Running just one fitness fashion business is for wimps. So Lukas Kurzmann started another. In 2020 the Austrian entrepreneur cofounded Oner Active to make women’s workout clothing. Thanks to the social media clout of his creator cofounder Krissy Cela—and her 4 million fans—Kurzmann has scaled Oner Active to a brand that brought in $100 million in revenue last year. Kurzmann’s entrepreneurial experience in the space helped, too. As a teenager, he cofounded Women’s Best, a viral sportswear and nutrition supplement company, in 2015. He’d been a fan of online gym communities and noticed not much happening in the women’s market. “Everything regarding fitness was heavily towards male and men’s fitness,” he says. “There was nothing for the women.” Nearly 10 years later, Women’s Best has expanded to a brick-and-mortar location in Austria and an Instagram following of 3.2 million. “Because we started so early, we have a unique touch point in the market.”
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00I think for me a mistake is only a mistake if you do it twice. It's only a
00:04learning if you just like make one mistake and you just you just you know
00:07need to go on and always continue.
00:14We are here with Lucas Kurtzman, the co-founder of Women's Best and Owner
00:18Active. Thank you so much for joining me today. Thank you, really nice that you're
00:21having me. I'm so excited to talk about the many
00:23businesses that you have built. You've had quite the long entrepreneurial journey.
00:27Before we get all the way back to the beginning, can you tell me a little bit
00:31about who you are today and the companies that you are currently running?
00:34Yes, so I'm an entrepreneur as you said you know of
00:38two businesses right now which are sportswear brands
00:41and also like a nutrition brand for Women's Best which are you know
00:44operating internationally. So we are shipping to over 120 countries.
00:49We do have three offices, two in London and one in Innsbruck.
00:52I'm having around like 180 full-time employees and yeah.
00:57Very cool. When did you first realize that you wanted to become a founder?
01:01For me it was like really really early so basically that takes me back to
01:05when I was like 14 years old and when I started like gaming right.
01:11So with with those gaming I basically got like interests from other people
01:17which also wanted to game with me and then I had like a friend list and in the early days
01:21then I realized and that I can also basically create a business out of this.
01:26So I started like basically offering to them that if they send something to the paypal of my dad
01:32like one dollar and that they can join my friend list and I will play with them for 24 hours.
01:36So that was the first time when I had this feeling basically of you know receiving money,
01:41building something and it basically brought the spark to to my life basically of being an entrepreneur.
01:47And my mom and my dad were also already like entrepreneurs so they had already like a small
01:52local ID business which also brought like big interest to me so it was always a little bit in
01:56the family. And basically I then started a fitness page on Instagram and was was like the first fitness
02:04page on Instagram. It grew a lot like organically because I just I just did it basically for myself
02:10because I didn't find pages on Instagram which were like sharing those community vibes and where
02:15you just get inspired by other athletes and stuff. And through this growth of this page I then also
02:21thought of how can I you know just transmit this and offer you know to other people also a platform
02:26where they can like post on this page. And then the interest was like really really big like lots of
02:32people wanted to be on this page. So I thought of I could also like maybe charge a small amount of money
02:38to them to be like featured and that was basically the start you know of advertisement also on
02:42Instagram in the early days. I just realized you know this is with that with the advertising was
02:47like basically the first thing um on Instagram and I have built this up basically um shared with all
02:53of those people those posts and they have been posted. It was like basically a big schedule running
02:58through 24 hours of them like posting and posting and posting and basically those people grow a lot
03:04on Instagram with their with their following and then I thought hey this is like really something
03:09big because at the time I think the page already had like 300 000 followers so I then went to my
03:13brother told him from this he was also like really really amazed of this he was by this time you know
03:18working working at my dad's local id business and then we basically said we can make more out of this
03:26and then we also brought a friend of us which we were at this time at the gym together and we thought
03:32you know let's build this up let's create more of those pages let's grow this following and from
03:38this on we then started you know more um like training plans and personalized training plans
03:44because back then you know in the gym you had to pay a lot to a personal trainer when you want to have
03:48a customized training plan so we decided let's just touch base and make it more available for the
03:53you know for the younger community which don't have that much you know budget to pay something for
03:57this and so we started those personalized training plans with a certified nutritionist and also with
04:04a personal trainer and made all of those plans sold them to the to the customers which basically came
04:08through all of those advertisement and then this worked really well you know for for I think one
04:15year and then it started to you know go a little bit down so we then thought you know just let's
