Michael Horvath

Michael Horvath is the cofounder and CEO of Strava, an online community for athletes. He is also the cofounder of Kana Software, an enterprise-level software company that provides businesses with easier communication methods. Horvath founded both companies with Mark Gainey.

Horvath attended Harvard University from 1984 to 1988; he earned a bachelor's degree in economics. From 1991 to 1994, he attended Northwestern University, where he earned a Ph.D. in economics.

From 1994 to 2000, Horvath worked as an assistant professor of economics at Stanford University. Following that, he was an assistant professor at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College from 2000 to 2004. He was the CFO and vice president of operations at GlycoFi from 2001 to 2005.

Horvath cofounded Kana Software as Kana Communications in 1996 with Mark Gainey. He served as the company's CFO until 1998. Kana is an enterprise-level software company. It was founded with the purpose of providing easier customer communication methods for businesses, including via email and other internet communication channels.

Strava was founded by Horvath and Mark Gainey, his fellow Kana Software founder, in 2009. The company's name comes from the Swedish word strava, meaning "strive." Strava tracks and compiles user data to connect athletes and collect statistics on information, such as the most common time of day to run and which cities have the most active residents. The idea for Strava was conceived in the 1990s, but Horvath and Gainey––who met while attending Harvard––lived on opposite coasts at the time. Additionally, the available technology hadn't yet caught up to their vision for the company. By 2009, global positioning system (GPS) and wearable technology devices were readily available, and the concept of sharing information through social media such as Twitter and Facebook was proving popular.

Strava began by supporting GPS devices like Garmin. By 2011, smartphones were better equipped with longer battery life and stronger GPS chips to be supported as viable devices with Strava. As of April 2022, more than thirty devices were available to connect to Strava. The app supported only cycling at first, but thirty-three physical activities are available for tracking as of April 2022. Horvath has served as Strava's CEO since November 2019. He also served as its first CEO from the company's founding in 2009 until 2013 when he left to care for his children and wife, who was terminally ill.

Horvath served as a board member of The Family Place from 2007 to 2012 and of Sanibel Sea School from 2008 to 2013. He has been a board member of Strava since June 2017; prior to that, he was chairman of the board.