Ben Francis

Yeah.

And that was by Ben Francis, who's kind of headlining that campaign.

And we were doing some backing singing.

Yes, we were in Chippenham.

We'd be better off taking the funds.

And so I obviously wrote down Ben Francis's name in there and Simon Baird from Culture Kings and whoever it might be.

These big names.

Imagine we could raise from them.

Then I wrote the eight secrets to building a billion pound business, which was making them a bit more so they could apply to every business that wants to get to a billion valuation or more.

I sent that booklet to six other entrepreneurs that built a billion pound business, like Ben Francis at Gymshark.

Greg Jackson at Octopus Energy, who we worked together at HomeServe, and said, tell me genuinely, are those the right eight secrets? And they said, yes, they are.

But two big things, Richard.

I don't mind that.

Ben Francis from the Herald has just reported that Prime Minister Chris Luxon, he's in Papua New Guinea at the moment, and he has declared that the Papua New Guinea chiefs are building the best league team in the world and predicted lots of Kiwis will travel to Papua New Guinea to watch the NRL's newest franchise.

You just can't make this stuff up.

You just can't make this stuff up.

But when they did the math on like their growth rate and their acquisition costs and stuff, and their cost using this outsourced partner, it just made more sense for them to bring that in.

And, you know, it's the same as, I remember seeing a video with, what's his name? Ben Francis at Gymshop.

And like he was talking about, you know, they've gone from using like 3PLs and 4PLs and then eventually they just invest in their own warehousing.

Because with the amount of volume they're doing, it just makes more sense.

And one of the classic roots is traditional entrepreneurship.

Like the story of Ben Francis with Gymshark.

Yes.

Perfect example.

I can't imagine

... can I teach you a lesson that I learned from Ben Francis that didn't happen on the podcast? So we went for Nando's in Manchester, uh, at Gymshark Lift LA weekend, and he'd got his EA to text me and say where it was gonna be and when, or maybe he'd text me or whatever.

Um, and I walk in and he sat down ... reading something on his phone or watching or whatever, and I think his EA and his EA's assistant or something are sat on a different table.

He was just there.

I sat down and we got talking.

For the people who don't know, Ben Francis is the CEO of Gymshark, and his net worth is three times what Drake is worth.

Mm.

Triple Drake.