The previous CEO of health bike maker Peloton will now be promoting rugs

Peloton bikes had been all the fashion in the course of the pandemic, making cofounder after which CEO John Foley a billionaire. After which, after individuals started venturing exterior their properties once more, Peloton struggled to maintain its mojo. 

Earlier this 12 months, Foley left the corporate, shedding 87% of his wealth on paper by the top of his tenure there. Now he has a brand new curiosity, and it includes rugs.

His enterprise, referred to as Ernesta, will supply custom-made rugs beginning within the first half of 2023, the Wall Road Journal reported Wednesday.

Having all the time beloved inside design, Foley informed the Journal that even earlier than the founding of image-sharing platform Pinterest, he would rip the pages from design magazines to create temper boards of his visible concepts. He discovered that custom-fitted rugs had been typically costly and that purchasing store-bought ones meant being caught with solely the particular sizes out there.

Together with his new enterprise, Foley needs to create a approach for individuals to purchase reasonably priced rugs—they’d begin at $200, in keeping with the Wall Road Journal—that may very well be made to suit totally different dimensions. The problem, Foley mentioned, is to persuade consumers they have to put money into custom-fit rugs.

“The crew right here is earnest in its work to carry lovely, {custom} rugs to your private home in a well timed, cost-effective method,” Foley mentioned on Ernesta’s web site. The corporate’s identify, Foley wrote, displays his fascination with creator Ernest Hemingway.

Foley cofounded Peloton in 2012 after elevating $307,000 on Kickstarter to assist construct the exercise-bike startup. By January 2021, the corporate was value practically $50 billion, swelling Foley’s internet value.

However after the pandemic began ebbing, Peloton confronted a actuality examine.

The bike maker underwent a restructuring in September, throughout which Foley and fellow cofounder Hisao Kushi resigned from their government roles. In October, his stake within the firm was value $100 million, down from $1.5 billion a 12 months earlier.