Sep 18, 2024 · 1h 2m · my-first-million
From Nonprofit Founder To Building A $300M Pilates Business
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gold bands on the timeline = statements, start to end. Hover to read, click to jump. CC turns on captions
In this interview with Sam Parr, entrepreneur Anne Mahlum shares how she founded the nonprofit Back on My Feet and bootstrapped boutique fitness giant SolidCore to a $300 million exit. She offers candid masterclasses on high-stakes negotiation, operational resilience, and transitioning toward balanced fulfillment post-exit.
How this conversation actually went
Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. The hosts hold 23.6% of the talking time here. How this is scored →
The hosts as informed peer 3.0 Guest teaching 3.5 Guest disagreement 1.2 The hosts pushing back 0.4
speaking balance: gold is the hosts, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 33:05 Anne dismisses PE skepticism regarding founder commitment
Anne forcefully rejects the premise from private equity investors who questioned whether she would abandon the business after cashing out six million dollars.
Hardest push from the hosts ▶ 53:40 Sam pushes back on biomarker and AI fitness claimsSam questions the legitimacy of current personalized fitness blood-work products, labeling much of the current landscape as unproven pseudoscience.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 34:08 Anne's masterclass on dismantling landlord and PE demandsAnne educates Sam on negotiation psychology, explaining how refusing standard security deposits and restructuring deals around preferred returns allowed SolidCore to scale.
The host holds their own ▶ 41:23 Sam breaks down founder branding timingSam demonstrates strong domain expertise by articulating a clear framework on why early branding investments are justified for proven founders but wasteful for novices.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | The hosts as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | The hosts pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Founding Back on My Feet and Combating Addiction | 1 | 5 | 1 | 0 | Sam sets up the discussion humbly, admitting his lack of formal knowledge around systemic addiction and homelessness. Anne educates him on shelter rules, dopamine replacement through running, and building institutional partnerships with employers like Marriott. | |
| Promotional Break: True Fan Access to MrBallen Episode | 1 | 4 | 1 | 0 | Sam asks straightforward questions about how Anne generated massive press coverage as an unknown founder. Anne breaks down the media optics of her demographic background and the compelling underdog narrative of the shelter runners. | |
| Corporate Pitching, Shared Wealth, and Moving On | 2 | 4 | 1 | 0 | Sam prompts Anne to roleplay a pitch to a corporate executive and explores the moral contrast between wealth generation and non-profit work. Anne outlines her corporate engagement strategy and justifies wealth distribution through employee profit sharing. | |
| The Genesis and Early Execution of SolidCore | 5 | 3 | 1 | 0 | Sam actively participates in calculating the unit economics and daily run rate of boutique fitness studios. Anne walks through bootstrapping her first studio and turning down dilutive early investment to maintain hunger. | |
| Separating from Lagree and Manufacturing Custom Machines | 2 | 3 | 2 | 0 | Anne explains the operational friction with Lagree, the resulting legal battle, and the costly process of custom machine manufacturing. Sam asks clarifying questions about revenue milestones and the rapid expansion to five studios. | |
| Private Equity Deals, Negotiation Mastery, and COVID Resilience | 2 | 6 | 2 | 0 | Sam admits he is soft in business negotiations and asks Anne to explain her tactical approach. Anne delivers a masterclass on non-zero-sum negotiation, dealing with private equity preferred returns, and restructuring leases during COVID. | |
| Achieving a $300M Exit and SolidCore's Brand Ethos | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | Sam articulates his framework on when branding actually matters for repeat founders versus first-time operators. Anne details the intentional brand ethos of SolidCore and why she recognized she was no longer the right CEO for a mature organization. | |
| Trends in Endurance Challenges and Boutique Fitness | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | Sam contributes industry insights from conversations with the founder of 29029, detailing their failure-rate design philosophy. Anne recounts her grueling experience climbing Mount Tremblant and the rise of boutique endurance challenges. | |
| Hiring for Critical Thinking and the Future of AI Health | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | Sam brings informed skepticism regarding current biomarker fitness products, distinguishing between legitimate preventive scans and pseudoscientific wellness apps. Anne shares her proxy test for hiring critical thinkers via the game Taboo. | |
| Post-Exit Life, Feminine Energy, and Die With Zero | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | Sam asks reflective questions regarding post-exit psychology and future ambitions. Anne explains her decision to embrace downtime, stay in a relaxed mindset, and follow principles from Die With Zero. | |
| Pitching 'Jumpseat': A Secondary Marketplace for Airline Seats | 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | Anne pitches Jumpseat, a secondary exchange for airline seats, and reveals she already secured the domain and branding. Sam playfully interrogates the feasibility and how she acquired the domain for nominal cost. |
Statements from this episode (19)
Mahlum: People Who Work Out Tend to Drink More Alcohol
“There's a correlation of people who work out who actually tend to drink more because you're chasing the dopamine. You're looking for these opportunities to get the elevated serotonin spikes.”
Mahlum: Back on My Feet Raised $1M in First Year
“I'm sure I raised a million bucks in the first year.”
Mahlum: Solidcore coaches make over $300 per class with revenue sharing
“I think we pay higher than any other fitness organization. Our coaches on a per class basis, like there are coaches who make over 300 bucks a class. Because we've always done a revenue share model, and I have just never believed, Sam, that it has to be a zero …”
Mahlum: Every one-year full-time Solidcore employee received an exit payout
“No, which is why I put a long-term incentive plan in place for them. A profit sharing plan when I sold the business, and everybody got paid. Every full-time employee who had been with SolarCore for a year got paid on that last transaction, and they're going to…”
Mahlum paid a $25,000 licensing fee to open Solidcore
“I had to pay a licensing fee of 25,000 dollars just to open the studio.”
Mahlum: Solidcore did over $100,000 in sales in month one
“Oh, I like, we literally did over a hundred grand in the first month.”
Mahlum: Board member offered $75k for 30% of Solidcore
“Larry, here comes Larry again from back on my feet. And he's like, and listen, I'll give you 75 grand for 30% of the business. If you don't want to use all your capital, like, listen, you grew this nonprofit. I know you're going to be successful.”
Mahlum: Lagree lawsuit settled with machine buyback and non-contact agreement
“For all intents and purposes, he had to buy back his machines from me and we agreed to never talk again, which we haven't.”
Mahlum: SolidCore opened five locations in its first year
“Well, the first, it was more than that because that was the first studio's revenue. And then in the first year, you know, I had five of these open.”
Mahlum: SolidCore reached 27 studios making $700K each before 2017 minority deal
“I did a minority deal in 2017. So the business was four years old at that point, and we had 27 locations on an annualized basis. Each one of those studios was doing about 700 grand.”
Mahlum: SolidCore's 2017 minority private equity deal valued company near $60M
“The valuation was, like, close to sixty million.”
Mahlum: Bad operational and financial decisions killed gyms during COVID, not just pandemic
“People talk about how COVID killed so many gyms, and a lot of that was not just because of COVID, it was because of these operational and financial decisions that weren't, like, made as smartly as maybe some other companies could have made, and not understandi…”
Mahlum: Sold All SolidCore Shares at Over $300M Valuation
“Yeah, a little, little more than that, but yeah and that was last, last April, I got, I sold all my shares.”
Parr: Branding Exercises Are Unimportant for First-Time Founders
“I think that for most entrepreneurs who are like new, I think that branding and some of these exercises aren't terribly important, but I think that if you have a proven track record where you're like this person executes well and they execute. When you have th…”
Sam Parr: Hyrox fitness competitions will become a major trend
“Like, I went and saw it. It is awesome. It is awesome. Like, I saw that, and I'm like, oh, this is, like, gonna be a, this is, I mean, it's already a thing, but it's like, this is, like, really gonna be a thing.”
Mahlum: Guessing workout routines will be obsolete within five years
“Within five years, I think it'll be kind of foolish to just be like, guessing on what you should be doing to work out.”
Parr: Blood-work-based personalized fitness products are mostly pseudoscience today
“I don't think I've seen a product out there that's doing it. That's nailing that though yet. I think a lot of it's like pseudoscience. I just, I think it's none of it's like awesome at the moment.”