My family immigrated to the UK with nothing when I was 5. Now I run a fitness empire that made $70 million last year.
Krissy Cela immigrated to the UK when she was five. She later gained citizenship.
Cela hated PE at school but joined the gym as a teen and fell in love with strength training.
She now runs two successful fitness businesses championing women who lift weights.
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Krissy Cela, a 29-year-old fitness entrepreneur based between London and LA. The following has been edited for length and clarity.
I was an immigrant child, and growing up in the UK in an Albanian family wasn't easy.
I was different, and kids bullied me. But in one way, I was just like all the other girls at school: I hated PE. It's ironic, given that I now run two fitness businesses and my main passion is getting women into strength training.
Now I see that being an immigrant helps me understand people and has contributed to my success. I now run two fitness businesses that combined made over $70 million last year.
My parents taught me to work hard
When I was five, my family traveled from Albania to the UK via Greece in a lorry and then a small boat. About five years later we received our UK citizenship. I didn't know what was going on at the time, I thought it was a vacation. But I struggled with the conflicting cultures at home and outside. I wanted to be like the girls at school, but then I'd come home and be told to dress and act differently.
But as I got older, I realized that not every culture has the same approach to life, and you have to encourage people to be proud rather than suppress it.
My mom was exceptionally hardworking, and I had a lot of tough parenting. When I came home from school, I would prep food and clean the house. That was my norm. But it taught me that you have to work really hard for what you want, and you can't give up.
I joined the gym after a breakup
I hated PE at school and would always try to get out of it by saying I was on my period. I thought the kit we had to wear was frumpy too. To me, it was a waste of time.
I also had a mustache and hairy legs, but in Albanian culture, teenage girls don't shave, so I didn't want to get my legs out in PE.
It was insecurity that led to me joining a gym for the first time at age 17 — I'd had my heart broken after my boyfriend cheated on me, and I thought if I changed my looks I'd be happier.
At first, I just did cardio because the strength equipment seemed intimidating. This was around 12 years ago, and there weren't the female fitness influencers we have now. The only women I who strength-trained were professional bodybuilders or powerlifters, who weren't relatable at all.
After a little while though, I realized I hated running. I never saw any women in the weight room but I was intrigued and gradually started dipping my toes in. I educated myself on proper form.
While my focus was aesthetics initially — and I'll admit now that it was an unhealthy obsession for a while — going to the gym soon became more about my mental health. It became my safe haven and somewhere that always made me feel great, even when my results fluctuated.
I blew up on Instagram, making $13,000 on fitness PDFs in an hour
As my confidence grew, I started posting on Instagram, partly to log my progress, and partly just because I wanted to show off — I thought I looked good! I was training around waitressing and studying for my law degree so didn't have much time for social media, but my following grew and grew.
Strangers started messaging me asking for fitness advice, and I knew at that point that I needed to get qualified, so I did a personal training qualification.
As more people started asking for my tips, my then-boyfriend and now business partner Jack Bullimore and I came up with the idea of selling workout PDFs.
We created downloadable documents and, after launching February 2017, they blew up — we sold about £10,000 ($13,000) worth in the first hour, and they went on to make us over £1 million in revenue over the next 22 months. It was insane amounts of cash to me. I was 22.
I looked at Jack and said, "We can't keep doing PDFs, they're a dead end." So we started developing our workout app, then called Tone and Sculpt. It launched in January 2019.
There were teething issues, and we learned a lot, but I really wanted to create something to help women get into strength training because I hadn't had that. What strength training does for your mind and body is profound; it's so empowering.
In April 2022 we decided to rebrand as EvolveYou because I decided I didn't like the name Tone and Sculpt. It was good for SEO but contradicted our message and ethos, which is that strength training is about more than just how your body looks.
Being pregnant with my first child has shown me just how much my body is out of my control, and so if you're constantly chasing aesthetics, you're never going to be happy. I'm not as lean, muscular, or strong as I used to be, I've got way more jiggly bits than I did, but I have never felt more confident.
I used my savings to launch my gym wear brand
With EvolveYou making good money, I was able to save a lot and launch my clothing brand, Oner Active.
It's designed by female weightlifters for female weightlifters, and I launched the company with two co-founders, brothers David and Lukas Kurzmann, in 2020. I'd been lifting myself for about six years and never felt like I could find the clothing I wanted to wear, so I decided to create it.
I'm the creative director now — I knew I needed other people with expertise in areas I know nothing about — but I know how the products should be, and I'm the majority stakeholder.
We had no external investment, it was all savings. My parents were a checkout girl and a lorry driver, I wasn't given a leg-up or any help, and I didn't have anything to fall back on.
Oner Active's revenue in 2023 was just under $60 million, and our annual growth has been almost 100% [Business Insider has verified these numbers]. I think the brand's success comes down to two things:
We are inclusive and accessible. We make modest clothing, use diverse models, and our prices are affordable.
We've created a community. We show behind-the-scenes content and hold our hands up when we make mistakes, and I think this transparency helps build a relationship with customers.
Evolve You, meanwhile, made $11.2 million in the 2022/23 fiscal year.
I also want to make a difference to younger girls and teens so launched a school initiative called Project Power.
I've hosted workshops in schools highlighting the importance of physical activity and have donated £270,000 ($355,000) of products to roughly 3,000 schoolgirls — I was seeing a lot who didn't have sports bras and so would run with their hands over their chests.
People underestimate me
Being a young female entrepreneur has pros and cons. I know I experience "pretty privilege," but I try to use that to benefit others, whether that's through the schools initiative or the jobs that my businesses offer. I'm not using privilege to get a free drink.
But on the other hand, I've had countless incidents of people dismissing me. I used to get really offended and feel I had to prove myself, but now I care less about other people's opinions.
Even if you don't believe in me, I'm still going to do it. I believe in me.
My advice to anyone starting a business is that it's OK if people don't believe in you provided you do. The biggest advantage you have is the fact that people underestimate you, because then you constantly surprise them.
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