How Bulk Built a £100m Business with No Investment

0:00We were five years in, it was still just the two of us. We were doing well and we were profitable every year over those five years, but everything we were doing was being reinvested. We were not not taking it seriously. We loved what we were doing. We took pride in every aspect and we worked incredibly hard like it was everything to us. But we just didn't have that future view of this could be an extremely valuable business. Today's bite sized episode features Adam Rossiter and Elliot Dawes, the co-founders of Bulk, one of Europe's leading sports nutrition and wellness brands. When we talk about looking back and reflecting and being proud of what we achieved, I'd say that's almost our biggest achievement that we've grown.

0:37From£3 ,000 on a credit card to£100 million plus revenue in 2021 with zero external investment. Welcome to this special bite-sized episode of Screw It, Just Do It from our back catalogue of over 550 past episodes. Interesting to know, was it just the two of you and you're outsourcing other people? Or did you have a small team that were already working for you at that time? What was the size of the operation? We were about two years in, I think, was it right, Al? Yeah, so we started it two years after our first kind of online store. It wasn't until probably four or five years after launching that we actually employed our first people.

1:20So looking back, we kind of see this in two ways. Number one, we see it as a mistake, because had we probably learned to delegate a bit sooner and bring people in to run the more sort of basic functions within the business, quite possibly we'd be further ahead than where we are now. But equally, I think we both look back and I'm really pleased that we've done every single role within the business from packing boxes to VAT returns to marketing, etc. So we understand every function of the business. I think that's stood us in good stead over the years. some certainly more interesting than others but having done everything is is is valuable yeah it's interesting like when I speak to people um you know whether you you go down the road of literally uh doing every job yourself you know bootstrapping essentially or or whether you you know those those businesses that go literally straight for investment before they've generated any revenue and literally use that to um you know buy a sales department buy a bunch of developers etc yet you've never done any of those jobs yourself so yeah I totally get what you're saying Elliot in that regard that yes you can be further along the line but you think you know those lessons learned must have stood you in in good stead surely yeah absolutely I think it was born out of necessity as well so I mean we started the business um I mean when we started like I say it almost just started to to happen on its own but we didn't actually think about where are we going to get the money from we didn't have money we were students so you know we had student debt um So I think we thought we'd just go to the bank, get a loan or get an overdraft and that would be it.

2:55But I think I vaguely remember us going to the bank to try and get an overdraft or loan. And I think we put a very basic business plan together, which we probably did the night before. And we didn't get what we wanted. So we had to sort of go to our parents. And I think luckily between us, we got them to agree to give us£3 ,000 on a credit card. and that was our startup capital, not only to build a website, but to buy all our stock as well. So we literally kind of had that£3 ,000 as our starting pot and had to trade our way up every single day. The reason for not bringing on people earlier was partly born out of the fact we didn't have the resources to in terms of cash.

3:36Then equally, there was probably a point where we would have been able to and probably should have done. We didn't have the resource for marketing or anything either, so we didn't have the resources for premises so everything was done as cheaply as possible I mean our marketing was online forums so before social media was forums and they used to be a huge amount bigger than they are now obviously and it was all word of mouth really and we were proud of extremely good customer service and the importance of word of mouth from that And what was the first hire you made then? Can you remember? It would have been someone just in the warehouse helping us buy it Because I think we realized that, yeah, that's probably where our time is least valuable as such.

4:20So I think we brought on someone to pack boxes in the warehouse. Outside of that, I think it then moved to customer service in the office to take away, you know, managing a huge inbox of emails every day, which was quite a big task. And then it was around 2011 where we started to think, right, we need to look at bringing on like marketing and finance, et cetera. so once we we kind of the seed was planted that we needed to build a team and that was how we were going to sort of professionalize this business and make it into something bigger we we put things in motion quite quickly which is probably a little bit slow in retrospect to make that decision and then all the challenges started with finding the right people deciding what the right jobs are the right job titles the right job responsibilities the right amount of money to pay people at levels we had never even considered previously and struggled to rationalize with ourselves so all of that is then then your next challenge yeah and what's interesting to know and i always remember this um wanting to be julian herne from from huell a couple of years a couple of years ago saying that you know when he when he started huell um he just sold funny enough in bournemouth he'd sold sold the business after going to bournemouth uni um and moved back home to to buckinghamshire um with the idea that he just wanted to start a lifestyle business and he said by the end of year one um he'd done 750 grand in revenue and he was like there's no way that this is going to be uh i'm not going to be able to not employ anyone and interested to know um from both of you really at what point in the journey did you realize that this business bulk could be vehicle that was gonna realize your goals your ambitions that you had back at university days?

