Based on the latest statistics from the Yoga Alliance, there are now over 36.7 million Americans who practice yoga and 65% of them say they have practiced yoga at home at least once. While in urban settings like Seattle, one can easily find a yoga studio within walking distance of their home, this is not always true for a large portion of the population in the US and even less true internationally.This means that more and more people are going online and turning to their digital devices for help when they feel like practicing yoga.
While there are tons of yoga-related apps on the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store, none have captured the heart of their users like the Down Dog App has – with stellar reviews across the board. The app has a 5 star rating on both platforms with over 3,000 reviews in the App store and almost 10,000 reviews in the Google Play Store. The Down Dog App has been downloaded over half a million times.
The surprising thing is that behind this successful app are just two developers with a passion of yoga based right here in Seattle. Ben Simon and Carlos Ormachea met back in college and in February 2015 decided to quit their jobs to start working full time on building the app. They eventually launched the iOS version of the App in August 2015 and then the Android version in March 2016.
The Down Dog App has now had over half a million downloads with currently around 50,000 users practicing each month. As of February 2017, there have been over 1 million practices through the App.
The Seattle Yoga News team had the chance to connect with Carlos to learn more about their journey and what is ahead, below is what he had to say.
Can you tell us about the team behind the Down Dog App?
Carlos Ormachea: Ben and I actually met in college at Brown University. We graduated a couple years apart, but we were both in the same a Capella group while we were there, so we spent a lot of time together. After Brown, I went to Harvard Law School and Ben went to work as a Software Engineer at Google. We stayed in touch, and when Ben was considering leaving Google to go to get a Ph.D. in Computer Science, I convinced him to try building a startup before committing to the academic path.
How did you end up deciding to launch the Down Dog App?
There’s a quote by Archimedes: “Give me a lever long enough and I will move the world.” Anyone who has practiced Yoga knows that it’s an incredible tool for making your life better. Building an app that can reach people anywhere in the world was a way of taking that tool and turning it into a giant lever. With Down Dog as a lever, we now have about 7,000 people practicing with us every day. That’s like assembling a team of 70 of the best Yoga teachers and sending them off to travel all around the world to teach Yoga.
The most exciting thing that happened this year is that the Down Dog community crossed a million practices.
What is it that you think made the Down Dog app so popular?
What has been the hardest thing in this journey since you launched the first version of the App?
What is coming up next for the Down Dog App in 2017?
What we’d like to do in 2017 is take advantage of that lever by blowing up the amount of recorded content, specifically by expanding to more styles of Yoga. We’d like to do something even more athletic than what we’re doing, as well as something gentler. We’d also like to build in Ashtanga and Baptiste and other set styles. We’re also considering raising money, but we’d really only like to work with an investor who would support our relentless focus on making the product better, and we haven’t found that person yet.
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