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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\u2019 user base, and the process of exiting a company you\u2019ve founded.

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Famous 5
Favorite Book? \u2013 Career Warfare
What CEO do you follow? \u2014 None
What is your favorite online tool? \u2014 I travel so much - it\u2019s a car-sharing service
Do you get 8 hours of sleep?\u2014 No
If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be? \u2014You never actually know what\u2019s going to happen

Time Stamped Show Notes:
01:25 \u2013 Nathan\u2019s introduction
01:45 \u2013 Welcoming Robin to the show
02:10 \u2013 The process of founding Map My Fitness
02:40 \u2013 Came out of a dinner conversation where someone wanted to map their cycle route
03:10 \u2013 Robin wasn\u2019t a developer but had a product background
03:30 \u2013 Worked with developers who were also cyclists
04:20 \u2013 Bought the \u2018Map My Run\u2019 website for $5k
04:50 \u2013 Moved to Denver and launched Map My Fitness
05:15 \u2013 Had 1 million web users before the iPhone launch
05:40 \u2013 2006-2013, became one of the USA\u2019s top 100 apps
06:00 \u2013 Made money from ads and subscriptions early on; added a SaaS business
06:45 \u2013 Around $17 million in revenue when they exited in 2013
07:30 \u2013 Under Armour was interested in the community and user base
07:40 \u2013 Revenue of about $4 per month per user in the US
08:20 \u2013 Spent almost nothing on acquisition
09:00 \u2013 Early 2013 were advised to \u2018go big or go home\u2019 by potential investors
09:40 \u2013 Had a call from Kevin Plank in the middle of the raising process - and sold
11:30 \u2013 Underarmour were keen to acquire a team experienced in e-commerce
12:40 \u2013 Time from call to public announcement was less than 3 months
13:00 \u2013 Had 103 employees at time of sale
13:30 \u2013 Contact Robin on Twitter
16:10 \u2013 Famous Five

3 Key Points:
Know when it\u2019s the right time to sell or exit your business. Even if it\u2019s not what you\u2019d planned, opportunity may come knocking.
Dominate your niche. Robin and his partner bought the \u2018Map My Run\u2019 site - a potential competitor - and used it to propel their own site forward.
You don\u2019t know where you\u2019ll 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 \u2013 The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for cheapest price possible.
Leadpages \u2013 The drag and drop tool Nathan uses to quickly create his webinar landing pages which convert at 35%+
Audible \u2013 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