Strava preparing for IPO - valued at $2.2 billion

They have tons of ‘sponsored’ challenges. Really hate to shatter your world view, but those are ads.

This does not bode well for their future sadly. I’m guessing within 2 years of them going public, I quit and just use Garmin.

Strava has been getting worse for years and their most redeeming feature (being able to search for groups while traveling is filled with mostly garbage and few that actually host group runs).

Garmin (NYSE: GRMN) has been public for years

Damn. I remember being on google maps blogspot when I was in Flagstaff in 2003 and thinking "we should do something with this GPS stuff".

say 1 billion was still with the founders. We could host some really bad add running events every year for $10 million. We'd even pay the people who participated:)

Umm, you know Garmin is still mostly an equipment company.

But same holds for them. They are still far less social media focused but the second they put political ads on their site I’m buying a different GPS.

Like let’s run, I’d probably register and support this site more if they offloaded all the political content to another site, and did more to actually promote running. Ex: group runs/races etc. The ‘meet-up’ in Tokyo was fun. They seem like decent enough people. Some weird people ruin the boards though.

How about a bicarb blowout challenge?

Funny this was posted, I unlinked Strava from my Garmin yesterday. Never really got into the social aspect of running, for me it is a quintessential solitary activity. I run for myself, not for online kudos. In fact I adore the fact I don't have to slog it to the club once a week for some exercise.

Good for you. You are such a f*&Kn hero for what you did. Some people actually enjoy the feeling of sharing their running life with others. YOU, on the other hand, are just too good for all of us Strava users.

Pipe down

I’ve met a lot of people traveling the world by looking up running groups on Strava. I’m not big on the kudos, but unlike most social media which seems to replace genuine in person connections, I’ve actually met and hung out with dozens of people around the world through Strava but I am more a social/team runner so to each their own.

I like Strava. It lets me check in with the other serious hobby joggers in my small town and stay in touch with a few friends who run elsewhere.

But I accidentally clicked on the button to log in with an e-mailed code, and now it won't let me switch back to using a password, so I hope Strava GOES BANKRUPT AND FAILS.

Eventually you'll need to be a subscriber or you will need to wait on an ad when opening the app.

Expect it to get really bad as a result.

i guess that another platform will pop up to replace it.

Need to find a way to extract the data from Strava however

I knew this was coming. The premium ads have become very annoying the past two years. The Strava business model has made zero sense and to become profitable, they gotta pump it full of ads and restrict more and more free features.

Is there a potential business model that's sustainable? Essentially a more pared back version of the product. I think there's possibly a business opportunity for some clever people. Garmin's app is neat in some ways, but a little, uh, obfuscated for the average joe.

Good for them, I guess. I like Strava and use it every day. But I can't think of a company that has so much influence and done so little with it. Their tech stack has been reliable, but their innovation is meh.

Who here subscribes? I can't remember what the fee is, but I think it's pretty steep. Strava does very little for me beyond what my Garmin Connect App does.

Maybe if I was on a cross country team or a run club I would care more, but as a solo runner I don't.

I'm guessing most subscribers are cyclists or 5 hour marathoners? Or Pros getting it for free.

Strava could keep growing with no more ads or price increases (for subscribers) by selling your data.

It's overvalued thanks to the AI boom and Stravabot. It's actually market cap probably should be $150 million or so. Though if their whole strategy was to pump up their value with Runna and then launch an IPO during the AI boom and cash out, good on them. Garmin basically has everything Strava has but nobody uses their platform. Will be interesting to see if this going public and the inevitable changes when the stock price craters drives people to Garmin. Though I suppose if it got cheap enough, Garmin could just buy out Strava.

How about is Letsrun IPO update?

Triggered! Many of us are too good for low self-esteem attention seekers.

Dud the free trial and only useful for leader boards outside top 10. Everything else garmin connect can do. So for the price not worth it. Maybe $1/month