Q&A With 1st Phorm Founder Andy Frisella: How He Built a $175M+ Company From Nothing

Andy Frisella is an entrepreneur’s entrepreneur. After starting his first supplement store in his early twenties with a friend, Frisella has grown his business 1st Phorm and now takes in more than $175 million in revenue each year. Along the way he has picked up plenty of wisdom, which he is eager to share with other entrepreneurs on his podcast “The MFCEO Project,” available on his website AndyFrisella.com.

We sat down with Frisella to ask him a few question about his career, his habits and how he became a success.

So tell me about how you were first introduced to business.

AF: When I was a kid, I sold baseball cards out of my dad’s garage; I sold snow cones, lemonade, I went door to door selling light bulbs — anything I could get my hands on.

How did 1st Phorm begin?

AF: After I left college my business partner and I decided to start a supplement store. All we had was $12,000. We got the money from painting the stripes on parking lots — we had that from our summer job. We went around Springfield, Missouri, and tried to rent a retail shop. Nobody would rent to us because we were only 19 years old and we didn’t have any credit. We found this guy who would finally rent to us. He asked us to pay a year’s rent upfront, $1,000 per month, so that was all of our money. We went and built the shelving, we built the counter, and we financed the inventory on credit cards. We lived in the back of that first store on and off for the first couple of years because we didn’t have money for rent.

And was business brisk at first?

AF: Our first day, we were all excited about business. We opened up, and we sold $7. The next day we sold $0. The first 3 years, I didn’t make any money. It took us 6 years to get our second store open.

How did that begin to turn into a multi-store, multi-brand setup?

In 2006 we opened our second store, and then we had the opportunity to acquire another business that was going out of business. We acquired them, and literally went from one store to 6 stores in 30 days’ time. It was baptism by fire when it came to actually running employees, managing employees, running the business, etcetera. We got into a situation in 2009 where we were able to start creating our own products.

That’s where 1st Phorm was formed. The first company was called Supplement Superstores. And then we decided to roll that into 1st Phorm, so now we had 2 companies, and from there to here, it’s branched off to 6 different companies. We’re one of the only completely vertically integrated companies, in this segment, out there.

What’s one story of adversity that you overcame?

I got stabbed in the face. I almost died — I got permanent nerve damage, and my face was swollen to the size of a grapefruit for a year and a half. Everybody that came into my business would be like, “Dude, what happened to your face?” This went on for months. When you go from being an outgoing, normal guy to that, it’s hard. You couldn’t possibly understand facial disfigurement unless it’s something you’ve gone through. It’s really, really hard.

What did you learn from it?

Long story short, I was going through the grocery store one day, and I ran into this lady. She was burned from head to toe. She looked at me, I looked at her, and she goes, “Dude, what happened to your face?” We both laughed because we instantly identified what both of us had gone through. It was cool because then we ended up talking for 10, 15 minutes: she had been in a plane crash, her whole family had died, she had her leg amputated, was burned head to toe.

Basically, I learned right away that my deal wasn’t that bad. I walked out feeling ashamed for letting myself feel so bad, but relieved at the same time. Ninety-nine percent of the bad things that happen to us can be turned into an asset if you choose to see it that way. The asset of having your face sliced up is that everyone sees it and nobody forgets you. It’s built-in branding and has been one of the best things that’s ever happened to me for business.

Finally, what is a character trait that you found really helped you succeed in all this?

AF: Grit. Grit is a big deal. Being able to power through being frustrated all the time. I think that people look for when things are going to get easier, instead of looking at getting better and making those problematic things a non-issue. They look at it from a passive viewpoint, like: “Things are going to get easier.” Well, they’re not going to get easier unless you get better!