How Anne Mahlum Turned $175K Into An $88 Million Pilates Company
Business Takeaways:
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Question 1 of 5
How did Anne initially fund the first [solidcore] studio, and what was her early expansion strategy?
She used $175,000 of her personal savings and drove momentum by reinvesting the profits from every single studio directly into opening the next one.
Question 2 of 5
What was the catalyst that pushed Anne to manufacture her own proprietary machines?
A licensing dispute and a lawsuit pushed her. She was unhappy because the original machines couldn’t keep up with her pace of growth and took too long to fix.
Question 3 of 5
What crucial “test of a true entrepreneur” did Anne feel she had to pass before selling the company?
She needed to prove the business model was sound by showing the company could not just survive, but thrive, under other leadership without her at the helm.
Question 4 of 5
What role did outside investment play in [solidcore]’s growth?
After growing to 7 studios independently, she took her first outside investment of $1.25 million from a former board member to aggressively accelerate growth past 25 locations.
Question 5 of 5
How did Anne handle the financial windfall of her $88.4 million exit regarding her team?
She shared a portion of her personal proceeds with every single employee who had been at the company for at least a year before the sale.
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Transcript (6:25 - 6:42)
"I was part of a licensing agreement that wasn't going well and I didn't want to be a part of it anymore. The machines that I was using were taking way too long to keep up with my pace of growth that I wanted to execute, and whenever they broke it took way too long to fix them."
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