs, expert analysis, replication playbook, and more actionable insights.
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