How I Built GymShark to $1.4 Billion Business | Ben Francis Gymshark CEO

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. But the question is, how did he do it?
0:00 Intro
01:35 - Entrepreneurial Origins
10:29 - Business Degrees vs Winging it
19:26 - Founding Gymshark & Building a Viral Brand
34:22 - Scaling & Distributing Control
45:10 - Trusting Your Team & Hiring
51:28 - Becoming CEO
58:50 - Fears Of Losing The Hunger
01:01:00 - Changing Lives With A Brand
01:06:45 - Having An Overarching Goal
01:12:05 - What's it like being famous?
1:13:55 - Why did you start a YouTube Channel?
1:24:09 - Comparing Content Workflows
1:30:53 - Mentors & Learning From Everyone
1:33:39 - Advice For Young Entrepreneurs
🎙 ABOUT THE PODCAST

Deep Dive is the podcast that delves into the minds of entrepreneurs, creators and other inspiring people to uncover their journey's towards finding joy and fulfilment at work and in life. In each episode our host Ali Abdaal talks to his guests about their philosophies, strategies and tools that have helped them along their personal path to living a life of happiness and meaning. There's no manual for living a happy life, but we hope that from these shared experiences you'll leave each episode with practical advice you can use to help you along the way.