Peter Thiel's question about a unique belief led to the founding of Gym Force, a community-based gym model aimed at transforming global physical and mental health.
How a Simple Question Sparked the Vision for Gym Force
“What is something you strongly believe to be true that almost nobody agrees with you on?”
This simple yet profound question, posed by Peter Thiel in his book Zero to One, startled me. I remember exactly where I was—walking my dogs and listening to the audiobook—when I heard it.
The reason it struck me so deeply was that I was excited to have an immediate answer. It was the first time I felt like I might be onto something, the first time I thought I might be on the right path after months of searching without knowing exactly what I was looking for.
But how could the answer to that question possibly become a business?
I had no idea. But because I had that answer, I now had a framework to guide me. Unfortunately, it took me another year to figure out how to even begin.
A quick side note—it’s somewhat comical, but being non-technical and not from Silicon Valley, I had no idea what an MVP (Minimum Viable Product) was until almost a year later.
For those unfamiliar, an MVP is simply an early (basic) version of a startup that can be shown to potential customers—whether it’s an app, website, or consumer product. For example, you couldn’t even pay online on the original Airbnb website, and YouTube started as a dating site. MVPs evolve and improve over time.
The answer to that question, and something I truly believe to be true, is this: Community-based gyms, martial arts dojos, and yoga studios are the only way to truly improve physical and mental health on a global scale. These places not only provide long-term measurable improvements on an individual level but also have the potential to reduce healthcare costs across the board.
Gym Force is simply the first phase of a 10-plus-year plan that will ultimately show the rest of the world that this belief was, in fact, true.
It's been a few years, and while most people still disagree with me, there’s a small but growing group of people who do:
Our founding team believes.
Our investors believe.
And most importantly:
Our customers believe.