My First Million · Episode Brief
From Nonprofit Founder To Building A $300M Pilates Business
Anne Mahlum Walked Away From an $8M Nonprofit to Build a $300M Studio Empire
Anne Mahlum founded Back on My Feet, a nonprofit that uses running to support people experiencing homelessness—and built it to $8 million in annual revenue over several years. Then she walked away from it to start solidcore, a boutique pilates studio chain. solidcore now has over 100 locations and was valued at roughly $300 million. This episode is about the psychology of that transition as much as the business mechanics.
The unit economics of solidcore are what make the story instructive. A single location generates strong revenue because the format is group classes with high throughput, the overhead is low compared to traditional gyms (no pool, no cardio floor, no locker room infrastructure), and the customer acquisition happens mostly through word-of-mouth among the target demographic. Mahlum understood that the product is the instructor as much as the equipment.
The negotiation story is the episode's sharpest tactical moment. Mahlum was offered $75,000 for her first solidcore location's lease—a deal that most founders would have taken gratefully. She turned it down and negotiated something substantially better. The hosts use this to make a broader point: most first-time operators negotiate like they're lucky to be in the room. Mahlum negotiated like she had options, which meant she actually got them.
The SeatGeek-for-airlines idea surfaces mid-episode—one of those 'why doesn't this exist' moments where the hosts get genuinely animated. Airlines have the same dynamic ticketing economics as concerts: prices are irrational, the arbitrage is real, and no one has built a clean consumer product to navigate it. Sam and Shaan spend 10 minutes on this detour, which is worth hearing separately from the Mahlum interview.
Key Ideas
- →Leaving a successful nonprofit required Mahlum to disentangle her identity from her mission—the hardest part of the transition wasn't strategic
- →solidcore's unit economics work because group format + low overhead + word-of-mouth acquisition = high margin at scale
- →Turning down $75K in a lease negotiation was possible only because Mahlum walked in knowing she had alternatives—whether she actually did or not
- →The boutique fitness model: charging for transformation, not access—people pay more for accountability and community than for equipment
- →SeatGeek for airlines: ticket prices are as irrational as concert tickets, the secondary market barely exists, and no one has built the clean consumer product
Worth Remembering
Mahlum describes the moment she realized she was staying at Back on My Feet out of obligation rather than desire—and what that felt like
The negotiation story: she turned down $75K and got significantly more by simply not accepting the first number
Sam and Shaan's 10-minute SeatGeek-for-airlines tangent where they convince themselves this is a billion-dollar business