According to the SBA, small businesses account for 99% of the businesses in the United States with 31.7 million small businesses compared to 20,139 large businesses. The United States is expected to continue to be the leader in startup activity, followed by China and India. According to Guidant Financial, the top 5 industries with the highest number of new small businesses are 1) food and restaurant, 2) retail, 3) business services, 4) health, beauty, and fitness, and 5) residential and commercial services. As new reports illustrate that 70% of consumers intentionally choose brands that share their values, consumers are increasingly loyal to businesses that are committed to environmental sustainability, socially responsible practices, physical health, and mental wellness in the post-Covid age.
Understandably, the health and fitness industry is thriving, albeit in a slightly transformed way. While many physical gyms are slowly but surely bringing activity and revenue levels on par with pre-Covid numbers, digital health and fitness businesses are driving innovation and profits for the industry. To this point, revenue for health and fitness clubs reached $32 billion in 2022 as people return to physical gyms and experts forecast the total revenue for health and fitness apps to reach $10.26 billion by 2027.
While health and fitness entrepreneurship, as well as entrepreneurship in general, is experiencing a renaissance in the United States, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that about 20% of businesses fail within the first year while 50% fail within the first five years. The most common reason businesses fail, about 42% of the time, is because there is no market for their product or service.
This tracks with Paul Graham’s long-held theory about why startups fail. Paul Graham, a renowned venture capitalist and co-founder of Y Combinator, has written extensively about entrepreneurs who fail because they create elegant solutions to problems that do not exist. These entrepreneurs often fall into the trap of creating a product or service that they think people need, rather than something that people actually need. This can lead to wasted resources, time, and money. The best entrepreneurs, as Graham notes, solve problems that exist in the real world, often discovered because of pain points in their own lives. Simply put, the entrepreneurs who succeed are the entrepreneurs that start by identifying a problem that they or others are facing, not a solution.
MegaFit Meals, a Kentucky-based meal delivery service, resonates with consumers because of its authentic story and ability to solve consumer problems by filling a hole in the market. While there are many meal delivery and meal prep services in 2023, most of them fall short because of their lack of connection to and understanding of their target customer segments. MegaFit Meals, on the other hand, was birthed from a genuine consumer necessity by two brothers sitting at the intersection of the health & fitness as well as food & restaurant industries.
MegaFit Meals was co-founded by two brothers, PG and Billy Georgiou. The Georgiou brothers are uniquely equipped to run the next big meal delivery service for two reasons: their background in bodybuilding and gym ownership and their family’s restaurant.
The Georgiou brothers grew up working in their parents’ restaurant, which they have been operating for 50 years after moving to the U.S. from Greece. Throughout their childhood and young adulthood, the Georgiou brothers spent a great deal of time hanging out and working in the family restaurant. During this time, they got a crash course in cooking, operating a business in the food industry, and being a business owner.
In their teenage years, the brothers developed a passion for the sport of bodybuilding, crediting Jay Cutler as one of their biggest inspirations. They competed in competitions across the country in their early 20s. Having been exposed to entrepreneurship at an early age, the Georgiou brothers paired their fitness knowledge with their business savvy to co-found the Mega Gym brand together. Now, there are 3 Mega Gym locations in the West Kentucky area.
PG and Billy Georgiou would eat particular meals while training for their bodybuilding competitions. As any competitive bodybuilder knows, one’s diet is just as important, if not more, than one’s training regimen. The brothers were constantly seen in the gym eating clean meals with highly curated micro and macro nutrients cooked in their family’s restaurant. Eventually, gym members started to ask the brothers for nutrition advice, going so far as to ask where they get their food from specifically.
As this continued, the brothers started offering discounts at the restaurant for gym members who were looking for healthy eating options. With the Georgiou brothers’ knowledge and the convenience of their familial restaurant located next door, the popularity of this program skyrocketed. Clearly solving a consumer need, the brothers were prompted to look at this program as a serious business opportunity. PG and Billy Georgiou founded MegaFit Meals in 2015. The rest, as they say, is history.
MegaFit Meals has state-of-the-art kitchen facilities – they operate in a USDA approved kitchen and have a team of in-house food and nutrition experts that are passionate about food, fitness, and work together to maximize taste and nutrient levels. In addition to improving the taste of the food, this vertically integrated approach has helped the MegaFit Meals team make the business more efficient, avoid global supply chain issues, and support the local economy. Among many dishes, the brand is known for its homemade sauces. These sauces do not have any preservatives, additives, or extra sugar as many store-bought sauces do.
MegaFit Meals has an average of 5 ounces of cooked protein compared to the industry standard of 3-4 cooked ounces.
Additionally, consumers can choose from pre-made meal options or build meals from scratch. While building meals from scratch, consumers are not only able to select their preferred protein, carb, and vegetable choices, but they are also able to customize portion sizes.
MegaFit Meals has partnered with many top fitness and performance athletes who trust their diets to the brand. Some of these athletes include Chris Bumstead, a professional bodybuilder – Classic Physique Mr. Olympia x 4 to be exact; Jennifer Dorie, a professional fitness model and former Ms. Bikini Olympia; and Michael Chandler, former Bellator Lightweight Champion and UFC competitor, who is next in line to fight Conor McGregor.
