How Hevy got its users
A workout logging app answering the exact query workout tracker, in a market where the competition was paid and badly rated.
Read from signals. Consistent with what is publicly observable, but nobody confirmed it. Check before you quote it.
You could start this on Monday. No budget, no audience, no permission needed.
- A steady install flow with no budget
- A market that is already educated
- Execution clearly better than the incumbents
- Patience while the ranking climbs
App Store search in 2026
Underrated and still profitable on utility functions. Saturated in high-LTV categories.
Everything on this channel →The play
4 steps, in the order they ran them.
- 1
Find a high-volume store query whose results are mediocre or overpriced
- 2
Ship the cleanest free version in the category
- 3
Drive reviews up by asking after a completed set, never on launch
- 4
Add friend sharing for retention, not for acquisition
The product itself
read from hevyapp.com, live“Log Workouts”
Run this against your own product
Carries the play above, and is written to tell you no when this channel is out of reach for you.
The same twelve channels as an agent skill. It reads your repository and eliminates what you cannot run. Open source, MIT.
curl -o ~/.claude/skills/howtodistribute/SKILL.md https://howtodistribute.com/skill.md
How big it got
Millions of users with a tiny team
What else they ran
The evidence1 checkable
- Ranking on the workout tracker query
They ran the same play
Want this verdict on your product?
Describe it. You get back the channel I would run in your place, the 30-day plan, and the number at which you stop.