Latest / Healthier: Building Health & Fitness Businesses / How ONE LDN grew 30% a year with no contracts | Evgenia Koroleva | Healthier Ep 9
Transcript
- speaker-0: This is a masterclass on how to build a thriving gym from Yevgenia at One London. Ten years ago she was a banker, but now she has a community, partnerships, and numbers that any other gym is jealous of. If you're building a membership or a community led business, listen up. We cover super practical, hands-on detail on how to make sure that you're innovating all the time. speaker-1: What does the consumer want today or they want tomorrow where we create a revenue stream and we can test whether that's working? speaker-0: Our One London has made a community a measurable revenue engine. speaker-1: Many places would say they have similar type of things. So having the structure of like, can we provide this? Is it at the right price point that people actually want to pay and don't feel that it's treacherous? speaker-0: them. How to make partnerships, a big revenue driver, and so much more. You are in for a treat. Welcome back to Healthier, the place for people building in health, fitness and wellbeing. And we've got an amazing episode today. ⁓ please introduce yourself, tell us about yourself and ⁓ what you're up to and then we can dig into some of your story. speaker-1: Thank you so much, Will. Such a pleasure to be joining me today. so I'm Yevgeny, I'm the founder of ⁓ One London, which is a high performance premium chair in London and a jobs and fitness specialized fitness and wellbeing recruiter also in London and in the UK. speaker-0: Amazing. And could you talk to us a little bit around the ⁓ scale of of One London? So how long have you been around just give a bit of flavor about speaker-1: Thank you so much. It is really special. To a little bit of background, ⁓ I started my career in finance working ⁓ in investment banking. And about ten years ago I decided to ⁓ leap from the corporate world and pursue my passion of entrepreneurship and health and fitness and decided to open a gym, which was one London. And having not had any any background in the fitness industry and not really been the person who kind of defines them as someone who like lifts weights all the time. ⁓ I've always always done a variety of different types of sports and very much like got involved in different kind of classes and different disciplines from outdoor to indoor. I just wanted to build something that really was missing for me in the market. I think as most founders do, kind of find the gap what felt that wasn't really serving me. And I think ⁓ that was really having a very flexible gym membership, ⁓ where I wasn't tied into long term contracts, but I had the top range of equipment, the best kind of classes and best ⁓ instructors, but also ⁓ a community that made me feel that I wanted to be a part of it every day. ⁓ and essentially create a place that I wanted to come back to day in, day out. That was kind of the essence of it. So About ⁓ so obviously 10 years ago we opened May 2016 and I think kind of be proud to say there's gone from strength to strength. And after COVID lockdowns, we kind of s went back to the drawing board and said, Okay, let's take it back again and look at ⁓ and look at the consumer again, because consumer obviously changes all the time. So let's look at who is the consumer who is driving the fitness market today, ⁓ and what they need today in their in in what what how they're being underserved. And it's very much what we've identified is very much the Gen Z, the younger millennials now, Gen Alpha Consumer, for whom fitness very much is a prime spend category, for whom fitness is not just access, which most gyms provide, but for whom fitness is an identity. it's not just being part of it, but also the community, the people they need, the friendships they make, and kind of all that encompassing part. So one Lond ⁓ one London two point ⁓ post lockdown very much was ⁓ that creating a facility which can serve this fitness consumer which very much is taking the industry by storm, I would say. speaker-0: So I like get the impression that you've done an amazing job of building community. ⁓ there are a ton of gyms that would love to have like have the community that you've managed to build. ⁓ how have you managed to do it? speaker-1: Yeah, I think there's a there's a couple of things that ⁓ are important to s to have a look at. Firstly, I think we should start with thinking about quantifying what consumer consumer ⁓ consum community really ⁓ really means, because we can all say, ⁓ you know, my gym you know, community is such a buzzword nowadays. But very much we went with the focus that consuming c ⁓ community really has to be our revenue engine. How How do we build something that gets we can quantify? And what do I mean by that is that ⁓ people who train three times the industry average, people who stay with us three times the industry average, people who are aren't just there, but also referring their friends. And that kind of keeps that momentum going, but also becomes, as I said, revenue engine of our business. So we very much approach that. from from that perspective, very much putting the ⁓ quantitative measures on it as well as the qualitative ⁓ joy that the community brings for everyone, right? And brings people coming back. And to answer your question how, is very much starting