The CEO of Gymbox was torn between risk and security at a key point in his career and reflects on the choice he made

I’ve been lucky enough not to have had too much adversity in my career – other than dealing with the obvious challenges of COVID 19 – but my biggest life lesson is around the regret of not continuing with a business I’d already got off the ground.

In 2007 I had an idea for an online aggregator. This was before ClassPass, Hussle (previously PayAsUGym) and GymPass [now Wellhub] came along and I invested a lot of money and thousands of hours into the business idea, PickAGym. It was a cross between Google for gyms and a comparison website, with the ability to book and pay for day passes and classes.

I launched it at Leisure Industry Week in 2009 and had recruited someone in business development to on-board gyms. We already had a few thousand operators, so it was up and running. However, we quickly realised that it didn’t matter how good the website was, the online space was the key to its success and it needed a serious amount of money invested in order to make sure it gained traction.

Until that point it had been funded by my consultancy business, but it needed further investment. I managed to secure an initial £250,000 and this is where the life lesson comes in. The investor wanted me to be full time if he was going to invest, which meant closing down my consultancy to make it my only focus. It felt like I was faced with the choice of having to go all-in, or leave it.

At the same time, Gymbox, which was one of my consultancy clients, offered me the chance to come on board with equity. My dream had always been to own my own gym and this was a great offer from a brand I was a fan of. It was a good proposition and I saw a lot of growth potential. I also had a young family, so weighing it up I could go all in on a start-up, which could have £250,000 backing, but would need follow-on funding, or I could have the security of a good job with great progression opportunity. I felt like PickAGym wasn’t far enough developed for me to change tack and so I parked the business.

If I had my time again I would have found a way to make PickAGym work alongside Gymbox. I could have taken the Gymbox job and continued to pursue alternative investment, because I was really passionate about the offering, I had managed to get it off the ground, I’d invested a lot of time and money in it, it was a great platform, it was gaining traction and had onboarded gyms. If I stuck with it – and seeing the impact of other aggregators – I think it would have been successful. It feels like the one that got away and in hindsight I should have found a way to make it work.

So my lesson is that if you have a passion for something and the gut feel is that it’s right then go for it. Follow that instinct, because when you look back you’ll probably regret the things you didn’t do. If you’re passionate and think it will work, you can find a way.

Looking back, the timing was wrong. If the investment opportunity had possibly come one year earlier or three years later, then I think that it would have been different.

My 14-year career at Gymbox has been really great. We try to be early adopters and we take risks. Gymbox already did that and I’ve continued it.

My experience means that when I see someone who has passion and an idea then I’m happy to support it. Gut feeling is usually right and as you become more experienced in business you find a way to make things work. I think we regret what we don’t do far more than the things we do.