04:20create something different so we created something around like a tea like a tea which you could drink
04:26work for six months we started something new and that went all the way through until you know 2015
04:32where we thought we just want to have a little bit of a bigger impact towards you know the the woman
04:37community around fitness because we just saw a gap in there because everything regarding fitness was
04:44heavily towards you know male and man fitness so we thought you know there is nothing for the woman
04:50and that was basically then the time where we uh created woman's best yeah 2015 in august
04:57um it was like it was like really crazy you know because if i think back now as a as a young founder
05:04you know i wasn't afraid of anything you know because i also didn't have the experience because
05:10nowadays when i think of something and am i doing this you know of course you always you always have the
05:15gut feeling but you're going with a way different analytical approach towards those things um
05:23and i still remember because i wasn't allowed to to make a company yet you know because i was so
05:28was so young so my brother started it basically and i still remember this day you know when i was
05:32sitting at school and i i turned into this age that i could have the company and then my brother
05:39basically came knocked the door in the in the school and said i need to sign here and i basically
05:44didn't have a signature right i was just writing lucas kurzman and that's it you know and i just went
05:49in there and made like any signature and that is until today obviously still still my signature you
05:54know so like really really crazy times and is there anything from those early days that either are
06:03challenges that you had to overcome or things like you said now looking back you have so much more
06:07insight into what it takes to build a business would you have done anything differently back
06:11then or would you keep it the same i actually wouldn't change that much you know because uh
06:16i'm a person you know if i always invest like basically 110 percent into everything whether it
06:20was my my gaming start whether it was the fitness page whether it's now you know i just go all in
06:25with everything basically but i think there is definitely things which we which we didn't know you
06:29know so we were in the e-com space and we weren't aware of what is the conversion rate you
06:35know so of those people coming to the website that they're like at the end you know are buying you
06:39know into the webshop and we didn't look into this data and if i look into this data now like the
06:45conversion rate itself was super low because you know there were like friction in the shop of people
06:51you know jumping off the purchasing history which means we could have made way more you know if we
06:56knew all of this you know but but i think you know those are the nice things you know that not everything
07:01is always running like perfect in life and but there is also like things you learn you know and
07:06i think for me a mistake is only a mistake if you do it twice since right now you know it's only
07:11a learning if you just like make one mistake and you just you just you know need to go on and always
07:17continue i think that's a great way to look at it from there then you went on to start women's best
07:21with your brothers can you tell me a little bit more about what exactly you offer today i know you guys
07:26have expanded your product offerings as well so can you walk me through the growth of women's best
07:30a little bit we basically started off 2015 in in august we started off with supplements only
07:37um the main reasoning behind we wanted to do this is like building you know a woman's community
07:41woman uplifting woman offering spaces you know where all of those fitness enthusiasts can come together
07:48empower each other wherever they are from whatever goal they have and whatever fitness goal you know
07:53they're they're trying to strive for so that was the main idea and we started off with supplements
07:59and then quickly expanded into sportswear also like 2019 um offering you know a wide range of you know
08:06fitness gear for you know lifting for trench training but also for a little bit low intensity stuff
08:12also compared you know with lifestyle lifestyle garments around like joggers and hoodies and stuff
08:18and that was mainly you know the the main categories we were uh following and basically in the first
08:25in the first uh few months i think we did already like one or two million in revenue second year which
08:31was the first full year i think was already 10 million euros which was back then you know a heavy growth
08:36because we were super young and we didn't have the structures you know and basically all of our
08:42customers came from the united states because instagram back then was super super popular in the us
08:48and we had our warehouse in germany so the biggest challenge was how do we get those packages over
08:54um into the us like at a competitive rate so that we can really compete with the biggest brands in the
08:59in the in the united states yeah and how did you go about doing that keeping it cost effective
09:04keeping it fast keeping the customers happy we went basically at a risk you know and with those
09:09carriers we said we are going to we are going to make those volumes although we didn't know if we are
09:14making those volumes so we basically went into risk that they if we wouldn't have made those volumes
09:19then they probably would have increased the prices heavily which maybe as a company would have us hurt
09:24too much and but we just went into this risk and therefore you know got those rates and we also