on grassroots. I think one of the first things we did is, you know, as you correctly said, is creating a space where people want to spend time. So can we give them the best facilities, i.e., you know, one London obviously has floored ceiling windows, so we're super light, we're super airy facility, have amazing equipment, have amazing classes, have amazing coaches. Many places would say they have similar type of things. So having the structure of like, can we provide this? Is it at the right price point that people actually want to pay and don't feel that it stretches them, right? So thinking about are we delivering the value for money for people? And then the Kind of the secret source, I would say, to what really gets people coming back is the people that they meet. And I think that coming back to the values of the company that you instill, ⁓ and for us, it's very much high performance mindset is the top value we live by. So whether people are fitness professionals or fitness enthusiasts, we very much treat everyone who comes in as an athlete, right? So everyone who comes in. ⁓ needs to be given a chance to progress, to develop, and want to be a better version of themselves. So when we when we go with creating community from the values that we instill from the people who lead the company to the people who work in it to then feeling that through the membership, then you end up with a group of individuals that are very, very like-minded. So as I said, from whether people are athletes already or people who train very seriously or people who are just starting on their first day of training would very much attract through both our outreach and our marketing a very similar minded type of person who thinks in a similar way. speaker-0: That's really cool. I think you I think from what you're saying, like you you really nailed your colours to the mask. Like you said, we are for this type of person. ⁓ and of course that must be quite scary at the beginning, right? 'Cause you could have theoretically said, like, hey, no, we're for we're for everyone and and obviously you are for anyone who aspires to be that type of person as well. But you could have said, right, we're for everyone in the local area who wants to work out at some point. But you're saying no, if you if you if you want to take this seriously, whether you do right now or whether that's an aspiration, ⁓ then we are the place where you can really find your people and really find your home. And I think it it takes guts to do that. But then the payoff if you can get it right can be huge because then you build that place of that, well, I couldn't go anywhere else because this is where it's full of my people. speaker-1: Yeah, and you're right. It is really scary because because ⁓ ultimately you want to be ⁓ attracting as many people as you as you can. Yeah, exactly. Of course, yeah. ⁓ but ⁓ but the the nuance here is that when you're operating in an ultra competitive market, which fitness industry is, and London is probably one of the most competitive markets in the world, probably now over sh overshooting New York, is that you've got to be really ultra targeted with the type of person that you're trying to attract. And the messaging that you're sending through your communication, through your values, and through the experience that you're providing needs to be very succinct to the type of demographic that you're trying to trying to attract. And if you think about a street with a one really, really popular restaurant, right? That one really popular restaurant will attract loads of people, but the other restaurants on the street will get a bit of a still over. So in a similar type of concept, you will mostly get that type of demographic. But you will get the ancillary people who are still going to be there and still going to be signed up. They're gonna still not sign up. And what we have found really is that people come to One London often with not having the belief that they can. And because of the atmosphere and the community around them, they start realizing that their possibilities are kind of not limitless, but but they can achieve what they never thought they could do with community really. behind them and driving them through it. speaker-0: And if you talk about some of the knock on effects of community higher retention than average, higher referral rates than average experience with you, where they come in ⁓ maybe not feeling like they're totally capable, or maybe like being a little bit less confident with what they can achieve, and then they spend a few months with you and they start to see themselves progress and they go, Well, actually, if I stick with this, I can do amazing things. That feeling, you're gonna be shouting from the rooftops, you're gonna be telling all your friends, like you're gonna be saying, ⁓ my god, this thing's happening to me. speaker-1: Yeah. And imagine imagine if you are turning up to a gym where you're not sure whether you are able to do a class or whether you're not sure you're able to do a session and someone takes you by the hand and puts you into that class and the instructor looks after you every step of the way and regresses everything and you achieve something for the first time that you never thought you could. Sounds very simplistic, but you'll feel really proud of yourself, right? It's huge. And then you'll wanna come back again to show yourself