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Ben Francis is the Founder and ambitious entrepreneur behind leading global fitness brand, Gymshark. Ben founded Gymshark when he was 19 years old, while still a student at Aston University. In addition…
San Francisco stands out, not just for its economic and cultural success story; but for the way it is approaching resilience, sustainability and dealing with the challenges every modern, globalised region is…
What 337 conversations with the world's leading thinkers reveal about the spirit of entrepreneurship
In this interview I speak to Rory Sutherland, Vice Chairman of Ogilvy and one of the world’s foremost experts in marketing, branding & human behaviour. We discuss how a deep understanding of…
In this interview, I speak to pioneering brain surgeon & neuroscientist Rahul Jandial (author of ‘This is Why You Dream’) about the extraordinary way neuroscience and medicine are helping us unlock the…
Sridhar Vembu is the CEO and Co-founder of Zoho Corp, which he describes as “...a state-of-the-art tech company with a very old-fashioned approach to company building.” Founded in an apartment, in 1996, Zoho…
Mitchell Kapor is a pioneer of the personal computing revolution. He is the founder of Lotus Development Corporation and the designer of Lotus 1-2-3, the "killer application" which made the personal computer…
The single best way to have a great idea is to produce lots of ideas. The number of new ideas your organization can produce is a metric for its ability to generate…
Jaron Lanier is a renaissance man, and one of the most profoundly important thinkers of our age on the relationship of technology to humanity. He is a computer scientist, composer, artist, and…
To learn more about the 2020 SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) ‘Coronavirus’ pandemic, and to learn more about what we can do now, and in the future, to respond to virus outbreaks, and pandemics, I…
To learn about the role of food in our lives, I spoke to six of the world’s most successful Chefs and culinary minds; Vikas Khanna, Alain Ducasse, Heston Blumenthal, Dominique Crenn, Michel…
The Most Important Tool We Have. In these exclusive interviews we speak to Professor Jon Kabat-Zinn (scientist, writer and meditation teacher), Matthieu Ricard (Buddhist monk, photographer and author), Andy Puddicombe (Founder of…
Leadership sits at the very heart of everything we do as a civilisation, and to understand more we spoke to a group of the world’s foremost experts on leadership across the military,…
“If you lose your ego, you lose the thread of that narrative you call your Self,” wrote Haruki Murakami in his book Underground: The Tokyo Gas Attack and the Japanese Psyche “…humans,…
In this exclusive series of interviews, we speak to seven experts on conflict and peace building. Four Nobel Peace Prize Winners; Prof. Jody Williams (Chair, Nobel Women's Initiative), Dr. Shirin Ebadi (Human Rights…
The San Francisco Bay Area (more commonly known as Silicon Valley) has a GDP of $840 billion, to put it another way – if this region was a country, it would be…
In this exclusive series of interviews from 2015-today, I spoke with the world’s foremost experts on inequality: Kate Gilmore (United Nations Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights), The Rt. Hon. The Lord…
In these exclusive interviews we speak to Jüri Ratas (Prime Minister of Estonia), Guy Verhofstadt (Former Prime Minister, Belgium & EU Chief Brexit Negotiator), Vicente Fox Quesada (Former President of Mexico), Noam…
We are in a complex world- made difficult to model because of the nonlinear, emergent, spontaneous and adaptive interactions of trillions of elements. Whilst our biological and environmental complexity has had millions…
If you are lucky enough to live to 79 (the global average lifespan) you will have spent around 25 of those years (roughly one third of your entire life) asleep. Scientific advances…
Technology push also brings with it a range of unintended or unexpected consequences, particularly at a time (as we are now) where technology can grow from the germination of an idea to…
In this exclusive interview series, we speak to some of the world's most successful entrepreneurs: Sir Richard Branson (Founder of Virgin Group), Robin Li (Founder of Baidu), Sir James Dyson (Founder of Dyson), Professor…
In these exclusive interviews, we speak to Moby (Multi Award Winning International Recording Artist, DJ and Photographer), Hans Zimmer (International Award Winning composer and music producer who has composed music for over…
The World’s Most Profound Health Challenge. In these exclusive interviews we speak to: Dr. Thomas Insel (Former Director of the National Institutes of Mental Health, NIMH – Co-Founder, Mindstrong Health), Dr. Shekhar Saxena…
From the archive
I want Gymshark to be the brand that unites the conditioning community… that brings fitness into the reach of more people… gives people the opportunity to work on themselves physically and mentally. I wasn't very good at school. I got in the gym and then I was good at school because I applied the principles I learned in the gym to my general life. I want more people to have that experience.
— Ben FrancisFounder and CEO of Gymshark, fitness apparel company
We don't necessarily hire the best CV, we hire the right CV. We try to hire the right people. If someone is 10/10 skills-fit, but doesn't seem interested in our long-term vision? I'd rather have the 8/10 candidate who's passionate about where we're going.
— Ben FrancisFounder and CEO of Gymshark, fitness apparel company
I wish I could sit here and say that a group of us built a strategy, formula, and tried to work it all out – but it was nothing like that. It was organic. It was reaching out to our heroes on YouTube to see if they liked our kit. They loved our kit, they started wearing it and we started to get to know them – and eventually invited them to our events. It was super organic.
— Ben FrancisFounder and CEO of Gymshark, fitness apparel company
If I acted 8 years ago how I do today, I wouldn't have lasted 5 minutes in the business. If I acted today how I acted 8 years ago, the business wouldn't be where it is today. Entrepreneurs and founders have to learn to be the most adaptable people in their business- that's really important – otherwise, the business will outgrow the founder, or the founder will cause the business to stagnate or slow.
— Ben FrancisFounder and CEO of Gymshark, fitness apparel company
I was working on the principle that if you only listen to the voices around you, you'll amalgamate them into something that already exists… My view was that consensus isn't going to build something that will change the game.
— Ben FrancisFounder and CEO of Gymshark, fitness apparel company
At the beginning I literally started a business out of passion. I loved fitness- it changed my life- it changed my schooling, education and taught me skills that changed my life for the better. I just wanted to be in fitness. When we started the business- whilst the first 6 months were difficult- it started to gain momentum and started to feel like a real opportunity. That's when I had to grab the business by the 'scruff of the neck' and drag it to where I thought it needed to be.
— Ben FrancisFounder and CEO of Gymshark, fitness apparel company
I learned more from the people at those events – the community, the customer – than anyone in business.
— Ben FrancisFounder and CEO of Gymshark, fitness apparel company
I learn every single day from my girlfriend, my family, from graduates coming into the business… I try to learn relentlessly.
— Ben FrancisFounder and CEO of Gymshark, fitness apparel company
Entrepreneurs and founders have to learn to be the most adaptable people in their business- that's really important – otherwise, the business will outgrow the founder, or the founder will cause the business to stagnate or slow.
— Ben FrancisFounder and CEO of Gymshark, fitness apparel company
If you only listen to the voices around you, you'll amalgamate them into something that already exists… My view was that consensus isn't going to build something that will change the game.
— Ben FrancisFounder and CEO of Gymshark, fitness apparel company
