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Deep Dive with Ali Abdaal

Turning £500 into £350 Million - Oliver Cookson, Founder of MyProtein

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Ali AbdaalhostOliver Cooksonguest

Nov 8, 20211h 36mWatch on YouTube

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CHAPTERS

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Chapter summaries

£35 million offer: why the big moment felt strangely normal
Ali opens by asking what it feels like to sit across the table from someone offering £35 million. Oliver explains that the moment didn’t feel like a lottery win because it was the culmination of a long-built vision and years of effort. He describes the experience as surreal but not prompting any immediate extravagance.
- •Ali asks what it’s like to receive a £35 million offer face-to-face
- •Oliver says it didn’t feel sudden because it had been “building for many years”
- •He frames the offer as part of a process he’d envisioned for a long time
- •He describes feeling happy internally but not driven to celebrate with purchases
Monaco move and post-Myprotein work: why delegation failed in his next venture
Ali welcomes Oliver and asks why he moved to Monaco and what he does now. Oliver describes lifestyle and practical reasons for moving, then explains his post-sale business involvement, including realizing that early-stage businesses can’t be run remotely. He reflects on lacking the drive to be fully “at the coalface” in the same way as with Myprotein.
- •Oliver cites social, climate, location, security, and “business benefits” as reasons for Monaco
- •He describes being on The Hut Group board and running another online business after selling Myprotein
- •He admits he lacked the same drive to jump in daily on the next business
- •He concludes early-stage businesses need a leader driving from the front; remote delegation didn’t work
Building Myprotein alongside a full-time job: 16-hour days and hand-built tech
Ali asks what the early days were like as Oliver got Myprotein off the ground. Oliver explains he worked full-time as a web developer while building a custom e-commerce site from scratch and doing manufacturing and fulfillment himself. He emphasizes the workload made 16-hour days unavoidable.
- •Oliver describes building the site without modern platforms, coding it from the ground up
- •He ran both a full-time job and the entire business operation simultaneously
- •He handled manufacturing/blending, fulfillment, customer service, marketing, and development
- •He says doing it all required “literally impossible” hours unless working ~16-hour days
Quit your job or start a side hustle? MVPs, risk, and calculated bets
Ali asks how someone early in their career should decide whether to quit a job to start a startup. Oliver answers through his own experience: limited capital, risk aversion, and the importance of starting with a minimal viable product to test traction first. He stresses building something while still in university or employed before making a major leap.
- •Oliver says he can only advise based on what he personally did
- •He explains his financial constraints and lack of backers, mentors, or investors
- •He recommends building an MVP and testing traction quickly before quitting
- •He emphasizes there’s enough time to build an MVP while still at university
The whey protein insight: breaking down products, margins, and a DTC advantage
Ali asks how Oliver got the idea to start a protein powder brand. Oliver describes being a fitness and supplement user who habitually analyzed products to see if he could do them better. He explains learning what whey protein is, sourcing it, calculating costs, and realizing a direct-to-consumer online model could undercut incumbents with strong margins.
- •Oliver says he was a user of existing products and systematically broke down many products
- •He researched whey protein’s source and called dairies to understand supply
- •He calculated raw material and production costs versus retail pricing and saw margin opportunity
- •He frames the core advantage as selling online as a vertically integrated, direct-to-consumer brand
From school struggles to web skills: apprenticeship, self-teaching, and payment tech
Ali asks how Oliver built e-commerce capabilities in the early 2000s. Oliver recounts leaving school with one GCSE, struggling with traditional learning, and finding a better fit through a modern apprenticeship. He explains teaching himself web development over years, gaining experience on major sites, and integrating payments through a payment service provider.
- •Oliver describes disliking academic routes and learning best “on the job”
- •He explains the value he got from an apprenticeship, including learning office dynamics
- •He taught himself multiple web technologies over years of building sites
- •He explains taking card payments via a payment service provider and integrating it into the site
Sourcing and making the first products: tiny orders, trial-and-error recipes, personalization
Ali digs into how the product was actually made and shipped in the beginning. Oliver explains how suppliers initially wouldn’t sell small quantities, until one contact agreed to “give you a go,” letting him scale purchases gradually. He then describes the early product creation as trial and error, including made-to-order personalization for flavoring and sweetener levels.
- •Oliver says most suppliers wouldn’t break pallets; he could only afford small amounts initially
- •He describes scaling purchasing gradually by reinvesting sales into more inventory
- •He admits the recipe process was trial-and-error using basic flavor and sweetener powders
- •He built personalization into the ordering flow so products were made-to-order
Operational grind and early momentum: 4 a.m. packing, algorithms, and the first big signal
