Deep Dive with Ali Abdaal

E1 Delivering Pizzas to Managing a Billion Dollar Business | Ben Francis Gymshark CEO

Sep 27, 2021

In this conversation, Ben Francis, the founder and CEO of Gymshark, shares his inspiring journey from hand-making gym wear in a shed to leading a billion-dollar fitness empire. He discusses the secrets behind scaling a global brand, the pivotal role of YouTube collaborations in marketing, and the challenges of shifting from a startup hustle to effective business structure. Ben also provides candid advice on goal setting and reinventing oneself, all while emphasizing the importance of community and teamwork in entrepreneurial success.

01:36:11

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Episode guests

Ben Francis

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Episode notes

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Quick takeaways

The founder of Gymshark had to reinvent himself multiple times throughout the journey, from being the driving force behind the business to working collaboratively and rallying the team around the company's vision.

As Gymshark grew, the founder learned the importance of adaptability, distribution of control, and building an effective team, going from having little knowledge about finances and taxes to running a billion-dollar business.

Having a clear organizational structure brings clarity and efficiency to a business, leading to better overall coordination and understanding of how different functions interact.

Surrounding yourself with genuinely brilliant people who are better than you in their respective areas is crucial for revolutionizing teams, businesses, and brands and achieving success.

Deep dives

The early days of Jim Shark and the first event

In the early days of Jim Shark, the team consisted of the founder, Lewis, and a few friends. They started by hand-making clothes and selling supplements. Their first major breakthrough came when they attended the BodyPower event in 2012, where they completely sold out of their products. This event marked a turning point for the business and led to exponential growth.

Continuous Improvement Leads to Competence and Brilliance

01:22

Constant Learning and Reinvention

01:21

Scaling Your Vision

01:04

Finding Purpose in Goals

00:46

Intro

2min

From Passion to Platform: Building a Brand

18min

From Dropshipping to Custom Apparel: The Birth of Gymshark

4min

From Passion to Brand: The Gymshark Journey

7min

From YouTube Collaboration to Coding for Success

2min

From Hustle to Structure: A CEO's Journey

4min

From Shed to Success: The Growth Journey

15min

From Brand Chief to CEO: A Journey of Growth

13min

Streamlining Business Operations: From Chaos to Structure

2min

10.

Mastering Part-Time Productivity

19min

11.

Evolving Video Production: From Solo Efforts to Team Collaboration

2min

12.

Mastering Video Content Creation

10min

"We'll look back at this period in ten, twenty, thirty years time as the moment of opportunity"

In this first ever episode of Deep Dive, Ali sits down with Ben Francis, the founder and CEO of leading UK Billion-Dollar fitness brand, Gymshark. Ben founded Gymshark at only 19 years old while studying at Aston University. With only his £5 an hour pizza delivery shift money in his back pocket, Ben went from hand making and screen printing clothes in a shed with a group of friends to owning one of the fastest growing global brands in fitness.

Once the antidote to what Ben calls a "selfish-problem", Gymshark is now the host of a global community of athletes, artists, visionaries, and innovators with a mission to inspire individuals to achieve the extraordinary. But the question is, how did he do it? In the episode Ben and Ali have a candid and in-depth conversation about building a viral brand, self-development and why the age of entrepreneurialism is now. Ben also gives Ali advice on his new business structure, offering tips on hiring, distributing control and how to reinvent yourself as a business person.

Some topics of conversation: