From influencer to owner, she learned that keeping control was worth more than the price
More than a decade ago, Kayla Itsines was sharing workout routines online from Adelaide, Australia, with no intention of building a multi-million-dollar tech company. Today, the creator-turned-entrepreneur is living a version of success few founders ever experience, and even fewer reverse.
What started with bikini workouts on Instagram became something much bigger
Itsines began her influencer career when she was still a personal trainer, uploading workout snippets online and answering DMs herself. Her flagship product, Bikini Body Guide, wasn’t designed to necessarily disrupt fitness, but to be usable.
Clear instructions, a friendly tone, and workouts that felt achievable for women who didn’t see themselves in traditional gym culture.
Alongside her then-partner, Tobi Pearce, she leaned into Instagram before it became a polished marketing channel. There was no outside funding, no intermediaries. Just PDFs sold directly to followers who felt seen.
The audience grew quickly, and so did the revenue. By 22, Itsines was already a millionaire. Not because of clever growth hacks, but because the product solved a real problem for a specific group of people. And that usefulness spread on its own.
The moment Sweat outgrew its original shape
As fitness apps took off, Itsines and Pearce shifted gears, turning their brand into what’s now known as the fitness app Sweat.
Unlike the early PDF days, Sweat asks users to subscribe for workouts across styles like HIIT, yoga, barre, and strength training. This switch was crucial, changing the game from one-time sales to steady, recurring revenue and a personalized experience.
At its peak, Sweat was reported to have had around 50 million users.
Their success caught the eye of iFIT, a global fitness company, which bought Sweat in 2021. What the deal was really worth is a bit of a mystery, though. It’s been reported that the number fell somewhere between $150 million and $400 million, but the truth is the money likely came in a mix of cash, stock, and performance-based payouts.
For Itsines and Pearce, the decision went beyond cashing out. Partnering with iFIT promised reach and resources they couldn’t access alone, but it also meant loosening their grip on how Sweat would be run.
And it was the kind of inflection point many founders eventually face. Scale faster with help, or move slower while protecting the original vision?
Returning to what worked
Fast forward to late 2023, and Itsines and Pearce bought Sweat back from iFIT. The financial details are private, but it’s been rumored that they paid less than what the app was once valued at.
Why? Because the two wanted to bring Sweat back under their own direction and refocus on the community-first values that made them a fan-favorite in the first place.
This kind of arc used to be unusual, but it’s showing up more often. Founders hand the keys to a larger partner to accelerate growth, only to realize later that scale and culture don’t always move in the same direction.
Buying Sweat back gave the original founding team the ability to decide what comes next – and to rebuild around the priorities that mattered to their users from the start.
The lessons that don’t show up on a spreadsheet
Istine’s story isn’t just about building muscles and apps – it’s about smart money moves too. Early on, she invested in unusual places – having recently revealed in an interview with Fortune that those places even included a gas station – that helped pay rent and spread her risk.
Her advice to creators and founders hits home, and centers on diversification. To rely on one product or a single stream of income isn’t enough for lasting wealth.
At the end of the day, the momentum also says a lot about how creator businesses really work. Subscription apps can grow fast and look incredibly valuable, but trends change, and what feels unstoppable one year can slow down the next.
But more than anything, Sweat’s return shows that people matter more than price tags. When new owners don’t protect the community that made a brand special, the original creators often feel that loss most.
And for anyone building something people truly care about, that connection doesn’t disappear just because ownership changes.