6:08So I'd say it's really when a competitor of ours sold for an amount of money that we had at the time, absolutely no understanding or idea that that was the sort of value that a business trending towards where we could potentially get to would be worth. And it was really from that point, that was the trigger that we thought. I mean, we were not taking it seriously. We loved what we were doing. We took pride in every aspect and we worked incredibly hard like it was and is everything to us. But we just didn't have that future view of this could be an extremely valuable business. And therefore, the decision to start creating a senior management team, putting in, I guess, a slightly more corporate structure, budgets, board meetings, process, things that we'd never even mentioned before because we were a very informally run business, I guess, as all startups are until you learn better or until you're taught and you experience how to do things the correct way and the bigger business way if you're going to scale.

7:11And that's when all of that started to take shape or we started to make it take shape. And can you remember, timeline-wise, can you remember how many years in you were? Like if you started 2006, and we talk about 2011 a minute ago as well. So yeah, timeline-wise, what would you say that would be? That transaction happened in 2011. Right, right. So yeah, we were five years in. It was still just the two of us. We were doing well and we were profitable every year over those five years, but everything we were doing was being reinvested. So I think Bulk Powders, as it was known then, and Bulk now was doing probably sub-1 million revenue still at that point.

7:48I think the other store we ran, which was selling third-party brands, was the bigger part of what we did. But yeah, Bulk would have been sub-1 million revenue. And then, yeah, that's when we kind of kicked things into motion. and I think our average growth rate since then has been around 60 % year on year. So yeah, that will take us to over 100 million in 2021. And that is an amazing figure. Do you ever get a moment to stop and kind of get your head around that as a business? Because that's pretty impressive. And do you actually give yourself a pat on the back? Have you done that throughout the journey?

8:26because I was chatting to Rowena Bird from Lush and it's like last year they hit billion dollars in revenue. And she was like, I love saying that, but she's like, we're really bad at celebrating our successes. Like this year was 25 years. And she goes, we didn't really celebrate it. And I was just like, I kind of get it because this year has been really different, but 25 years, billion dollar business. You got to celebrate that. Incredible achievement. But yeah, I think we would both say that it's very much the same for us. I mean, we're bad at celebrating and we get asked that question quite a bit.

8:56And I think we have to be good at it in some ways because we have to keep the team really motivated. We have to celebrate what the team and it's a great team that we have. And obviously it's them that are achieving all of this together. So we have to celebrate what they're achieving. But Elliot and I ourselves, we're always looking forward. We're so ambitious. We're so focused on all the opportunities, all the things we still want to do, the things we still haven't done that to us, it's like, right, that year's done, next, right, this project, that project, this market, that growth rate. And it's just all about striving for more.

9:27And we're just always hungry for it. Good answer. Good answer. And was it 2011 or any of the intervening years that you decided to, how are you going to scale the business? And when you saw what was happening with that competitor, did you look outside for investment and think, how are we going to fuel this growth? What was the next stage for you then? I think investment, we've often been approached by people looking to invest in the business, but I think it's something we've never had. So I think that's, I guess, when we talk about looking back and reflecting and being proud of what we achieved, I'd say that's almost our biggest achievement that we've grown from£3 ,000 on a credit card to£100 million plus revenue in 2021 with zero external investment.

10:13So, you know, probably what we're most proud of. Because I think even if you look within our sector, there's some incredible brands who've done amazing things um but everyone has raised investment and kind of support from investors at some point whereas i guess we've can't say we've done ourselves because like adam said we've got an incredible team but in terms of being business owners we we haven't had you know that capital to call on and that that kind of support to call on we've had to really just figure it all out on our own and so i'd say that's our biggest achievement when we do sit back and reflect on things.

10:48So some key takeaways from Adam and Elliot's journey. Starting small doesn't necessarily mean thinking small. Bootstrapping builds grit, builds speed, and gives you clarity. And that betting on brand and customer experience pays off long term. For more real stories from the founders who said screw it and just did it, hit the follow button and check out the full archive of Screw It, Just Do It past episodes.