09:30hadn't that much marketing costs you know because we just grew a lot of organically um and also through
09:36influencer marketing additionally but it wasn't we invested basically a lot into logistic to get the
09:42package fast over that we just can continue with those competitive brands how did you get customers
09:48to trust you because like you said a lot of the market at the time was not focused on women's
09:52athletic wear at all and as a male co-founder with your brothers how did you encourage women to
09:58trust that you guys were going to be creating products that were best for them i think it was mainly
10:03around the community and also through influencer marketing so we have really wisely chosen those
10:08those athletes and influencer which like standard for our message yeah and which also like wanted
10:14to help us promote those products and get it out into the world and the main thing was actually the
10:19community we were building you know behind this that woman you know uplifted woman and that basically
10:25wasn't done you know before on on instagram in combination of both nutrition and sportswear right how
10:32do you think the social media space especially in terms of how brands are using it to promote their
10:38products has changed since you started i think it has changed drastically when it comes to engagement
10:44because back then you know with the algorithmus it was really easy to reach people without that much
10:49money um right now you know it becomes harder and harder you need to pay more and more you know to
10:55to have certain engagement but i think you know if you're doing it in in a clever way and you're you know
11:00looking at what the customer actually want to have and then there is definitely ways you know to do it
11:05is also like really cost effective you so you said you started this in 2015 that's nearly 10 years ago
11:12now right 10 years ago how has the brand changed since then in addition to just like more products
11:18what has your last like year two years three years looked like that makes it a different brand
11:23probably than what it was when you first set out yeah i mean it's it's it's really completely different
11:29i think 2020 covid gave us a like a really big push because just the health industry has been
11:34growing a lot and looking you know at our 10 years now you know we're counting around like 2.5 million
11:40unique customers have sold probably over like 20 million plus products alongside this way and
11:49we're way more into r&d so our products become way more innovative and innovative because we just have
11:55you know also the budget to put it into this um and we're also like going way more into detail when
12:01it comes to all of the nutrition supplements to just look at the blood from the from the woman and
12:06how the supplement is actually changing within the within the woman's body where does the majority of
12:11the revenue come from today is it the fitness apparel is it the supplements what what makes up your
12:15business it's probably like 60 comes from the sportswear and 40 comes from the nutrition but it's it's
12:22changing from month to month you know because there are certain seasonalities um where nutrition
12:26might be stronger than the sportswear you know because it's just based on the on the market basically
12:31how do you get customers to keep coming back and maybe even buy supplements ones and then fitness
12:35apparel the next time or vice versa especially with how crowded the market is there are so many
12:40fitness companies out there especially within the past couple of years how are you getting people
12:44to come back to women's best i think that we because we started so early we have a unique touch point
12:51in the market basically and you know customers are trusting us that they have been with us
12:56on the journey basically being aware you know of certain complications which have also happened you
13:01know with around shipping but they just love they just love the products they just love the way we are
13:06doing it for both sportswear and nutrition and you know that gives us a really strong standpoint in the
13:12market and that customers you know are just loving to buy into the brand and come back what are some of
13:17your best sellers what are some of the you know bits of the business that you guys are really putting
13:21a lot of emphasis on right now so there's definitely you know all around the vitamin supplements which
13:26is like a really growing market which we're also like building out this year heavily and all around
13:31you know sports leggings seamless leggings this stuff is like trending since you know the last three
13:39four years like heavily where we also like put more work into it to just like expand our range and
13:44the quality and everything so on yeah you guys also have a brick and mortar store correct an in-person
13:50store that people are shopping in person versus for a lot of you know the early years just online
13:56what has that change looked like for you guys the idea basically was only that we that we do a pop-up
14:01store because it's you know in spruck it's it's it's a really small city in austria that's where we also
14:06like you know started it from and we basically thought let's just open a pop-up store that we gain
14:12a little bit of more insight to the customer talking with the customer seeing you know what fits what
14:17doesn't fit what are their struggles but what do they love about the brand so like really having those
14:22insights and but then it turned out you know the store like runs really well yeah so we said let's
14:26transform it from a pop-up store to an actual store and we kept it and we're still having it you know
14:32this time so we're definitely thinking you know of expanding our stores you know across across our
