Episode 174: Anthony Privitelli - Voice Notes on Race Day

Anthony Privitelli is the founder of Rally, 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 Abby Anderson for introducing us! During this episode, we talk about: [2:00] The Sicilian nickname situation — why colleagues call him Tony but family and friends use Anthony [4:00] His pre-Rally life building an AI-powered walking-tours app with ex-TikTok coworkers, and its surprising tie back to Descript's own origin story [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 [8:00] Being 36 and building his latest startup while sleep-deprived with a one-month-old [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, "That's it?" [14:00] Cold-testing the very first version of Rally on four strangers from Reddit's "first-time marathoners" subreddit [16:00] The X-rated voice notes he had to quietly delete during beta testing, and the PSA that came out of it [19:00] Why Rally deliberately hides who left you a voice note until you choose to find out [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 [30:00] The "Go, Abby, go" voice note that still gives him goosebumps, and the harder ones — messages from people who passed away before their loved one's race day [39:00] Turning down $15–20K a month in ad revenue to keep Rally's share pages clean [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 [56:00] The next problem he's trying to solve: building a fundraising feature into Rally the right way, without stepping on races' existing charity partnerships [1:02:00] Being a brand-new dad to one-month-old Sophia, and the honest reason — beyond the newborn — that he pulled out of the Chicago Marathon this year [1:08:00] His hot take on "hard work" [1:15:00] His go-to mental mantra on race day: "your body will go further than your mind" [1:18:00] What's next for him — trying to break an hour in a solo HYROX Previous Guests Mentioned Abby Anderson⁠ - Episode 133 Rob Perez - Episode 150 Lindsey Hein - Episode 100 Other Links Download Rally - runwithrally.com Follow Rally on Instagram @runwithrally Get your ticket to our Post Race Celebration event with Athletic Annex and Brooks Running — use code FLAMS for $10 off Enter our Indy giveaway — closes Tuesday, September 22nd Follow me on Instagram @allytbrett_runs Subscribe to Finish Lines & Milestones weekly newsletter This is a SandyBoy Productions podcast.