Gymshark CEO: How I Built A $1.5 Billion Business At 19! Ben Francis

Steven Bartlett interviews Ben Francis, founder and now CEO of Gymshark, about how he built one of the UK's fastest-growing companies starting in 2012. Ben traces his journey from a practical-learning D-grade student who learned Photoshop and Illustrator on a BTEC, through stepping back from CEO to specialist roles, and back to CEO. Central themes are radical self-awareness (triggered by a brutal 360 feedback report his wife confirmed was accurate), surrounding himself with people better than himself, and treating personal weaknesses like public speaking as solvable problems. He discusses the BLM/Blue Lives Matter social media pile-on, navigating COVID, his glass-box approach to being a public CEO, and his ambition for Gymshark to become a truly iconic global British brand.

• Ben did a 360 feedback report describing him as erratic, hot-headed, arrogant and a poor manager; his wife reading it and saying 'that's the most you thing I've ever read' was his moment of becoming self-aware.
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• He deliberately chose to lean entirely into his strengths (brand, product, marketing, creativity) and hand finance/ops/management to others, voluntarily moving himself out of the CEO seat.
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• After roughly four months back as CEO, Ben explains he stepped back into the role two years after Steve first told him he could do it, rather than relax with his shareholding.
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• A sarcastic Blue Lives Matter reply posted by a Gymshark staffer triggered thousands of comments, messages and death threats aimed at Ben personally.
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• Ben kept the employee who caused the pile-on, saying he doesn't believe in cancel culture and that firing people who fail with good intentions leaves only people who've never failed.
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• Gymshark is close to signing a lease on its first-ever permanent physical store, a flagship community hub in London.
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• Asked what happens if he's removed, Ben admits a founder sees all the dots and there would be a loss in vision, culture and specialness even though commercials would continue.
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• At 14 Ben did work experience with his granddad lining furnaces around the Midlands, learning hard work and absorbing stories of business risk.
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• A BTEC in IT taught him Photoshop, Dreamweaver and Illustrator, the exact software he later used to build Gymshark.
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• Ben credits World of Warcraft for teaching him teamwork and the 'Avengers assemble' model of specialist team-building he still uses at Gymshark.
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• Gymshark went from around 30 employees and one Midlands office to 900 employees and offices worldwide in nine years.
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• Ben cycled through Chief of Brand, marketing, product and tech roles, each time being replaced by someone better, before becoming CEO.
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• Ben took public speaking lessons after meeting a coach by chance at a Gymshark event, having listed public speaking as a weakness on his phone wallpaper.
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• He uses a Churchill-attributed idea of 'preparing impromptu remarks', rehearsing phrases and trigger-stories to overcome speaking nerves.
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• Ben and Steven both took two to three years to realise that great talent mattered far more than their own individual skills.
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• Before Gymshark, Ben built two failed fitness apps, a failed fitness social network and a failed forum; Gymshark was roughly his seventh attempt.
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• Ben advises against quitting your job, noting he worked at Pizza Hut for four or five pounds an hour while Gymshark was already doing hundreds of thousands in revenue.
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