Gymshark. Keep it simple, Son
VC back in 2012 was a deeply confusing game. Listening to a pitch was often bewildering. Buzz words had usurped substance and every Startup worth their salt had to incorporate machine learning into their pitch deck. Chuck in a buzz word or two or investors weren’t interested.
It was probably all a function of Silicon Valley hysteria. Golden tales of fortune such as Snapchat and Instagram were creating a form of madness elsewhere. Evergreen principles of business had been forgotten — making a profit, having a good product — all cast by the wayside in favour of a technology gold rush.
While all this smoke and mirrors was happening, a little-known Pizza Deliver lad called Ben Francis had just started a supplements brand. Its name? Gymshark.
The same Gymshark that has just achieved a £1 Billion valuation 8 years later. They don’t sell supplements now, they sell clothes.
In a world of hyper complexity, Gymshark is beautifully simple.
What can we learn?
1. Simple is Good. Identify a market. Make a product and sell it at a profit. Business need not be any more complicated than that. Ben didn’t create a market; he just evolved an existing one. He designed products that he would want to wear and fabricated them in his garage.
Interestingly, they could not raise VC capital at the time. I would hazard a guess that the plethora of machine learning IoT Companies have since fallen by the wayside, whereas investors missed an opportunity to make fairy-tale returns on Gymshark.
2. It is possible to do something twice. Francis talks of the naysayers at the time who listed off his illustrious competitors. Behemoths such as Adidas, Nike and Reebok. That didn’t stop him though. It is entirely possible to enter a saturated market, and just do things, well, better.
Launching Real Cannabis Club (www.realcbdclub.com), there were a lot of faux insightful comments like “Saw CBD in Holland and Barrett the other day” or “You’ve missed the boat, pal”. Well, we did it anyway — but better than our rivals. We built a strong brand and focussed on product and customer retention, and have achieved a strong market share as a result.
We have become fixated on becoming inventing things and achieving the golden “first mover advantage”. Gymshark proves that evolution is as a good as revolution.
3. Ben Francis is not the CEO. He has learned on the job. He was the brand visionary, and the driving force — but not the experienced CEO that the business needed to drive it to the next level. So, he hired a better guy to do it. Pick the best person for the job, and don’t cling to titles.
4. Design and Brand are valid vectors to compete on. Just because you are not filing IP or don’t have first mover advantage, should not deter you for from doing it. Customers buy with their eyes — often they are not so interested in the fibre composite of your garment, or the ethical supply chain — they see a brand they like, and want to be a part of it.
Finally, the analysis of the Gymshark executive team ascribes a lot of their success to influencer marketing. Gymshark probably embraced a zeitgeist at just the right time. The power wielded by Instagram influencers was nascent then, and the timing was right.
Looking to the future — what is the next influencer marketing? Where is the marketing growth opportunity that will supersede all other ROI?
Raising a virtual glass to Ben Francis, who kept it simple and defied the doubters.
