Sweat app scaled to $100M
Sam reports the fitness influencer's app -- which started as a $29 PDF -- sold for $400 million to iFit, a company about to go public that says it does $100 million in revenue.
“Yeah, for $400 million. They sold to this company called iFit, which is about to go public. They said they're doing $100 million in revenue. Pretty amazing. No-brainer to buy.”
Sam estimates Ben Patrick (Knees Over Toes Guy) is doing about $10 million a year in sales while running his program on a white-label app (Trainerize), citing fitness creator Kayla Itsines' app Sweat as the comp that scaled to $100 million selling what started as a PDF.
“And she has an app called Sweat that scaled to $100 million in sales. If you're a guy, you probably don't know who she is. It's my wife Sarah used it and she crushed it. And all she did was sell a PDF and then eventually it went to an app. With this guy Ben from Knees Over Toes, I bet you he's doing $10 million a year in sales and he's not even— he doesn't even have his own app.”
Shaan explains Kayla Itsines built a fitness empire by releasing a paid Bikini Body Guide PDF and letting it get bootlegged everywhere for free awareness. She then launched the Sweat app, which couldn't be pirated and had to be paid for, reportedly a $100M/year business.
“she allowed the like paid PDF to get bootlegged and just shared everywhere. And what that did was it just gave her tons of awareness, tons of marketing. And, um, and then she launched the app, which you couldn't bootleg and you had to pay for, and then boom.”
Steal thisLet a free product spread virally for awareness, then monetize a version that can't be copied.