Ralli Founder Allison Morrison Slays Triathalon Worlds With a Day Job While Getting Her MBA, Ugh

01/23/25 • 43 min

We could have interviewed Allison Morrison fresh off her World’s debut in Olympic distance triathlon as a UT MBA student and full time Meta employee. However this podcast has a strong entrepreneurial theme (you, reader, are about to feel inadequate), and sure enough, Allison made room for her startup, Ralli, on top of 15hr weekly training blocks, coursework and the day job. Ralli launched in 2022 as a web app to help athletes match with training buddies, and is expanding to include club messaging features with an imminent native app release. The special sauce in this episode is the LIVE AUDIENCE! We hosted Allison at the Meteor in Austin with 40 other guests, our first public event, and the authentic laugh track takes this podcast energy to the next level. Do not miss the second half which covers the audience Q&A, because the questions about righteous selfishness, scaling the app for critical mass and fundraising were WAY better than ours! Enjoy.

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Hill Climbers is more than just a podcast, it's a growing business network for cyclists. You can tap into our event by following our Linkedin and Instagram, and subscribing to our newsletter.

Startuplandia.io Sponsors Hill Climbers Content & Free Beer

www.hill-climbers.com
Instagram
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Theme Music: Summer Vibes by Rizik

Previous Episode

Zwift Cofounder And Cycling Innovator Eric Min Helped Reestablish The Tour de France Femmes

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Zwift cofounder Eric Min was a tantalizing and wildly obvious guest candidate for a number of reasons that we'll enumerate, however, we did not think he'd join us so soon! Last year Eric turned up in the Breakfast Club slack, to our delight, and agreed to hop on a call to discuss an interview. We scheduled the interview for the fall, after the Zwift Ride bike launch, and Eric stayed true to his word. This is a milestone for us because of Eric's prominence in the cycling industry, his role in bringing virtual riding and racing to the masses, the unicorn status achieved after the last funding round, and selfishly, our joy using the product. The interview covers a range of topics from challenges Zwift faced after making bets on a pandemic spike that did not last, to the origin story of the Tour De France Femmes Avec Zwift, to Eric's recommendations for folks that are just getting started on the platform, so there's something for everyone. RIDE ON.

Topics Covered:

• Eric Min's background and the founding of Zwift
• The evolution of virtual cycling and the remarkably efficient training it delivers
• Zwift's initiatives to promote women's cycling and Zwift Academy's success
• New Zwift features like steering and the cycling community

Hill Climbers is more than just a podcast, it's a growing business network for cyclists. You can tap into our event by following our Linkedin and Instagram, and subscribing to our newsletter.

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Next Episode

Rob Taylor Has Fabulous Hair & Epic Bike Trips BUT This Serial Entrepreneur & VC Keeps Ego Low

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To help spread the word about the show, my friend Rey Madolora put me on an email with a bunch of Austin cyclists that are also notable in the business community. One by one I was able to meet most of them, but Rob Taylor was elusive. When I followed his Strava I noticed that he was regularly climbing mountains in Europe...like really frequently and his trips had names like, “Epic Three Nations.” Needless to say this piqued my interest but he’s not on the group ride scene here so I wasn’t going to just run into him. I did run into his brother, Chris, at The Red Fridge Society, which he opened as a membership club and event space for founders. When I told Chris that we had started promoting live events, he said, “you should interview my brother, here.” And that’s how you stalk a podcast guest.

Rob’s ride through the dot com bubble and bust got him started in triathlon as an outlet to channel frustration - not exactly a joyful pursuit. Gradually, during his high flying career taking companies public, reaching a 9 figure exit and becoming a VC, Rob discovered a passion for European bike trips HEAVY on the climbing because the experience distills his complicated life down to basic pleasures: fitness, suffering, outdoors, local cuisine and companionship. We had a blast at the Red Fridge exploring Rob’s leadership insights as far as team building, communicating, and relishing the adventure as opposed to coveting the outcome. No topic was off limits for the audience Q&A, including Rob’s glorious hair. Now, enjoy the show.

Hill Climbers is more than just a podcast, it's a growing business network for cyclists. You can tap into our event by following our Linkedin and Instagram, and subscribing to our newsletter.

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Theme Music: Summer Vibes by Rizik

Hill Climbers - Ralli Founder Allison Morrison Slays Triathalon Worlds With a Day Job While Getting Her MBA, Ugh

Transcript

Sam Huntington (00:00)
And Allison, let's do another round of applause for Allison. Thank you so much for joining us.
has actually prepared an intro, so why don't you introduce Allison and then we can start talking about Ralli Of course, I'd love to. And Allison, please fill in here where I miss out because for those of you that don't know Allison, she's an incredibly accomplished person. Her journey starts with undergraduate at Harvard as a heptathlete. So for those track and field athl