\n
![](\"https:\/\/fortune.com\/img-assets\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/GettyImages-1171361516.jpg?w=2048\")
<\/p>\n [ad_1]
\n<\/p>\n
Peloton was one of the hottest commodities on the market during the pandemic. But as the dangers of COVID-19 subsided, so too did the stock of the fitness equipment company\u2014and its former billionaire CEO John Foley says his wealth got wiped out in the process.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know, at one point I had a lot of money on paper,\u201d Foley, who cofounded Peloton in 2012 and was at its helm for a decade, told the <\/em>New York Post<\/em><\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cNot actually [in the bank], unfortunately. I\u2019ve lost all my money. I\u2019ve had to sell almost everything in my life.\u201d<\/p>\n When demand for at-home workouts surged during the early days of COVID-19, Peloton\u00a0sales surged by 250%<\/a>, stock rose by more than 400% and Foley became a billionaire seemingly overnight.<\/span><\/p>\n But the company overestimated demand as pandemic restrictions lifted and people started exercising outside again.<\/p>\n By November 2021, Peloton stock had plummeted and Foley had lost his newly minted 10-figure status.\u00a0<\/p>\n Then, in December 2021, the premiere episode of the \u201cSex and the City\u201d reboot \u201cAnd Just Like That \u2026 \u201d killed off one of its main characters, Mr. Big, who suffered a heart attack \u2026 while riding a Peloton.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe were coming out of Covid. The stock was getting crushed. And then the Mr. Big thing happens \u2026 it was brutal,\u201d he recalled. \u201cAll of a sudden, we were just being trolled \u2026 everything was collapsing.\u201d<\/p>\n Once worth a staggering $50 billion, the New York-based company was only just holding onto its unicorn status when Foley stepped down as CEO in February 2022. Foley was once worth $1.9 billion<\/a>, according to Bloomberg, but left the company with a net worth of $225 million. <\/p>\n The company has since cycled through another CEO, Barry McCarthy, laid off thousands of employees<\/a>, hiked prices, and announced the closure of retail stores to tackle its post-pandemic slump in demand.<\/p>\n Its market cap is still a shadow of what it once was, currently standing at $1.8 billion.<\/p>\n Fortune<\/em> has reached out to Foley for comment.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not just Foley\u2019s billionaire status (and a career at the company he created) that was killed by Peloton\u2019s stock price bloodbath.<\/p>\n The ex-Peloton chief was forced to downsize twice\u2014including selling a $55 million East Hampton waterfront home and uprooting his family.<\/p>\n \u201cMy family took it well,\u201d the 53-year-old told NY Post<\/em>. \u201cMy wife\u2019s super supportive. My kids are probably better for it, if we\u2019re keeping it real.\u201d<\/p>\n Though Foley has lost much of his fortune, the ordeal has not extinguished his ambition.<\/p>\n Within a year of resigning from the top job at Peloton, he had raised $25 million for his new venture, a direct-to-consumer rug company called Ernesta.<\/p>\n Now, he believes the company can make as much as $500 million in free cash flow by 2030.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m working hard so that I can try to make money again \u2026 because I don\u2019t have much left,\u201d Foley concluded. \u201cAnd so I\u2019m hungry and humble.\u201d<\/p>\n As Foley\u2019s experience illustrates, reaching billionaire status can be pretty meaningless if that wealth is on paper and tied up in stock that can\u2019t easily be sold.<\/p>\n After being named Britain\u2019s youngest billionaire, Gymshark founder and CEO Ben Francis said \u201cnone of it is real<\/a>,\u201d adding that his wealth is \u201call on paper\u201d and tied to assets that could fluctuate in value.<\/p>\n \u201cIt could double, it could [halve],\u201d the millennial entrepreneur added. \u201cThat\u2019s why I think it\u2019s important that no individual should ever pin their self-worth on things like wealth, net worth, or anything financial.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s why defining your success by your net worth is \u201ca wildly unproductive way to live\u201d in his eyes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\nPeloton\u2019s stock bloodbath killed more than Foley\u2019s billionaire status\u00a0<\/h2>\n
\u2018None of it\u2019s real\u2019<\/h2>\n