In this episode of Escape Your Limits, Matthew Januszek is joined by Partha Unnava — an engineer turned entrepreneur who got frustrated with his own rehabilitation after an ankle injury and decided to solve the problem himself. What followed was the creation of Lasso, a performance compression activewear brand built on biomechanical principles rather than aesthetic ones.
It's a conversation about what it actually takes to build a brand that means something — and why the founders who last are almost always the ones who never made money the primary goal.
About Partha Unnava
Partha Unnava is the founder and CEO of Lasso, a company he describes as a new wave of performance compression activewear designed to improve movement and recovery. His path to building it wasn't through fashion or fitness culture — it was through personal frustration. After an ankle injury playing basketball left him unsatisfied with the existing rehabilitation options, Unnava drew on his background in biomechanical engineering to ask a different question: what if apparel could actually change how the body moves?
That question became Lasso, and Unnava's engineering lens produced products designed from the inside out — starting with the biomechanics of movement and working toward the surface, rather than the reverse. The approach earned him recognition as a Forbes 30 Under 30 entrepreneur and, more importantly, a loyal community of customers who feel the difference.
Unnava's philosophy extends well beyond product design. He is a vocal advocate for authenticity over aspiration in brand building, for resonating deeply with a specific community rather than chasing mass appeal, and for keeping money in its proper place — as a second priority, not the first. He was invited to the White House by President Obama, has navigated the turbulence of fast fame and imposter syndrome, and has built his company on the conviction that happiness and alignment are the actual measures of success.
What Partha Unnava and Matthew Januszek Talked About
- Unnava's origin story is a direct argument for founder-market fit: he built Lasso because he personally experienced the gap in the market and had the technical background to fill it, which is why the product is fundamentally different from what existed before.
- Being invited to the White House by President Obama was a formative experience that Unnava connects to the broader mission of building something that genuinely serves people — recognition at that level clarifies what you're actually building for.
- Fast fame creates its own set of challenges: Unnava is candid about the imposter syndrome that comes with sudden external validation, and how learning to separate self-worth from external metrics was essential to staying grounded as a founder.
- The philosophy of merging native design with technology — letting human biomechanics dictate engineering decisions rather than the other way around — is what distinguishes Lasso from compression brands that are essentially aesthetics with a performance claim bolted on.
- Money as a second priority is not a romantic notion for Unnava — it's a strategic one. He argues that founders who optimize primarily for revenue tend to make decisions that erode the authenticity their community trusted them for, and that erosion is hard to recover from.
- Building a supportive, authentic community requires unplugging from vanity metrics and consistently showing up for the people who actually use your product — Unnava's approach to community mirrors what the best fitness coaches do: meet people where they are, earn trust over time.
- Happiness and alignment as success metrics force a different set of decisions than revenue or growth targets alone — Unnava credits this orientation with helping him navigate failure and setbacks without losing the conviction that the work is worth doing.
Why This Conversation Matters
Matthew Januszek's entire entrepreneurial arc has been about building things with genuine purpose — products that work, experiences that resonate, and a brand that means something beyond its SKU count. Partha Unnava's story is a reminder that the founders who endure are almost always the ones who stayed in love with the problem more than the prize.
That orientation is central to what Matthew is building with Escape Fitness USA and to the conversations he pursues on the LIFTS Podcast. In a fitness and wellness industry full of brands chasing trends, Unnava's insistence on authenticity, community, and alignment over money is not just admirable — it's a model worth studying.
▶ Watch the full episode on YouTube
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About Matthew Januszek
Matthew Januszek is the co-founder of Escape Fitness, the functional-training equipment brand he built from a UK startup into a global name supplying many of the world’s leading gyms, studios, and hotel fitness spaces. Following the separation of the UK and US businesses, Matthew’s focus today is Escape Fitness USA and the next chapter of the brand in North America. He hosted more than 300 episodes of the Escape Your Limits podcast and now co-hosts the LIFTS Podcast with SweatWorks founder Mohammed Iqbal, covering the business, science, and technology shaping the fitness industry. Explore more interviews and episodes on MatthewJanuszek.com.
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