The hottest running app has nothing to do with speed | E2303

June 22, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

Interval, a gamified running app, has grown to a million downloads and profitability with a team of just five people—three of them engineers. The app’s core mechanic is a global game of turf wars: users run a route, claim the territory they encircled, and then other users can steal it by running a route that overlaps that same area. Speed is irrelevant; a walker can steal territory from a marathoner. The product insight is that the competitive, slot-machine dynamic of notifications (“Your territory has been stolen!”) is far more motivating for daily exercise than the abstract goal of beating a personal record on Strava.

The product: territory, not time

Co-founder Louis Phillips built Interval from the ground up with his co-founder, reaching profitability before adding two more engineers. The app’s deliberate design choice is to exclude speed as a metric. Phillips explained that on Strava, casual runners feel they cannot compete because the leaderboard is dominated by “Olympians.” Interval solves this by making the game about exploration and volume—anyone can run any pace and claim land. The current game loop is ephemeral: you claim territory, someone steals it, you get a notification, you go out and reclaim it. To add depth, the team is building “arenas” for high-traffic spots like Central Park, where the fastest runner on a given day wins a temporary crown, while the res

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What you'll learn

1 (00:00) **Interval: Gamified Running App** - Founder Louis Phillips introduces Interval, a running app where users claim territory on a live global map, turning runs into a competitive turf war.
2 (03:47) **Origin Story and Team Size in the AI Era** - Louis explains the lean team (5 people, 3 developers) and how AI enabled building the app to profitability without major funding.
3 (08:57) **Core Game Mechanics: No Speed, Just Territory** - The game intentionally excludes speed, focusing on distance and volume, making it accessible to all fitness levels.
4 (11:51) **Solving Staleness: Leaderboards, Density, and Onion Skin** - Louis addresses how the game stays engaging beyond simple claim-and-reclaim, with plans for layered progression.
5 (14:13) **Parallels to Foursquare and Pokemon Go** - The hosts compare Interval to past location-based gamification hits, noting the need to keep the experience fresh.
6 (16:19) **Safety and Expansion into Other Sports** - The discussion highlights how Interval's no-speed focus avoids the dangers of competitive running apps, and suggests expansion into skiing, biking, and kayaking.
7 (17:58) **Vibe Coding and Lean Startup Economics** - Jason notes that AI (vibe coding) enables a 5-person team to build what once required 12+ people and millions in funding.

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Show Notes

This Week In Startups is made possible by:Agree - https://agree.comQuo - https://quo.com/TWiSTSuperhuman - https://superhuman.comToday’s show:In this double-header, Jason and Lon chat with Louis Phillips, founder of the gamified running app INTVL, which turns a quick job around the block into a worldwide turf war competition. Find out how he grew the app to over 1 million downloads without any paid ads, just making videos from his home office.PLUS Alex sits down with Alice Zhang, CEO of Verge Labs, which pivoted from making drugs to building the AI infrastructure that helps pharma companies develop their own treatments. Find out how they accumulated one of the world’s largest proprietary brain datasets and why brain tissue is the “LiDAR of neuroscience.”Guests:INTVL: https://www.intvl.com.au/INTVL on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/intvl.appLouis Phillips on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/louisphillips12Verge Labs: https://vergelabs.com/Alice Zhang on X: https://x.com/AliceXinliZhangRelevant LinksMeta’s Ad Library: https://www.facebook.com/ads/library/Strava: https://www.strava.com/Pokémon Go: https://pokemongo.com/Fitbod: https://fitbod.me/Tonebase: https://www.tonebase.co/Calm: https://www.calm.com/Hamilton Island official site: https://www.hamiltonisland.com.au/“Mr. Inbetween” trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EooRG3QhQOYArticle: “Verge Genomics Rebrands as Verge Labs”: https://trial.medpath.com/news/verge-genomics-rebrands-as-verge-labs-following-als-drug-trial-failure-pivots-to-ai-driven-target-discoveryEli Lilly: https://www.lilly.com/Chai Discovery: https://www.chaidiscovery.com/Noetik: https://www.noetik.ai/Tempus: https://www.tempus.com/Timestamps:0:00 Louis on building in Melbourne, Australia

7:44 Why INTVL ignores how fast you run

9:59 Agree - Stop chasing invoices at https://agree.com and tell them Jason sent you to get 50% off for life!

15:52 Using gamification for good

19:10 Powering INTVL's impressive growth

19:55 Quo (formerly OpenPhone) - Quo gives you a clean, modern way to handle every customer call, text, and thread all in one place. Try it free at https://quo.com/TWiST

26:16 The future of TWiST Australia

27:14 Will AI ever cure cancer?

27:54 Inside Verge's rebrand

30:31 Superhuman - Get AI that works where you work. Unlock your Superhuman potential at https://superhuman.com

32:01 Brain tissue as "ground truth"

36:01 Why brain tissue is so valuable as data

43:52 Verge's Eli Lilly partnership

51:34 "You're going to tell me when I'm going to die"

56:11 How AI could impact drug prices

58:19 Clinical trial FAILS and how to move onSubscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.comCheck out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.comSubscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcpFollow Lon:X: https://x.com/lonsFollow Alex:X: https://x.com/alexLinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexw