Patrick O'Shaughnessy

This is a conversation about how hard it is to really build something valuable, told by two people who lived through every part of it.

Please enjoy.

Ladder was the first ever angel investment that I made, which effectively was a bet on Tom.

This was before I had any idea what I was doing in private markets.

And I've learned a lot from watching you guys build over the years.

The story is fairly amazing and unlikely and dramatic, which is why I'm excited to do this with you guys to tell the story of the business that you've built so far and where it might go.

The idea, I think, for our conversation today is to show people how incredibly hard it is to build something that ends up being very valuable and the twists and turns that happen along the way.

It's amazing that you've ended where you are, but I find it all the more interesting how you got here.

And of course, we'll also talk about where you're going.

Maybe to begin, since not everyone will know what the business is, just literally describe what the actual product and business is.

And then I want to tell the real dirty version of the story of how you got here.

How has it been so successful?

Because I feel like this is almost a Silicon Valley meme.

You have a fitness app, like there's 4,000 million fitness apps.

To what would you attribute the fact that this one is the one that seems to have come to dominate in a sea of competition?

Just to give people a sense of scale, roughly how many people use it, what sort of revenue does the business do?

Just give people a sense of how big the business is.

Having laid that quick, simple groundwork for what the thing is, I would love to rewind time.

And Tom, have you talked about... Actually, we've literally recorded a podcast at the same table.

Do you know what year that was?