that you can. Because it's going through that first limit that is difficult. And you we know that with entrepreneurship, we know that with any career that we're building, you you have to get through the wall. You can't get around it, right? speaker-0: Absolutely. I think there's an interesting thing that you've done as well in that you am I right in saying that you've kind of said no to longer term contracts from from members? speaker-1: Yeah, so what we did, we were actually the first non budget gym in the UK to offer non ⁓ contract membership. And that's something that really I guess it pissed me off when I was yeah when I was a regular gym user and I said, Why do I have to be tied into a long term contract? Why can't I just pay per month and I would stay if I want to stay? And I remember putting this, ⁓ saying, We're not gonna do a contract, and it's everybody was like, You're mental. How are you gonna retain people, right? And how are you gonna predict, how are you gonna have any predictability of your cash flow? And I was I was like, well, we're just gonna try and do that, right? So we're the first but a non-budget gym to do it. And now it's completely widespread, right? Like every every single gym does that because the you have to look at the macroeconomic shifts and how the demographics that you're trying to serve are sh like changing and the demands and the you know, just general changes in in ⁓ in demand from people and what they're looking to do. And I think flexibility is one of the most important things that people are asking for from the brands that they work with. speaker-0: It's also for me, there's two other things to it. It's like the most customer focused thing that you could do. If we ignored everything else, what's right by the customer? Well, that would be l give them flexibility. And then also, you said there were that people said to you, ⁓ well, how are you gonna retain them? And then that becomes like a great thing for you to work on and for your team to work on. It's like, Okay, cool, well if we can't just artificially keep them around like sell them a dream and then keep knowing that we've got them for twelve months, how do we need to retain them? It's like, ⁓ it turns out we need to have an amazing product and we need to make sure that the price is in the right spot and we need to and and we don't get to get any benefit from this kind of artificial speaker-1: ⁓ of course. And and and this is the thing with that you have to do ⁓ with kind of I think any business. You've just gotta test again and again and again. You've got to A B test absolutely everything. And ⁓ you know, quite often I would say, you know, as an as entrepreneurs we make theses about certain things happening and instead of instead of kind of imagining a scenario, I always say, Let's just test all the scenarios and let's see what happens. Let's test different price points. Let's test different membership things. And throughout the 10 years, we've tested every price point, every different membership option, every, you know, segmentation of memberships, ⁓ various things that we offer. And you immediately see what's working, what's not working in terms of different, you know, marketing and different things that we do. And as you said, like from kind of building a community, my God, we've tried so many different things. And then you see what's working and you just do more of it. And then you see what something else is working, you do more of it. And then a year's time, the consumer sentiment may change. So you've got to pivot and then test them, test them, test again. So I guess we can never stand still, right? We've just got to always be kept on our toes by like constantly looking at what the consumer wants today, but not just today. What are they gonna want in a year's time, in two years' time, in three years' time, and how are we gonna meet them there? So today they want high intensity, big group programming, everything else. You know, five years ago. They wanted super individualized small group personal training, right? So and you've constantly gotta be seeing who's the demographic I'm trying to serve, where are they today, but where are they most importantly gonna be in a year's time and how am I gonna get there before anyone else is gonna get there? And I think this is one thing that we've done super, I guess, successfully is that we've innovated again and again and again in an industry that is so stale. And I think there's so many people in this industry. I guess who think in the slightly archaic ways and aren't prepared to change and shift things. And if you look at kind of a lot of people in the market, everyone's just copying each other. So you've just got to be sitting and thinking, What is the new thing I'm going to bring into the market? And what is my consumer going to want? And how am I going to educate them to get there? You know? speaker-0: So cool. ⁓ so there's three threads I want to pull on. So the first is innovation. The ⁓ the second ⁓ is how you decide something is worth making a bet on versus potentially being a fad. And then the third is community. You said you tried so many different things and I think as as we've already talked about, you're of a place that's built community. So let's start on on this kind of looking into the future. You've you I'm sure all the time you're seeing new stuff, you're being told about new stuff