With mobile phones as tracking devices, Strava allows its members to tracks their rides and runs. The performance are analyzed and quantified to motivate the members. Sharing of the analyses motivates its members, which develops into camaraderie.
Strava co-founder Michael Horvath was a member of his college’s rowing team. According to him, a six-minute race would take the whole year of training. However, he noticed that there is little competition to drive his teammates and the entire team to push their limits. With available technology, Horvath founded Strava to build a social network of athletes that would allow athletes from all over the world to connect and compete with each other.
Unlike other similar sites like Nike Plus that focuses on the bottom third of athletes, Strava fills the gap by focusing on the top third of the athletes. By 2009, Strava was running its prototype behind the brains and wits of a team of six people, including Horvath.