At 21, Todd Kuhn signed a $120,000-a-year lease. Everyone thought he was mad. 

Twenty years and two exits later, he's never taken a dollar from a bank or an investor.

Todd Kuhn is an Australian founder who built and sold two fitness businesses — the first a 

multi-location gym group, the second a 20-studio boutique Pilates chain acquired by an 

ASX-listed company. Now he's building Core Lab, bringing premium Pilates equipment to 

the US market, and doing it the same way he's always done it: bootstrap first, scale smart, 

exit with a plan.

What he covers:

→ Signing a $120,000/year lease at age 21 — and everyone telling him he was mad

→ Running Pilates mat classes in 40 scout halls and town halls across the city (400 students per term)

→ Amassing $150,000 cash in six months before ever opening a physical studio

→ A 5-day mastermind in Hawaii that got him off 95% of his own classes and changed the whole trajectory

→ Going from 1 studio to 10 in three years, then 20 just before Covid hit

→ Selling to an ASX-listed company — and watching every one of his locations convert to Club Pilates

→ His grandfather building the original Pilates equipment by hand in a garage under his house

→ Flying to China 4-5 times a year, walking into factories with no translator, using sign language to get the product right

→ Why he's never taken a bank loan or outside investment across two full business cycles

→ The "minimize startup costs, maximize profitability" principle he applies to every studio he opens

→ Why delegation is the one thing he'd tell his younger self to do faster

→ Launching a new Dallas studio with Australian franchisees who followed him to the US

🔗 CONNECT WITH STU

Instagram: @stu

Website: https://startupswithstu.com

📌 CHAPTERS

00:00 – Todd's background: rugby recruit to business founder

03:30 – Leaving corporate after six months and pivoting to fitness

06:00 – 40 locations in scout halls and $150K cash before opening a studio

09:00 – Signing the $120K lease at age 21: "just have a go"

12:00 – Exiting Pure Health Clubs in 2012 and starting over smaller

15:30 – The Hawaii mastermind that unlocked the scale-up

19:00 – 10 locations in 3 years, 20 before Covid, then the exit

23:00 – Being acquired by an ASX company and watching the brand become Club Pilates

26:30 – Building Core Lab: equipment, method, training academy

30:00 – Why he's never taken outside money — and what he thinks about it now

34:00 – His grandfather, a friend with a welder, and the origin of Core Lab's equipment

38:00 – Flying to China 4-5x a year with no translator to source parts

41:30 – Advice for aspiring founders: persistence, vision, and giving away hats

45:00 – The Dallas launch and what's next

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