Ladder, a fitness app Patrick O'Shaughnessy calls his first angel investment, is approaching $100m in annual recurring revenue with more than 300,000 paying members.
Greg Stewart, who became CEO after Tom Digan proposed the change on the day after Christmas 2019, says Ladder survived deep debt by negotiating creditors down to around 20 cents on the dollar.
Ladder's growth engine rests on a TikTok strategy built without an agency or performance marketing team, reaching 20,000 followers in 45 days and easing paid acquisition costs through a General Catalyst customer value fund.
How a near-bankrupt fitness startup became a leading strength app
Ladder went from near-death in 2020 to the leading strength training app, with more than 300,000 paying members. A leadership change and blunt talks with creditors kept it alive, and a focus on workout completions shaped the product. Growth then came from a specific customer persona, TikTok and financed acquisition, with AI extending what human coaches can do.
Takeaways
Ladder is engineering-first, not a content library. Greg Stewart says Ladder splits personal training into programming, coaching and accountability, using mechanics borrowed from social networks and Duolingo. Most rivals are content libraries. Paying members grew from 9,000 in early 2023 to over 300,000.
Workout completions decide what gets built. Every feature must raise the odds members finish workouts. A survey found a third of members track macros, mostly in MyFitnessPal. Free nutrition lifted beta users' likelihood to switch from 20% to 85% and logged 4m meals in six weeks.
A specific persona and TikTok drove growth. Greg chose a specific customer persona after reading Crossing the Chasm in 2021. With no agency or performance team, Ladder went from zero to 20,000 TikTok followers in 45 days and changed ads seven to ten times daily.
Customer financing eases the cost of growth. Creators moved in-house, and General Catalyst financed customer acquisition through a customer value fund, easing the cash hit. Greg says capital markets do not fund acquisition costs for consumer companies. Paid spend began at $3 to $5m revenue.
AI supports coaches and absorbs support work. Maive AI handles 90% of incoming support tickets, and Ladder Pulse summarises member chats for coaches. AI allows personalisation Ladder could not offer before. Human coaches stay central, and the team will focus on brand and member trust.
The goal is system of record for fitness. Tom says Ladder aims to be the system of record for health and fitness, through nutrition, commerce, biomarkers and a wider on-ramp. Greg calls YouTube, not Peloton, the biggest rival. There is no Android app and no plan for one this year.
Ladder's near-death, step by step
A high school classmate pitched Tom a fitness startup before it had a product. Tom invested, raised the rest and joined as co-founder and president on condition the company move to Austin.
The original business was a managed marketplace for personal training, operationally complex and hard to scale. It ran out of money with no sign of product market fit.
Greg Stewart, who had left banking, joined after a chance reconnection in Austin. On the day after Christmas 2019, Tom proposed leadership changes to the board, including naming Greg CEO.
Tap a name to go there · tap a line to see why they are linked
On this episode 3
Show 1
Deep in debt, Greg negotiated with creditors including American Express at around 20 cents on the dollar. Tom says the key was telling them the company had no money.
In March 2020 Brent Beshore declined to share his investor list, but a friend named Bill invested after Greg did. Greg's lesson is that founders must sell people on their conviction.