Meet Anne Mahlum

The beginning of Anne’s entrepreneurial journey is nothing short of extraordinary. In 2007, she found herself running by a homeless shelter in Philadelphia, and had the foresight to realize that running and community could be the catalyst to truly change lives. She engaged the shelter to start a running club, which she quickly transformed into a national non-profit called Back on My Feet.

The organization, now with an $8M annual budget, uses running as a vehicle to help those experiencing homelessness become empowered to change their lives. Under Anne’s leadership as CEO, she grew the organization to 14 cities. Since its inception, Back on My Feet has helped thousands of individuals achieve employment and more self-sufficient living.

But Anne didn’t stop there. She created success again when she founded pilates-inspired [solidcore] in 2013. As its founder and CEO, she grew it into one of the country’s most successful fitness companies in less than a decade by raising more than $200M through private equity to scale it to more than 115 locations across the U.S.

The company currently has more than 2,000 employees and hundreds of thousands of clients, including former First Lady Michelle Obama Anne successfully exited [solidcore] in April 2023 and shared millions with her employees after the sale.

My success is driven by the fact that I refuse to be influenced by fear.

A true self-made success story, Anne’s entrepreneurial ventures have resulted in a personal net worth of over $100M. She is currently spending her time investing, advising, speaking, writing her book, playing beach volleyball and supporting work aimed at helping those struggling with addiction and who have been wrongly convicted.

She regularly speaks at corporate events, academic institutions, and conferences on numerous topics, including leadership, entrepreneurship, being bold, finding your happiness, and social change.

Anne has been honored many times for her leadership and entrepreneurial spirit. Most recently, she was featured by CNBC for her continued success over the years. She has also been recognized by the Washington Business Journal as a Women Who Mean Business’ winner, and was named both an ABC World News Person of the Week and a CNN Hero for her work at Back on My Feet. She has given three TEDx talks about finding your passion, letting go of your complacency, and helping others. She has also received notable media attention highlighting her talent, including articles in CNBC, The Washington Post, The Washington Business Journal and Runner’s World.

Back on my Feet

Founded by Anne in 2007, Back on My Feet (BoMF) is a national 501c3 organization that uses running to help those experiencing homelessness change the way they see themselves so they can make real change that results in employment and independent living. BoMF has helped thousands of men and women move out of homeless shelters to live a more independent life.

Anne started BoMF at the age of 26 when she decided to do something to help the people she saw on her morning runs. Anne had a vision that no one else saw…in fact 99 percent of people thought she was crazy. But, she knew she could really help these individuals change their life in a real way by lacing up their sneakers. Watch her TedX talk to hear Anne’s powerful story that changed so many lives.

[solidcore]

Anne did something that very few people, let alone, women, ever do. She created, scaled and in April 2023, she sold her company and created $100M of net worth for herself.

She opened her first [solidcore] studio in November of 2013 with the $175,000 she had saved over the past six years. She had a clear vision to open as many studios as possible so as many people as possible could [create] the strongest version of themselves. In ten years, [solidcore] has become one of the fastest growing concepts in the fitness industry with more than 110 locations across the country with close to 2,000 employees.

Anne’s journey, although no doubt successful, was filled with plenty of adversity. But, she never quit. In fact, the challenges and obstacles just made her more resilient and a better leader for her community.

“I don’t know anyone who is at the top of their game who hasn’t faced opposition from others. Why? Because people who are striving to be the best at what they do make a lot of other people feel inadequate.

If you’re striving for the highest form of greatness and impact, you have to accept there is a pool of criticism that inherently comes with that. There are really only two options as to what to do with it: use it as fuel, or ignore it.”