We invited Dr. Samir Kapoor, Founder of MultiFit Wellness Pvt. Ltd. for an interview with Most Popular Stories to know more about his entrepreneurial journey.
MultiFit Wellness Pvt. Ltd. was started in the UK in July 2015 by Dr. Samir Kapoor, Ph.D. and Co-Founded by Sally Jones, MultiFit is a 360 degree based wellness club, which focuses on making fitness a lifestyle by making the workout experience more enjoyable & effective. With the aim of evolving as a community of fitness enthusiasts, They are extremely dedicated and focused on embracing and propagating the culture of fitness to one & all.
- Tell us a little bit about yourself and your journey as an entrepreneur.
In 2009 I left my job as Head of recruitment for the Consumer Banking Division of Standard Chartered Bank India. Coming from a Middle-Class family I had fairly limited resources and had to put whatever I had earned in my 9 Year Career at stake. While at SCB I realized that there was a huge gap between what Industry wanted and what B Schools were producing (Barring the top 20). Hence I founded MILE Management Institute for leadership and Excellence. My aim was to prepare people for the real corporate world and I wanted to work with students who had promise, not the brightest but students who had the desire to do well and were willing to dedicate 2 years of their lives to learning and unlearning.
I ran the college along with my co-founders for 6 years and then the government came up with multiple regulations in the Higher Education space and we did not have the money to invest in hard infrastructure like Land. We had made a good brand with extremely strong industry patronage and respect within the B School Ecosystem, at that time I met up with a large Education group who shared the vision with us and we sold the Brand to them.
Today MILE is growing and I feel proud that our Alumni are doing extremely well and they have a great College that they are proud to call theirs.
In July 2015 we started Multifit Wellness as a single 3000 Sq Ft Fitness Studios, and today in less 5 years we are 40 Fitness Studios across three Countries as 15 Cities with more than 100000 Members. We are the pioneers in Functional fitness and the first organized player who made the world believe that Functional Fitness Chains have Scaled. This has been an exciting journey and my and my Co-founder Sally Jones believe that we owe this to the community of Multifitters comprising of our Members and employees.
- Why did you choose entrepreneurship over a job?
I believe entrepreneurship is a state of mind and even when I worked as an employee of a company my Bosses used to always say I am cut put to be an entrepreneur.
I always see an opportunity in a calamity and I always felt underutilized in the corporate world.
- What was the vision behind it?
The Vision of MultiFit is To be a pioneer in the wellness industry by making fitness, a lifestyle choice of every individual we engage with.
The Mission Vision of MultiFit is To provide customized, holistic & innovative solutions for our customers delivered through best in class trainers & highly specialized coaches. Be an employer of choice in the wellness industry. Be a preferred partner for our stakeholders. Create a wellness center of excellence by building global capabilities in our human capital.
- Describe the services that you offer to your customers and in what way they are unique?
The Biggest Hurdle in the Journey if Fitness is Boredom. For a lack of a better word, we call ourselves a gym but in reality, we a community, and what we offer to our community of Multifitters is a lifestyle that has fitness and wellness incorporated as an integral part.
The idea is that people look at Fitness as their favorite sport. people should come to the gym because they want to not because they have to. This only possible by ordering multiple ways of keeping fit. HIIT Yoga, Looping, Boxing, Dance Therapies to name a few. The way we hire our trainers is also very different. Less than 10% of our trainers come with more than 1 year of experience in this industry we look for people who want to be apart of the industry and not people who got into this by default, passion and genuine concern for the community are the most important part of our selection process.
We believe in growing our own timber and have our own academy which teaches the Multifit way of training to our employees. As an HR professional one thing, I know for sure it’s more difficult to unlearn than it’s to learn, hence we believe in writing on a clean slate and ensuring that the community experience is consistent across centers and countries.
- What difficulties which you have faced or you are facing?
Difficulties are a part of being an entrepreneur, the biggest challenge that a bootstrap startup always faces is working with limited resources and still giving customers an experience which larger better-funded organizations can’t give. This means you are always balancing resources and outcomes.
- How do you handle the pressure and manage stress?
Stress is part of life and you have to learn to live with it. One of the biggest stress comes because of fear of Failure..the earlier you lose this better it is. Having said this I believe a good workout is a great stress buster for anyone.
And I am lucky to be around world-class trainers and human beings who when they see that I am stressed give me an awesome workout which gets me Destressed.
- What is one strategy that you believe has helped you grow as a person/startup?
Innovation by never accepting the Status Quo has helped us grow as an organization. “The cost of Innovation is developing an organizational ability to face Failure” People should not have a fear of Failure, some ideas will work some won’t but the ones that do will more than over-compensate for the ones that haven’t. The most successful Organisations are the ones that fail fast not never fail. Status Quo is not my thing!
- How your company is helping India to grow?
Health and Wellness are the backbones of a nation. We also work with a lot of sports teams and help them keep fit and make India Proud. We are also employing a lot of young people who can follow their passion and earn at the same time. O
ur PM has emphasized on the make in India, I am proud to say we are the first Fitness brand from India which ventured in Europe and we have made a mark for ourselves there.
- In your opinion what are the keys to success?
The Key to Success is to know what you want first (Goals), and then believe in yourself and your teams that they can achieve what you want and when you see gaps invest in yourself and your teams so that you continue to grow as individuals to achieve what you want (Goals)
- What advice would you give to someone starting out as an aspiring entrepreneur?
If you think it’s going to be easy, please don’t take this path. There are no guarantees for success and there are more failures than success stories, but if you believe in what you are doing and are willing to put everything behind what you believe then it’s only a matter of time and you will get what you seek.
To Visit MultiFit Wellness Website, Click Here!
You can also check out other articles like,
From quitting a high paying job to becoming a serial entrepreneur – Journey of Pratik Gauri