Oliver describes the day-to-day reality of fulfilling orders while still employed. He explains waking at 4–5 a.m., printing structured work orders generated by backend logic, packing shipments, and doing customer service and marketing after hours. He shares the moment the Parcel Force driver couldn’t fit the boxes in the van as a euphoric indicator of traction.
- •Oliver details pre-work fulfillment runs and late-night business operations
- •He built backend logic to generate work orders and avoid manual calculations
- •He says daily order volume grew consistently from the first day onward
- •He describes the ‘van can’t fit the boxes’ moment as a major emotional milestone
Acquisition from day one: Google AdWords + bodybuilding forums + community flywheel
Ali asks how Myprotein got customers immediately. Oliver credits early adoption and hands-on management of Google AdWords, plus targeted outreach within a major bodybuilding forum community. He explains how early community trust and advocacy amplified growth, reinforced by feedback loops like reviews and rapid product launches.
- •Oliver says Google AdWords was a core growth lever he managed personally for years
- •He leveraged a bodybuilding forum via a “sticky post” and a compelling offer
- •He describes community advocacy as a powerful distribution channel
- •He highlights feedback and community-building (including reviews and forums) as motivation and growth signals
Were you having fun? Dark days, loneliness, and the mental health reality of founders
Ali asks whether the early period was fun in hindsight. Oliver says it was one of the best periods of his life, but also included very dark days—especially later as the business scaled and pressure concentrated on him as the sole shareholder. He emphasizes founder mental health is often overlooked and describes entrepreneurship as a lonely space requiring resilience.
- •Oliver calls business and life “peaks and troughs,” with both great and dark periods
- •He says scale increased pressure because failures could affect many staff and customers
- •He describes loneliness from having no mentors, chairman, or shareholders to lean on
- •He argues entrepreneur mental health is overlooked and requires rolling with punches
Professionalising the company: process books, hiring leaders, and ‘hire slowly’
Ali shares his own scaling challenges and asks how Oliver brought in a management team. Oliver describes being pushed to “groom” the business so it wouldn’t depend solely on him, then systemizing operations through detailed process documentation. He explains his hiring philosophy, including multi-step interviews, practical assignments, and the dangers of rushing recruitment.
- •Oliver says buyers questioned what happens if the founder is “run over by a bus”
- •He created a handbook/process book to systemize operational execution
- •He prioritized hiring to cover personal weaknesses (finance and operations first)
- •He outlines a three-step senior hiring process including a bespoke task and presentation
- •He warns fast hiring is a “false economy” and bad hires can be culturally toxic
Why sell at all? Cashing out vs concentration risk and the original minority-stake plan
Ali asks why Oliver decided to sell Myprotein. Oliver explains that most of his wealth was tied up in the business and he wanted to de-risk by taking “chips off the table,” ideally by selling a minority stake. He describes the logic of seeking a partner to help expand into Europe while keeping founder involvement for a second “bite at the cherry.”
- •Oliver describes concentration risk: nearly all value tied up in one business
- •He uses the “one-armed bandit” analogy about deciding when to cash out
- •His plan was initially to sell a minority stake, not the entire business
- •He wanted more than “dumb money,” seeking a partner with European expansion capability
The deal process: many bidders, PE tactics, ‘bad leaver’ clauses, and walking away
Oliver details how the sale process drew many offers, including both private equity and trade buyers. He describes a 30-day exclusivity and due diligence phase that consumed management time, followed by a perceived attempt to reduce valuation based on short-term flattening. He also explains contractual provisions like ‘bad leaver’ clauses that made him wary and contributed to rejecting certain deals.
- •Oliver describes multiple offers and narrowing down to preferred options
- •He explains exclusivity and deep due diligence consuming most of the workday
- •He walked away when a buyer tried to rework the multiple after the due diligence period
- •He critiques certain private equity provisions and explains the ‘bad leaver’ risk concept
Selling to The Hut Group: clean terms, rolled equity, and what he learned later
Oliver explains how The Hut Group arrived late in the process with an offer he found attractive due to simplicity and flexibility. He describes the structure: a large cash component up front and a significant portion rolled into equity, plus the freedom to leave or stay. He also says he later learned information that would have changed his decision at the time, even though the later outcome was strong.
- •Oliver describes The Hut Group’s bid as attractive due to “clean” conditions and no heavy provisions
- •He says the deal involved major cash up front and rolling a large portion into equity
- •He recounts meeting the CEO and believing in the vision and personal rapport
- •He says later information about performance would have changed his decision if known then
From £35m to much more: freedom, new problems, jealousy, and the happiness gap
Ali asks what changes between having £35 million and far larger wealth. Oliver says after a certain point it doesn’t change day-to-day happiness, but it does bring freedom, choice, and the ability to help others. He also describes wealth-related downsides like jealousy, raised expectations, and new stresses that accompany managing more assets and attention.
