Episode 174: Anthony Privitelli - Voice Notes on Race Day

<p><a href="https://www.instagram.com/runwithrally" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer">Anthony Privitelli</a> is the founder of <a href="https://runwithrally.com" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer">Rally</a>, the app that lets your people leave you voice notes that play automatically at every mile marker on race day. I love Rally so much that I had to know the story behind it. Thank you to <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/episode-133-abby-anderson-running-for-seven/id1681291349?i=1000735696312" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferer">Abby Anderson</a> for introducing us!</p><p>During this episode, we talk about:</p><ul><li>[2:00] The Sicilian nickname situation — why colleagues call him Tony but family and friends use Anthony</li><li>[4:00] His pre-Rally life building an AI-powered walking-tours app with ex-TikTok coworkers, and its surprising tie back to Descript&#39;s own origin story</li><li>[5:00] Seven years as an early Patreon employee (2013–2020), watching the entire creator economy get built in real time, before a stint at TikTok</li><li>[8:00] Being 36 and building his latest startup while sleep-deprived with a one-month-old </li><li>[12:00] The moment Rally was born: driving across a locked-down Orange County to catch a friend for a five-second flyby at her marathon, then thinking, &quot;That&#39;s it?&quot;</li><li>[14:00] Cold-testing the very first version of Rally on four strangers from Reddit&#39;s &quot;first-time marathoners&quot; subreddit </li><li>[16:00] The X-rated voice notes he had to quietly delete during beta testing, and the PSA that came out of it</li><li>[19:00] Why Rally deliberately hides who left you a voice note until you choose to find out</li><li>[23:00] How gifting a voice note works, the new race-bundle pricing, and the DM mix-up that led one user to think a friend had already gifted theirs</li><li>[30:00] The &quot;Go, Abby, go&quot; voice note that still gives him goosebumps, and the harder ones — messages from people who passed away before their loved one&#39;s race day</li><li>[39:00] Turning down $15–20K a month in ad revenue to keep Rally&#39;s share pages clean</li><li>[47:00] The brand and race partnerships so far — Goodr, Shokz, Orange County Marathon, Pittsburgh, and Indy Mini — and building an ambassador program for everyday runners instead of just big creators</li><li>[56:00] The next problem he&#39;s trying to solve: building a fundraising feature into Rally the right way