Two long interviews with Zwift co-founder and CEO Eric Min were recently shared on YouTube. Thanks to knowledgeable questions from DC Rainmaker and DesFit, the videos give a rare peek behind the curtain of what’s been happening at Zwift in the past few years… and some hints about what’s coming next!
If you’re a Zwift fan like me, you’ll find lots of interesting tidbits here. That includes the approximate size of Zwift’s subscriber base (over 1 million), employee count (around 300), Zwift’s growth and funding strategy, possibilities for a family plan, and much more.
I hope you enjoy listening, and I invite you to comment on what you found most interesting!
Zwift CEO Interview: What worked, what didn’t, and what’s coming?
Chapters:
- 0:00 Quick Introduction
- 0:35 What did Eric do before Zwift?
- 3:01 First time Eric showed Ray Zwift
- 4:33 Zwift employee bases and HQ behind the scenes
- 5:32 Why take on investor backing for Zwift?
- 6:50 Which cycling app was Eric’s inspiration?
- 7:54 Eric’s Bike Collection/Fleet
- 8:46 Eric’s favorite route to ride in the world
- 9:30 Explain the leadership changes over last year
- 11:40 What Eric wants to change near-term
- 12:51 How can Zwift attract new users to Zwift?
- 14:25 Can Zwift ever get an ROI for investors?
- 16:12 Explain the price increase
- 17:30 How many paid subscribers does Zwift have?
- 17:55 Is Zwift’s staff count right-sized now?
- 18:40 How do you balance new cycling tech vs waiting?
- 19:46 How does and will Zwift leverage AI?
- 20:48 What’s Eric’s proudest moment at Zwift?
- 21:42 Why hasn’t Zwift invested in structure training?
- 22:47 Zwift’s complicated industry relationships
- 22:33 Is Zwift’s Women’s Tour de France Sponsorship working?
- 26:35 Is Zwift still trying to get into the Olympic Games?
- 27:40 Explain all things Zwift Secret Tron Bike
- 29:30 When will other companies be compatible with Zwift Ride Frame?
- 30:00 Why can’t people use Zwift Ride/Cog with other platforms?
- 31:13 Why isn’t Zwift doing more around cheating?
- 32:51 What’s Eric’s favorite Zwift feature?
- 33:55 Will Zwift gamify the platform more?
- 34:51 What’s unannounced coming up?
Zwift CEO Eric Min: Zwift Ride, Zwift Tron Bike, Price Increases, and the Future of Zwift
Chapters:
- 0:00 The Origins of Zwift
- 8:51 Zwift App Evolution
- 10:14 Jon Mayfield’s Role at Zwift
- 12:20 Zwift’s Inflection Point
- 13:50 Future Plans
- 16:59 Working with smart trainer companies
- 18:22 Zwift Tron Bike
- 21:27 Tron Bike Ideas in the Zwift Ride
- 22:55 Zwift Ride Concept
- 28:25 Zwift’s Target Audience
- 31:24 Thoughts on the Price Increase
- 34:46 Zwift Family Plan?
- 39:11 Future of Zwift Run
- 41:52 What Zwift Level is Eric?
Your Comments
Share below!
Hi Eric, thanks for sharing!
Anything you can share (as I know you’re in-the-know) about the soon to be delivered features the community has been asking for, for a while?
…even a crumb or two would be appreciated! 🙂
Hi Eric, did the CEO mentioned anything about downhill races, a new Velodrome or the possibility to sort our garages ?
The interviews seemed to be all about promoting the new Zwift bike, but they did not provide any real information. You did not learn anything about what Zwift is actually going to deliver this year apart from the fact they have 300 employees which allows them to “rapidly” deliver new features. The customers have been patiently waiting for seven years to get basic things like configurable HUD or new racing formats, but there is still no progress.
The problem with having interviews conducted by people like dcrainmaker is that these people have already have insider knowledge of upcoming features, participate in beta channels and have signed NDAs, so of course they’re not going to ask about rumours and the stuff we actually want to know about. For example that leaked velodrome map.. was reported on by cyclingweekly, but not zwiftinsider? Because Eric likely already knows about it, probably even ridden on it, but is bound by NDA not to report on it.
Yeah it’s a pretty bland interview to be fair.
Just trying to keep the marketing machine going I guess.
I’ve currently paused my subscription and trying the alternatives like MyWhoosh, but keen to see if Zwift will actually bring content in that people have been crying out for for years. Would only take a few things and I’d jump on an annual subscription, but at the moment the alternatives are snapping at Zwifts heels and they should be very worried.
Great to hear that the community can create things.
I like to see that we can combine routes. Combine Clim Portals to ride an etappe of the TDF.
Or make own routes.
Lol, first brag about how thousands of user participated in the Zwift games community races. But then state you don’t care about the rampant cheating on your platform because you don’t have any ability to prevent it.
Here you go: If rider is over 60 years old and has an FTP over 400w… banned from races. Simple.
These interviews were nothing more than puff pieces with pre-written questions.
Is zwift want to do something positive, why not open up the protocol for the play controllers and virtual shifting on the zwift ride? They’ll still make money on the hardware, drive innovation and not be accused of attempt to lock customers in. Some of the arguments put forward in these videos simply do not ring true.
I liked both interviews. While he was talking about the reasons for developing the Zwift Ride, he praised the Kickr Bike and I agree its great. Once mine needs replacing, I’m pretty sure it will be with a Zwift Ride. In the meantime, i really wish they would allow the brakes on the Kickr to work. I simply can’t understand why they are disabled.