When Seth Greene and Kevin Harrington welcomed Matthew Januszek to episode 549 of SharkPreneur, they zeroed in on a number: $33 million. That is the revenue figure Escape Fitness had reached since Matthew co-founded it, growing a passion for functional training into a global equipment brand that counts the UFC, Equinox, 1Rebel, and Sanctuary Fitness among its clients. For a show built around the mechanics of scaling, Matthew was an ideal guest — someone who had navigated the full arc from startup to category leader across multiple continents.
The conversation covers the principles Matthew has used to build and sustain a business operating at global scale: how to listen to customers rather than assume what they need, why physical and mental habits are inseparable from business performance, and why founders who try to expand everywhere at once often expand nowhere effectively. Matthew also draws on his experience during the pandemic as an advocate for at-home training, reflecting on how crisis accelerated his thinking about resilience and health.
About SharkPreneur with Kevin Harrington & Seth Greene
SharkPreneur is hosted by Seth Greene, a direct-response marketing expert, and co-hosted by Kevin Harrington, the original Shark from ABC's Shark Tank and a pioneer of the infomercial industry. The show focuses on the strategic decisions behind high-growth companies — not the mythology of success but the specific frameworks, pivots, and lessons that produced it.
Kevin Harrington brings a distinctive filter to every conversation: as someone who has evaluated thousands of pitches and backed hundreds of products, he is attuned to the difference between a compelling story and a scalable business model. That perspective sharpens SharkPreneur's interviews, pushing guests to be specific about what worked, what failed, and what they would do differently. Seth Greene's direct-marketing background complements that with a focus on customer acquisition and retention — the mechanics that turn great products into lasting businesses.
For fitness industry professionals, SharkPreneur represents one of the clearest windows into how companies built on genuine category expertise — rather than hype cycles — earn the loyalty of major brands and independent operators alike. Matthew Januszek's episode sits squarely in that tradition.
What Matthew Januszek Shared on SharkPreneur with Kevin Harrington & Seth Greene
- Matthew explains that solving a specific, real problem for clients is the most reliable driver of new business — customers who see a company genuinely address their challenges become advocates who generate the next sale.
- He argues that good client relationships produce the most valuable market intelligence: customers will tell you exactly what they need if you have built enough trust for honest dialogue, making the listening relationship as strategically important as the sales relationship.
- Matthew makes the case that physical and mental habits are not separate tracks — people who neglect either tend to accumulate fatigue that limits their performance, and this principle applies as directly to business operators as to gym members.
- He identifies burnout from chronic fatigue as one of the hidden killers of entrepreneurial ambition, noting that founders who do not actively manage their own health deplete the reserves they need to make good decisions under pressure.
- Matthew advises entrepreneurs to dominate their home market before pursuing international expansion — the discipline of proving a model in one geography produces the operational clarity and financial stability that makes scaling to new markets viable rather than reckless.
- He reflects on the pandemic as a forcing function that clarified the relationship between at-home training and mental resilience, and how that period deepened his conviction that physical health is infrastructure for navigating life's hardest challenges.
- Sitting on the boards of three companies across three continents, Matthew describes the judgment required to allocate attention across multiple ventures without diluting the focus that each one demands to grow well.
Why This Conversation Matters
The $33 million figure that titles this episode is not just a revenue milestone — it is a marker of what happens when functional training, client relationships, and founder discipline compound over two decades. Matthew Januszek built Escape Fitness by treating gym operators as genuine partners rather than purchase orders, and that philosophy shows up in the quality of the brand's client roster.
His current chapter as a partner in Escape Fitness USA extends that same approach into North America, where the opportunity to serve independent studios, boutique operators, and major chains with world-class functional equipment is as large as any market Escape has entered. The habits and principles he laid out on SharkPreneur are the foundation that makes that expansion credible.
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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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