How This Pizza Hut Delivery Guy Became Billionaire?

In less than 8 years with influencer marketing.

Benjamin Francis born in June 1992. He grew up in mid-west of England, Worcestershire.

He attended South Bromsgrove High School where he became interested in information technologies. Ben developed an affinity for entrepreneurship from a young age and started to develop web applications just for fun. His first business was an online company that sold car license plates.

In 2010, he started to study international business and management at Aston University. While at university, Ben worked for Pizza Hut as a delivery guy and earned $5 an hour.

In 2011, he became obsessed about body building and developed two fitness app, Fat Loss Abs Guide and iPhysique, which were both listed in the IOS App Store charts.

Ben later said about going to gym:

“The structure, consistency and work ethic I found in the gym I realised, could be applied to different areas of my life and it would work”.

In 2012, aged 19, he launched Gymshark in his parents’ garage with school friend Lewis Morgan. Without any capital — unable to afford inventory — they started as a drop-shipping company. The website initially sold body building supplements. Their first sale came after two months and profit was only $3.

Within a year two partner realized that drop-shipping was not working for them. They decided to pivot their business. This time, Ben and Lewis started out from their own problem — which was finding better gym clothes.

Apparel Brand 101

Benjamin learned how to sew from his mother. He bought sewing machine, screen printer and fabric with his all savings — equal to $1000.

After pivoting from supplements to apparel, Gymshark’s sales started to pick up. Their secret was influencer marketing. Only odd thing in this story: no one didn’t know about it back then.

Ben literally invented influencer marketing.

He sent apparel to fitness models, who posted pictures wearing the Gymshark t-shirts to thousands of followers and didn’t ask for money because it was still 2012 and they were happy with just free goodies.

The Gamble Paid Off

While sales started to pick up, Ben struggled to keep up with his daily schedule. Everyday he woke up and went to university, then worked at Pizza Hut from 5pm to 10pm.

With only a few hours to spare, he could only make 10 Gymshark t-shirts each day.

But in 2013, everything changed…

Ben and Lewis decided to take a gamble and rent a booth for Gymshark at the BodyPower fitness trade show in Birmingham with their entire $3,000 savings.

After the trade show ended, Gymshark’s new tracksuit went viral on Facebook. They made $40,000 in less than one hour and their website crashed due to high traffic.

Time to Leave Pizza Hut

With Gymshark sales reaching $250,000 within 2 years, both of them finally realized that they are onto something special — once in a lifetime opportunity.

Ben and Lewis quitted the university to focus on Gymshark full time. Ben also left Pizza Hut and never turned back.

Over the next few years they heavily used influencer marketing. Gymshark was one of the first brands to make extensive use of social media influencers.

And it worked. Their sales went from $250,000 to $16 million.

Chief Marketing Officer

In 2015, Francis stepped down as CEO of the company to become CMO. At the time, he said the move would allow the company to grow even more quickly and give him time to work on his weaknesses and become a more rounded businessperson.

In 2016, Gymshark was named the UK’s fastest growing company from The Sunday Times.

In 2017, co-founder Lewis Morgan left Gymshark to pursue his other interests. In the 3 years since Lewis left sales exploded and went from $16 million to $250 million.

In 2018, Gymshark opened a new $5 million headquarters.

In 2019, Gymshark opened its own branded gym and innovation hub.

Dreams Come True

As a DTC brand without any brick and mortar store, Gymshark’s economics are amazing.

Their website is live in 180 countries and serving customers in 13 different languages. Influencer marketing is their core marketing strategy with great ROI. Since they don’t have any psychical stores, they don’t pay extra for rent, insurance, electricity and employees.

With 70% gross profit margin, they are one of the most profitable brand — better than Nike and Adidas — in sportswear.

This numbers are calling for private equity and venture capital firms.

In August 2020, Gymshark sold 21% stake to US private equity firm General Atlantic in a deal which valued the company in excess of $1.5 billion.

Benjamin currently owns more than 70% of the company, which makes him billionaire officially.

As I always said, one of the most important characteristic of entrepreneur is perseverance. Ben, found his passion, worked hard and never gave up — even his partner left him halfway.

From delivering pizzas for $5 an hour to becoming a billionaire in less than 8 years is not a bad way to achieve your dream…