by peers, like I don't know, new class formats. ⁓ You're noticing new ways of doing things. There's this new fitness racing thing that maybe that's the thing that's gonna beat hierarchs. ⁓ there's probably a bunch of people pitching you the next piece of equipment that's gonna change everything or the next class format that's gonna change everything. And you've gotta decide what to make a bet on. And as much as you can make a ton of bets, you can't do it in such a way that it's gonna like ⁓ give your consumer whiplash, right? It can't be that actually there's five new class types on ev every week and and then they go away. So how do you How do you decide what to take a bet on? And like how do you work out what's a fad and and what's not? And are there any examples of where you have kind of made a bet that's paid off? speaker-1: Yeah, so ⁓ I would add to that is another thing that as you scale as a brand and you grow a grown up team of adults who're sitting next to you who helping you make the decision or helping you execute the decision, they are kind of one of the stoppers that will stop you as entrepreneurs. We always like, Okay, let's pivot and let's pivot this way and let's pivot this way, and there's kind of the team behind you who has to execute all of that. So you kind of look at like y you if you imagine yourself as like the kind of Chinese dragon, you know, Chinese need a dragon and you're sitting at the head of it and your team is behind it. Yeah. Every time you're pivoting, they kind of have to move the direction. So you've got to kind of think about as you're growing the brand, you've also got to think about how what's the impact on the rest of your team. And like and you've got to think, you know, as a founder, we've got two resources people and money, right? And every time you make a decision in terms of the pivot, you'd be like, what's the impact on that on the people that cost money and then obviously the money. But we have never funded ⁓ I mean I'm still a hundred percent in the business. So we've never raised an external round. We're in the process of ⁓ we're kind of midway through ⁓ raising money for expansion at the moment. So ⁓ we've completely funded the business, self funded the business from day one and got through COVID having not raised any external capital. so for me one of the most important things through that have been in thinking about innovation is how do we innovate in terms of driving our revenue streams, right? So what does the consumer want today or they want tomorrow where we create a revenue stream and we can test whether that's working, right? So ⁓ I'll give you an an example of ⁓ you know obviously our core our most of our ⁓ revenue, monthly revenue comes from recurring membership revenues, right? The of our clients who can stay with us. But then I'm always, always thinking about what is the new revenue stream that we're gonna bring online. And kind of a couple of years ago, you know, when a few years ago when we came out of COVID, the creator economy has just completely exploded, right? So we came out of COVID, everyone who's anyone was trying to build their ⁓ b build a ⁓ fitness app. So we very much were super open. We said, Okay, cool, we will charge people for filming in in the gym, right? So we very much open the gym to creators and charge them. And we created like a pretty significant revenue stream to be able to then get the creators in. And we would open at four in the morning because they will come and film their apps at four in the morning. And we had like a bunch of creators will will, you know, ⁓ come onto the gym floor and will film their apps and they'll film up to the, you know, because we also don't want to interrupt with the daily flow of everyone. And then through them, a lot of brands started seeing us. So a lot of brands will come to us and they say, ⁓ we want to film our campaign here because obviously it's such, you know, it's such a no gyms let ever big gyms ever let you film. So can we and honestly, that was for about two years, that was one of our kind of very significant revenue streams that came on board just because we were thinking, where's the industry going? How can we kind of capitalize on that in terms of revenue ⁓ making making cash making cash? I mean, Gymshark filmed two of their leading kind of yearly big annual campaigns that run London for kind of two years running. and loads of other because more brands saw it, then they more came to us. So it's kind of snowballing effect. And, you know, when we are looking at ⁓ kind of fitness racing, as you said, like, you know, of course, like we we've run things like Hyrule simulations, which many people do. And I think we test the effectiveness of it. I mean, I think maybe a year ago it was super effective as it and and if it's becoming like tailing off of it, Then we'll see, okay, cool. Last five times that was really effective. Is it still worth running? Are we still are we still just kind of a momentum doing it? Or is it still we need to test whether it's working or not? And I think it's important to like have it at that time. And then thinking about, you know, if we're thinking the consumer is changing, what do we need to evolve? Because you're right, like people are saying, Okay, tomorrow hot plot is really popular. Is this something that we really want to spend money on? And very much put money well, put a model