Peloton co-founder John Foley says he’s lost all his money but is looking to bounce back with a new company making made-to-order rugs.
The 53-year-old set up the in-home exercise equipment company in 2012, overseeing its staggering growth to a $50 billion company in less than a decade. Along the way, Foley amassed an estimated $1.9 billion personal fortune by 2021—but he ended up leaving the company a year later as the company’s stock cratered due, in part, to the easing of COVID lockdown restrictions.
“You know, at one point I had a lot of money on paper. Not actually [in the bank], unfortunately,” Foley told the New York Post. “I’ve lost all my money. I’ve had to sell almost everything in my life.”
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The tabloid reports that Foley, a former Barnes & Noble executive, downsized twice, including selling a $55 million waterfront home in East Hampton. “My family took it well,” he said. “My wife’s super supportive. My kids are probably better for it, if we’re keeping it real.”
From its $50 billion valuation zenith three years ago, Peloton is now worth less than $2 billion. According to Foley, his unraveling at the company was down to several factors.
“We were coming out of COVID. The stock was getting crushed. There was a leaker [who told the press of pending layoffs],” he told the Post. He also cited an activist investor firm which demanded the Peloton board fire Foley. “And then the Mr. Big thing happens… it was brutal,” he added.
That would be the Dec. 2021 premiere episode of Sex and the City reboot And Just Like That…, in which the character Mr. Big was killed off with a heart attack following a Peloton workout.
“We really did think we were doing something special for the world,” Foley told the Post. “We really did care about our members. We cared about our shareholders, we cared about our employees. And all of a sudden, we were just being trolled… everything was collapsing.”
Foley stepped down as Peloton’s CEO in Feb. 2022. He then left his role as executive chairman of the board that September. “I have passion for building companies and creating great teams, and I am excited to do that again in a new space,” Foley said at the time.
That new space, it turns out, is rugs. By the end of 2022, he’d raised $25 million from previous Peloton investors to start Ernesta—his bespoke rug company named in honor of Foley’s favorite writer and musician, Ernest Hemingway and Bob Marley (whose middle name was Nesta).
“I’m working hard so that I can try to make money again… because I don’t have much left,” he joked to the Post. “And so I’m hungry and humble.”