14:38big cities so where we have most of the customers from so it's definitely something what we want to
14:43do in the in the future because it just works really well and it just like makes the brand more
14:48real when you see it in person can feel the products and stuff yes i love that that's super exciting
14:54you guys also have your supplements in the vitamin shop what has it been like to get those retail
14:59partnerships how has that changed the business it has changed the business quite a lot um but over the
15:05time you know we just decided that it became so complicated being in retail because we also launched
15:11at a time exactly before covet so all of those supply chain issues with getting the products got it like
15:18really really hard to stay in retail and so at a certain point we then decided that we are going
15:24out of retail because our online shop is just performing really well and we just like want to
15:28have their own control about our products what we sell them for where we sell them for how they are
15:33how they are marketed as seen by the customers um so it has been like a super good project and we were
15:38super happy about it and but then in the end we just made a business decision to say let's go online
15:44only yeah and rather build up our stores rather than being in stores you know of uh totally would you
15:51advise other startups today other people who are building you know emerging businesses to go the
15:56retail route to go the in-person store route or what would your advice be to young founders today
16:01as they're trying to build their own audiences and customer bases yeah it it really depends on how the
16:07the brand is uh situated so there are many ways you know it depends is it are they starting directly in
16:13retail artists already having a big big online shop you know so retail definitely gives a big footprint
16:19to the brand you know because you're suddenly maybe in thousand stores 5 000 or 10 000 stores across
16:24the united states you know and you reach customers um which you didn't reach before what is definitely
16:30a thing well definitely advice i can give you know only because you're in retail your products doesn't
16:36sell right because because sometimes you know founders are thinking um i have this spot at a big retail
16:44store and there must be people walking walking by and if those stores are visited by 10 000 of people
16:50every day so why don't i sell like three bottles a day from people coming in there but it's it's not
16:55like this you know you need like you need to pay for certain spots in the retail store you need like
17:00lots of marketing you need to drive people into the into the store because that's what the retail chains
17:06also also want to have so they want to get your customers and put up their revenue you know and not
17:12share their revenue with you so you need to invest a lot into this and it maybe sounds easier as
17:18it is in the beginning um but it's lots of it's lots of struggles also but it can also bring a really
17:25big benefit of you know making the branches in a short amount of time like really much much bigger
17:30yeah definitely you also more recently co-founded owner active can you tell me a little bit about
17:35why you decided to build a second brand at the same time as all this yeah so since since woman's best
17:41was always like focused you know on on nutrition and sportswear for women only we then had our
17:47athlete which was a chrissy cella and and we had like a really really good relationship with her so
17:53we thought she wanted to also like start something we also wanted to start something new where we just
17:58only focus you know on sportswear on french sportswear and really built like solely this product line so
18:04we basically partnered up with chrissy and started this brand in september 2020 and for this brand you
18:12know it was it was kind of different because it started with all of the structures so all of the
18:17mistakes over the past three four five years we have made with with woman's best which costed us you
18:23know millions and so much headache basically we didn't have when we started this brand so we had the
18:30logistics we had the web we had you know the payment terms with the suppliers you know we had
18:35we didn't have so much quality issues you know we had the customer service we had just all of the
18:39full team in place to really start this brand off without any mistakes and failures and that's why this
18:46brand also has been growing over the last few years and like doubled up each and every year and
18:52basically bringing in 100 million us dollar last year in revenue so yeah it's good to start from a
18:58place of knowing the mistakes that you've made and being able to avoid them my last question for
19:03you is in the next couple of years what are you prepared for with both of these companies that
19:08you're building is there anything that you're excited about or projects that you're working on
19:12or just things that you're looking forward to as you continue to grow these brands so i'm really
19:16excited you know with with my co-founders both from woman's best and from one erect if you know to
19:21just continue this journey have fun and make the process like really enjoyable building everything up
19:28and i think there is so so much more potential in all of the markets we are at so we're exciting
19:33you know of of building more stores of coming closer you know with the community getting more
19:39innovation in terms of our products and you know just just like growing it and like really enjoying
19:45the process yeah yeah very cool well thank you so much for joining me today i'm so excited to see all
19:50that you guys continue to create with these two companies perfect thank you so much