behind it, right? So like put numbers behind everything. So what do we think the occupancy can rise and can that can that offset the expense that it's gonna cause, right? On speaker-0: Yeah, that's fantastic. I don't know. Someone with a recovery room and you're like, ⁓ okay, cool. So some people are doing recovery rooms and then someone's ripping out a bunch of their space and putting in a s sauna hot hot coal and then someone and then someone's we've got a bunch of new Pilates machines. It's like there's just so many different going on. speaker-1: Yeah. But also but also like look, ⁓ putting in a like speaking bluntly, like cryotherapy like exploded, right? Everyone was like, we need to put cryotherapy and well, cryotherapy chamber is like hundreds fifty gram hundreds fifty fifty ⁓ two two hundred gram to install. Ice bath machine ⁓ ice ice bath machine, ice bath is like three grand to install. So it's not a huge cost for like not dissimilar type of feeling that the client gets at the end of it, right? So so we think, okay, cool. Well it's gonna cost me 10 grand to install for ice bath. That's not a big bet, right? And the consumers absolutely love it. So it's just like weighing out those options. Yeah, I I mean I personally am like the biggest proponent of hot and cold and completely obsessed with it. And ⁓ One London is not a spa, it's very much like a functional facility. So we have amazing saunas and great ice cold ice bars, ⁓ but it's not a spa facility. So if people are looking for a spa element, they might want to go somewhere else and but for kind of functional recovery benefit, we will provide that because I think it's really important. But investing in two hundred K in a cryo chamber, I just don't think it's necessary for that. speaker-0: That's where it's so important and and clearly you do, you know who you're for and what you are. And so you can then look at look at all of this interesting stuff, all of this potentially exciting stuff through that lens. Think, well, okay, this Pilates thing that comes across my desk. Like it does the is that the promise that we're making to consumers, does it fit in with that? And then ⁓ does it fit in with kind of who we are, I guess. speaker-1: I I think what's also really important is to keep keep keep the simplicity of the offering to be for your consumer they really really need to understand that everything's really simple. I think overcomplicating membership types and overcomplicating offering types and all sorts of different membership packages. I think lots of people sit, you know, sometimes you look at a pricing model and you're like, How long does that take to invent? ⁓ you're like one membership. Everything included, these are the most important things that you need to be able to achieve your goals and become very best in yourself. That's it. Simple. And I think simplicity in any product is what really drives success. speaker-0: I'd love to talk you've talked about different revenue streams. ⁓ if you'd be open to it, I'd love to talk about partnerships because I think that's something from the outside you seem to have done really, really well as well. Again, like some of the partnerships you have, like the one you've had with with Nike. ⁓ But like how how does that come about? Do you is it just magically Nike say, we love your gym, here's loads of money, you choose what we do. I assume it's not. I assume it's a little bit more work than that. speaker-1: Yeah, I think I think thanks for saying that. so ⁓ again, I think those as anything on Instagram ⁓ w l looks really good, nothing ever comes overnight and there's a lot of tiny steps that then lead into a big like big result, right? So I think partnerships is one of the i it takes step back, you think about how am I gonna drive leads into my facility, right? And you have fifteen different ways of driving leads through facilities and partnerships has always been one of our kind of lead gen strategies, right? So partnering with other brands who are like minded share similar values and then they will attract people who will kind of potentially will stick, right? So ⁓ Nike didn't come overnight. We worked, we Partnership has always been something that we made a lot of focus on. We still do. and very much started small, partnering with smaller brands, partnering with loads of different footwear brands, at leisure brands. ⁓ you know, before Nike, there was RAD, there was ⁓ we launched the when Gymshark launched the air conditioning club, we launched that for them in a eight-week kind of activation across across the gym. So there were lots of different examples that led to that. But I also would say that going back to the values and the value alignment and what you are outwardly and inwardly talking about is being able to attract the brands that share the same values. So with Nike came to us now in what two years ago literally exactly two years ago, they said you have the biggest concentration of the type of consumer that we know we need to win. And we'll as we're looking to relaunch Nike Training, we want to work with you to be able to understand that consumer better. So I think that's what's that's what's really important is being able to find the brands in the market that are aligned with the type of consumer that you're trying to serve. And if you are doing it successfully, they will want to work with you. Because ultimately, for