- •Oliver says wealth mainly buys freedom and options, not happiness
- •He describes being able to help people he knows and people he doesn’t know
- •He names jealousy as a major issue and mentions increased complexity and expectations
- •He notes that public attention can attract criticism, though he says it doesn’t affect him much
Post-exit void and identity: losing the ‘coalface’ and planning for life after success
Ali asks about the psychological impact after reaching a pinnacle. Oliver describes a large void after selling Myprotein because it had dominated his thoughts and identity, and he struggled to replace that overnight. He explains he now wants to help others plan for the life transition that can follow a major exit.
- •Oliver describes Myprotein as the first and last thing on his mind for years
- •He says the day-after shift created a difficult void that was hard to fill
- •He compares the transition to other careers ending and the need for better support
- •He mentions moving and building new work (investments, charity, book, podcast) as ways to fill the gap
Self-reflection as a practice: being ‘reasonably unreasonable’ and writing a memoir
Ali asks what self-reflection means to Oliver in practical terms. Oliver describes balancing self-criticism with self-recognition, using reflection to improve systematically over time. He recommends writing a memoir—even without publishing—as a tool to uncover lessons and improve the next phase of life.
- •Oliver frames self-reflection as continual improvement plus giving yourself credit when earned
- •He advocates asking awkward questions and challenging yourself without being unfair
- •He uses an erosion analogy (water shaping rock) to emphasize patience and consistency
- •He says writing the book deepened his self-reflection and recommends memoir-writing as a learning tool
Writing ‘Bootstrap Your Life’: motivations, structure, editor collaboration, and audience
Ali asks what Oliver learned about himself through writing and how the book came together. Oliver explains his motivations—giving back, leaving a legacy record, and capturing memories for his children—then outlines building a timeline, chapter structure, and collaborating with an experienced editor. He also describes who the book is for: entrepreneurs, business owners, and anyone seeking inspiration.
- •Oliver lists motivations: giving back, legacy for future generations, and preserving memories
- •He built the book from a timeline and chapter-by-chapter structure
- •He collaborated with an editor who helped rewrite copy while Oliver owned the structure and substance
- •He describes the intended readership as broad: founders, business owners, and inspiration-seekers
Mindset mistakes: overthinking, fear as a ‘liar,’ and reclaiming mental bandwidth
Ali asks about common mindset traps entrepreneurs fall into. Oliver emphasizes overthinking and procrastination, comparing mental capacity to limited bandwidth that gets clogged by unproductive worries. He describes his principle that “fear is a liar,” advocating noticing fearful thoughts, labeling them, and letting them pass so attention can return to constructive action.
- •Oliver says overthinking drains mental bandwidth and blocks progress
- •He argues fear-driven thoughts shouldn’t be trusted as decision drivers
- •He describes a method: acknowledge fearful thoughts “like a cloud” and let them pass
- •Ali connects fear to labels like perfectionism and imposter syndrome, reframing them as fear
Goals now: structuring wealth, long-term giving plans, and creating a charitable legacy
Ali asks what Oliver’s goals look like today. Oliver says his goals have shifted toward empathy, structure, and succession planning—running his life like a business so it functions even if he can’t. He describes a strong focus on giving, including specific charitable involvement and a plan to build a self-sustaining, entrepreneurial charity concept focused on disadvantaged communities in the UK.
- •Oliver says his goals are less about more possessions and more about values and feelings
- •He focuses on structuring systems and processes for wealth management and continuity
- •He describes ongoing charitable involvement and what brings him joy in helping others
- •He outlines a plan to build a self-sustaining charitable legacy focused on the UK
Routine and digital detox: gratitude, gym, and reducing phone intrusiveness
Ali asks what a standard day looks like. Oliver says his days vary, and he’s aiming for a more consistent routine while recognizing both too much and too little routine can be difficult. He describes morning reading and gratitude practices, gym and email, and a desire to implement digital detox “focus hours” to reduce stress and physical strain from constant messaging.
- •Oliver says every day is different and he wants a more routined structure
- •He describes morning news/reading and a gratitude ritual before getting into the day
- •He wants clearer boundaries for phone use, citing intrusiveness and stress
- •He mentions turning his phone off at least an hour before bed as part of winding down
Rapid-fire closing: principles, influences, and the ‘journey’ mindset
Ali closes with rapid-fire questions covering advice to a younger self, influences, books, mantras, and philosophy. Oliver repeats themes from the conversation: patience, consistency, and dismissing fear-driven thinking. He ends with a strong preference for the “journey” over the destination.
- •Oliver’s younger-self advice: consistency, patience, and belief in yourself
- •He names himself as the biggest influence on his career
- •He recommends ‘The Daily Stoic’ and gives a personal mantra about teaching skills
- •He answers “journey” to the journey vs destination question and plugs where to find his work

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