Success Stories

Ben Francis started Gymshark in his garage while attending university in the UK. He initially sold fitness apparel using Shopify and grew the brand through influencer marketing on Instagram and YouTube. Today, Gymshark is a globally recognized fitness brand.

Emily Weiss started "Into The Gloss" as a beauty blog. Using the blog's community, she launched Glossier with just four products and built a loyal customer base. The brand grew rapidly through social media and direct-to-consumer sales.

Tope Awotona founded Calendly to solve his own scheduling headaches. He bootstrapped the business in the early days, then scaled it rapidly thanks to strong product-market fit. It's now one of the leading scheduling tools globally.

Mike Cessario launched Liquid Death with the simple idea of selling water in tallboy cans. The brand's punk-rock aesthetic and viral marketing quickly caught attention, turning a quirky concept into a beverage industry disruptor.

Robinhood was founded by two Stanford grads who wanted to make investing accessible to everyone. Starting with a small team and no trading fees, they rapidly scaled by appealing to young investors and gained millions of users.

Started by Chris Xu in China, Shein began as a small online store selling affordable fashion. Leveraging data-driven inventory and social media, the company grew into a global fast-fashion giant valued in the billions.

Ivan Zhao started Notion as a tool to combine docs, wikis, and task management into one workspace. After some early setbacks, the team rebuilt from scratch and captured the attention of startups and creators alike.

Brothers John and Leo Resig launched The Chive as a photo and humor blog. With viral content and community-driven campaigns, they built a media empire with merchandise sales, events, and even a streaming platform.

Brothers Mike and Albert Lee built MyFitnessPal as a simple diet and exercise tracker. It quickly gained popularity and millions of users, ultimately being acquired by Under Armour for $475 million.

David Rogier launched MasterClass to give anyone access to world-class instructors. Starting with a single course and seed funding, the platform grew into a massive educational content library with celebrity teachers and millions of users.