everyone, everyone needs to be meeting their KPIs. Everyone has a set of KPIs. Everyone has a set of kind of ROI expectations that they're trying to get. So how can you be the brand who can deliver that for them, whether it's quantitative, qualitative, whatever that looks like, right? So and ⁓ w that kind of partnership very much came as an effect of working with many brands that were aligned. And that kind of big, I guess, cherry on the cage came very much from from being so super targeted on a specific demographic that we knew was driving the market. And then that reinforcement from one of the biggest brands in the world came to us and they said, You do you have the demographic that we know you need to win in this market. Can you help us learn about them, basically? speaker-0: So g aga like again, a lot of what we've talked about actually points back to knowing who you're for and being really clear on who you're for and and being all in for being for the speaker-1: Yeah, and I think and I think well I it's to me it really blows in I mean everyone everyone is sitting in their own niche and you know, different brands have to sit in different in in their own niche given the competitiveness of the market. but to me it really the demographic that we serve feels like a such a blind spot for so many bigger gym brands because these are the people who identify as kind of everyday athletes, right? These are the people who are training five times a week. They're not really going out. They're wearing achesia brands every day. There are so many ancillary brands in the market, such as, you know, Gymshark in apparel on in footwear. I'm talking about the younger brands, right? ⁓ array of electrolytes and nutrition brands that are winning serving this demographic, this kind of under 30 year old demographic, but yet there is actually no place where they train. There is no gym brand that owns where they train. And that really blows my mind. And it it's insane that that kind of Gen Z consumer is so out of reach for so many bigger brands. And it just feels like such a natural place because there's more and every year more and more of them are coming into the market and they're drinking less and less and they're training more and more. And they're very much looking as for fitness as their place of training and identity like ⁓ as socializing and kind of making their friends, you know. speaker-0: Very cool. It strikes me though that you communicate more about who you're for and who like who is gonna find their people at One London than most places do. Most places I think communicate more about what they can offer you. They communicate about the types of classes or the methodology or whatever it might be, as opposed to who who we're for and and the community would be fine. I'd love to finish off on looking to the future. ⁓ so as you say, you've managed to bootstrap from here. So you're now ten years in, you've good you've achieved all the stuff that we've talked about without taking on external capital. That must have been very difficult. Yeah, yeah, no, yeah, yeah, yeah, of course. We know we know how it goes, but you're still in the game every day, every week, every month is ⁓ is like more amazing stuff that compounds. And I'm sure ⁓ yeah, we can't s we can't see the the legs of the duck paddling furiously. but ⁓ speaker-1: Yeah. speaker-0: But but now you've made the decision that it's the time to bring on some outside capital to expand. talk me th talk me through that, like like how do you how do you make that decision? speaker-1: Yeah, I think before COVID there was a lot of testing. As I said, I it was my first kind of entrepreneurship ⁓ gig ⁓ coming out of current coming out of career finance. There was a lot of testing. There was a lot of mistakes that were being made. There's a lot of mistake correction and then ⁓ and then kind of finally really getting feet on the ground and then suddenly it was COVID. and then coming out of COVID and decision that decision to do it again was I ⁓ my god, it was really tough because you know, two years of making no money. ⁓ and then ⁓ that was kind of what spurred the idea for my now second business ⁓ jobs in fitness, ⁓ that I'm a fifty percent co founder of alongside Eloise Nangle, which is a specialised kind of recruitment for the fitness industry. And very much coming out of COVID with two years of no revenue and thinking, How the hell am I gonna make money? well recruitment that would be easy. anyway, two years in and that's like yeah, two years in and now you suddenly have a team and ⁓ business master business and you're like, ⁓ wow, yeah. so and yeah and with One London I think really had to regain the confidence after after that ⁓ kind of very tricky period. and making a bet again on having to do it again and making that decision and then probably like very much seeing the growth of the numbers. ⁓ as I said making a bet on, you know, going very targeted with the demographic, being very ⁓ specific about who we're going after and why, and very much dabbling down on, you know, getting the community as our revenue engine, proving that. And then three years of consistent growth. ⁓ I mean we've grown kind of 30% year on year. ⁓ and last year very much making decisions, probably it's, you know, the time's right, the growth has been there, the bet that we've made is correct. And ⁓ you know, coming back and having, you