Peloton’s former billionaire CEO says he’s lost all his money and had to sell his possessions

Peloton was one of the hottest commodities on the market during the pandemic.

But as the dangers of COVID-19 subsided, so too did the stock of the fitness equipment company, and its former billionaire CEO John Foley says his wealth got wiped out in the process.

“You know, at one point I had a lot of money on paper,” Foley, who cofounded Peloton in 2012 and was at its helm for a decade, told the New York Post.

“Not actually [in the bank], unfortunately. I’ve lost all my money. I’ve had to sell almost everything in my life.”

When demand for at-home workouts surged during the early days of COVID-19, Peloton sales soared by 250%, stock rose by more than 400%, and Foley became a billionaire seemingly overnight.

But the company overestimated demand as pandemic restrictions lifted and people started exercising outside again.

By November 2021, Peloton stock had plummeted, and Foley had lost his newly minted 10-figure status.

Then, in December 2021, the premiere episode of the Sex and the City reboot, And Just Like That…, killed off one of its main characters, Mr. Big, who suffered a heart attack…while riding a Peloton.

“We were coming out of Covid. The stock was getting crushed. And then the Mr. Big thing happens…it was brutal,” he recalled.

“All of a sudden, we were just being trolled…everything was collapsing.” Once worth a staggering $50 billion, the New York–based company was only just holding on to its unicorn status when Foley stepped down as CEO in February 2022.

Foley was once worth $1.9 billion, according to Bloomberg, but left the company with a net worth of $225 million.

The company has since cycled through another CEO, Barry McCarthy, laid off thousands of employees, hiked prices, and announced the closure of retail stores to tackle its post-pandemic slump in demand.

Its market cap is still a shadow of what it once was, currently standing at $1.8 billion. It’s not just Foley’s billionaire status (and a career at the company he created) that was killed by Peloton’s stock price bloodbath.

The ex-Peloton chief was forced to downsize twice—including selling a $55 million East Hampton waterfront home and uprooting his family.

As Foley’s experience illustrates, reaching billionaire status can be pretty meaningless if that wealth is on paper and tied up in stock that can’t easily be sold.

Ref: Peloton’s former billionaire CEO says he’s lost all his money and had to sell his possessions (fortune)