How much are washboard abs worth to you? Well, in the world of fitness influencers, it’s worth millions. Kayla Itsines, founder of Sweat App, sold her app for a whopping $400 million! That’s more than the GDP of a small country.
In this article, we’re gonna break down exactly how she did it, and how to copy her strategy.
Here's how it all started
Kayla Itsines started her personal training business several years ago, using Instagram to drive leads to her PT sessions and bootcamps.
But, her online presence grew quickly, and as more people followed her that weren’t local, she decided to offer something everyone could use.
She came up with the idea to sell eBooks in 2014, packaging up her knowledge and allowing her followers to buy them, without having to be close to her in geography.
While the eBooks made money, she wanted something better. Something that could bring in more people (not just her followers), and make money every single month (rather than a one-time sale), so…
She turned to the App Store
She recognized that the customers aren’t ONLY her followers, but people who didn’t even know her and who were looking for a fitness solution.
Her business partner Tobi Pearce said, “Part of being a personal trainer is that you get to be there — personally — and train people in real-time. Now, obviously, you can’t do that for every person in the world, and an e-book can’t do that. But Apple allowed us to do that,” he says. “The Apple ecosystem is kind of a no-brainer.”
In 2015, she launched the Sweat App
Thanks to the reach of the App Store, and the subscription model, the Sweat app grew. Fast.
It quickly became a one-stop shop for women’s fitness, featuring Kayla’s content of different workouts, programs, and nutrition guidance.
Subscribers pay $19.99 per month - which is a no-brainer for most people, as the gym usually costs more than that. Her low-cost model made more and more people say “yes” to buying in on their fitness journey, leading to a high number of subscribers that paid every single month.
She focused on providing the best quality content possible in her app, and the subscribers rewarded her for it.
It now does over $100 million in revenue per year
Now, you might be wondering, “If it does $100 million in revenue, how’d it sell for $400 million?”
Well, that’s just one of the cool things about an app.
Selling an app will come with something called a multiple.
When valuing an app, the most important thing is how long a subscriber stays subscribed. This is called the lifetime value (LTV).
In short, the LTV is how much a subscriber pays over the course of their subscription. That will help determine how much the app is actually worth.
And in this case, it was a whole lot.
So, how did the Sweat App become so successful?
It’s a question that really breaks down to one thing. Focusing on the customer. Kayla made sure to give her subscribers the most value she could, and as a result, they didn’t just subscribe - they stayed subscribed and used it all the time.
That comes down to the features. The workout plans, nutrition calculator, food logger, and community.
Every feature that she had in her app, you can have in your own app with an AppRabbit app.
And one day, you could even sell your app just like she did.
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