know, obviously People like Nike that very much backed us along the way. ⁓ and I think it very much came down to the numbers and really conviction that the confidence has been rebuilt and it's time to to to grow. And, you know, I think to the outside of the fitness industry, ⁓ London does feel potentially like a very saturated market. But I every time I speak to any friends who live in London, they say, Well, I don't have a gym to train in. so so I think there's so much capacity in London, there's so much capacity in the UK, there's so much capacity in Europe. and as you know, as you say, we we very much know who we're for and we don't think there's any competitors who are doing anything as well as we do in the space of cooperation. speaker-0: And so expansion is now on the cards. ⁓ what how d how do you think through what that should look like? speaker-1: ⁓ the next the next two sites will be in London, ⁓ a hundred percent. So we're looking at turn site expansion kind of over the next ⁓ you know, five to seven years. ⁓ the next two sites which we're raising for or middle of kind of fundraise for, ⁓ they will be in London. ⁓ we identify certain specific pockets of of ⁓ like populations in terms of demographic analysis. We've run kind of mosaic reports, latent demand reports. measure very much identify the income levels, the ⁓ communities of people where aligned with the demographic that we're trying to serve, ⁓ and try to look for locations there. We have actually just put a couple of offers on different locations. So exciting ⁓ forge the space. Yeah. speaker-0: Amazing. ⁓ well I'm I this has been awesome. I think it's been a bit of a masterclass in in kind of thinking these types of things through into revenue streams. You've you've ⁓ taken us through the resilience. I was listening to something from ⁓ Paul Graham from Y Combinator the other day, and he talked about what's the trait you look for in entrepreneurs at Y Combinator. And he wants a track record of ⁓ I forget the exact word he gave for it, but it was essentially like you get what you want. So it's like life throws all this stuff at you and you just find a way to get the outcome. And he was like and and I think that feels like the experience of someone like yourself during Covid. It's like, Okay, cool. Well, this absolutely sucks and we found a way. speaker-1: Yeah, but not just COVID. I mean like some days some days suck so much and you just have to kind of pretend like you just basically can't engage with your own thought process and you can't engage with your own brain and some days some days are so horrendous and you're like, Why the hell am I doing? It's like very much like it's an endurance event, right? It's like it's very, very long term endurance event, but you have no option to go off the treadmill. Like I think you just cannot give yourself an option. You can't quit, right? So yeah if you ha go with the mindset that you just Absolutely cannot get out of it because I mean every day you can have any thought that you can go and do something else. But if you set that mindset that you will have to get through it and like if you think about impermanence of life, right? Like things after things get go down, they always go up, right? And after things go up, they always go down. So you're kind of trying to smooth out smooth out those ups and downs as much as possible and just, you know, one foot after another and then suddenly speaker-0: I don't want to do this. And then it would be like ⁓ cool. Well that does that matter? Like it like Okay. So so if you f if you if you don't want to do it, what are your options, pal? If you want to sell this thing, that's gonna take you that's gonna take you a a a while. Like if you wanna ⁓ like close it down and sh share the money out between shareholders, that's gonna take you a while. So you might as well just keep at it, keep growing it. I think the the only thing that I've found I need I wanna watch out for next time I'm on the journey of building a company is what you've just talked about where it's just like ⁓ you don't engage with your emotions a bit because it's you're kind of like, ⁓ never too high, never too low type vibe. I remember told this story before, but like you ⁓ some amazing thing would happen. Like we've just signed this multi hundred thousand pound contract and and at the beginning that's like, yes, amazing and then I But ten years in, it's like, Okay, good. And then someone comes to go, ⁓ and then and this cust and this customer's churning and you're like, Okay, good. Whereas that used to be like, ⁓ my god, everything's awful. ⁓ but you j yeah, just have to make sure that there's a way of like kind of re engaging with those faces at some point. speaker-1: Yeah, just not just not d what I'm saying is more not engaging with your like your brain that constantly talking at you, saying different things and being like, That just needs to be quiet and I'm just like need to carry on moving forward. But you're right, like being able to celebrate wins and being able to like acknowledge like the downfalls is also super important. ⁓ and I think, you know, kind of stopping and celebrating the wins ⁓ is is something that I think as entrepreneurs we often don't. speaker-0: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Well you've got lots of them and here's too many more. Thank you so much for speaker-1: Thank you so much. Thank you.