From 0 to 20,000,000 Users and a $150,000,000 Exit to Under Armour, EP 261: Robin Thurston

Robin Thurston, the founder of Map My Fitness and senior VP at Under Armour. Robin built a conversation with cycling buddies into a multi-million dollar app. Listen as Nathan and Robin talk about turning a website into an iPhone app, Map My Fitness’ user base, and the process of exiting a company you’ve founded.

Famous 5
Favorite Book? – Career Warfare
What CEO do you follow? — None
What is your favorite online tool? — I travel so much - it’s a car-sharing service
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be? —You never actually know what’s going to happen

Time Stamped Show Notes:
01:25 – Nathan’s introduction
01:45 – Welcoming Robin to the show
02:10 – The process of founding Map My Fitness
02:40 – Came out of a dinner conversation where someone wanted to map their cycle route
03:10 – Robin wasn’t a developer but had a product background
03:30 – Worked with developers who were also cyclists
04:20 – Bought the ‘Map My Run’ website for $5k
04:50 – Moved to Denver and launched Map My Fitness
05:15 – Had 1 million web users before the iPhone launch
05:40 – 2006-2013, became one of the USA’s top 100 apps
06:00 – Made money from ads and subscriptions early on; added a SaaS business
06:45 – Around $17 million in revenue when they exited in 2013
07:30 – Under Armour was interested in the community and user base
07:40 – Revenue of about $4 per month per user in the US
08:20 – Spent almost nothing on acquisition
09:00 – Early 2013 were advised to ‘go big or go home’ by potential investors
09:40 – Had a call from Kevin Plank in the middle of the raising process - and sold
11:30 – Underarmour were keen to acquire a team experienced in e-commerce
12:40 – Time from call to public announcement was less than 3 months
13:00 – Had 103 employees at time of sale
13:30 – Contact Robin on Twitter
16:10 – Famous Five

3 Key Points:
Know when it’s the right time to sell or exit your business. Even if it’s not what you’d planned, opportunity may come knocking.
Dominate your niche. Robin and his partner bought the ‘Map My Run’ site - a potential competitor - and used it to propel their own site forward.
You don’t know where you’ll be in twenty years. Keep an eye out for opportunity and let yourself be surprised.

Resources Mentioned:
Freshbooks - The site Nathan uses to manage his invoices and accounts.
Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for cheapest price possible.
Leadpages – The drag and drop tool Nathan uses to quickly create his webinar landing pages which convert at 35%+
Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he's driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5 hour drive) to listen to audio books.

Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives