Brothers Max Clarke and Lestat McCree have watched their wellbeing company Healf grow from a germ of an idea to a £100 million turnover business. The former Manchester Grammar School students launched their online wellness marketplace Healf in 2021. In just five years, they have scaled it into one of the UK's fastest growing start-ups.
But it feels like the brothers, both in their 20s, are only just getting started. They have the ambition to steer Healf to become the "Netflix of wellbeing" — offering a one-stop shop for wellness based on the core pillars of "Eat, Move, Mind, Sleep."
Inspiration from Personal Health Journey
The idea was first sparked by Max's own journey to wellness after suffering from chronic nosebleeds in his teenage years, when the brothers were both based in Wilmslow, Cheshire. Max, 26, explains: "When I was younger, I used to have chronic nose bleeds — blood pouring out of my nose — multiple times a week. I didn't know why it was happening. When I went to a GP, they said: 'Oh yeah, just put some Vaseline in your nose and it will be fine.' I tried that but obviously it doesn't work! Off the back of that, I went on a whole journey of health and wellness to try and solve it myself — and feel better in general."
"Within about a year of starting to take supplements, doing regular sauna, changing my diet, doing yoga, meditation and all things like that, I literally felt like a completely different person and the nosebleeds completely stopped. I then realised — a light bulb in my mind went off — that this is really powerful. This was nine, ten years ago and at the time health and wellness was kind of a taboo thing that people weren't talking about. Obviously there's been a big movement towards it recently, but at the same time it was kind of bizarre to me that it wasn't more of a thing that people are interested in. My own experience made me realise I really wanted to dedicate my life to this and try and help people feel better through the power of health and wellness."
Building a Tech-Enabled Wellness Platform
Teaming up with older brother Lestat, who had been on his own fitness journey as a former amateur boxer, the duo decided to build something different in the wellness space. The aim was to create a tech-enabled, culturally-driven platform that makes wellbeing clearer and more personal for every customer. When they started out, both had just completed degrees at King's College in London and were living in the capital. They now have state-of-the-art offices in London with a team of 100. The office has a big focus on wellness with an on-site gym, therapy rooms and even its own sauna.
Looking back at how they started, Max says: "I think the first ever original plan — we both in our own ways love health and wellness, we're both around it, and we were getting to a point where we could see 'we're not alone here.' So many people were starting to move to be healthy. I remember both of us used to go to the same gym and everyone used to take protein and creatine products which had so much c**p in them — full of sugar and sweeteners and additives. We just thought this is not healthy. We could see people taking all these terrible products and having so much information out there, but we wanted to bring together a trusted destination — and take what would hopefully become our customers from confusion to clarity."
Lestat added: "We are big believers that wellbeing is personal. Everyone has a different biology, different bodies, different needs. We're on a mission as we grow to really help people find their perfect product, find things that are actually right for each person."
From Scrappy Beginnings to Fastest Growing Company
In the early days when they started in 2020, they admit it was "super scrappy," scraping together money to buy in stock and persuading retailers to trust in their business belief. But it ultimately paid off — for them and for their retailers. Healf skyrocketed with customer demands for wellness products from brands like Ancient and Brave, Bare Biology and Yogi Bare, who have been "with them since day one."
While it might seem a meteoric rise to success, the brothers admit people won't realise how hard it was to start it all off. Lestat says: "Everyone sees it as overnight success and they don't realise that before that there was like 18 months of just hard work and not getting anywhere. We upgraded the brand in 2021 as Healf, and probably it was in 2022 when we started seeing much more meaningful growth."
Earlier this year, Healf was named the fastest growing company in Europe according to the FT1000, the FT's annual list ranking the fastest growing companies by compound annual growth rate (CAGR). It achieved the top position thanks to a 621.74% CAGR between 2021 and 2024, and surpassing a £100 million annualised revenue run rate this year.
Changing Lives and Inspiring Others
But while the financials are great, the brothers say their ambition with the business is to change lives. Max says: "The messages we get from customers are special. It shows there can be a life-changing impact or even just the subtle things of sleeping better at night and then having more energy the next day. Whatever you're doing, we want to be that company that provides you with that great base to mean that you feel well and then you can go on succeeding in all aspects of your life." Lestat adds: "Being able to inspire people towards wellness is a great privilege. And also to make it simpler and easier for people."
The brand also now provides a number of Premier League clubs with health and wellness supplements, including the team they've long supported, Manchester City.
The Power of Sibling Partnership
Max and Lestat are yet another pair of north west brothers showing what can be achieved in business — similar to George and Michael Heaton (the Bolton brothers behind Represent), Simon and Bobby Arora (the brothers behind B&M), and Reece and Ryan Broadhurst (the Warrington brothers who forged Arne). "And there's also the Gallaghers," laughs Max. So what is it about the sibling connection that works so well?
Lestat says: "I think the one thing is you just know each other and just trust each other so deep." Max agrees: "I think that trust and that understanding each other just on a level which is deeper than if you'd known someone for five years."
Advice for Aspiring Entrepreneurs
Finally, what would the brothers' advice be to any other inspiring entrepreneurs? Max said: "I think you've got to go in eyes wide open. It does require a lot of hard work and a lot of commitment. There's a level of eyes wide open of what is required, but also you need something innately driving you. There's so much opportunity. We chose an area of business that we're really passionate about — health and wellness — and I'd recommend other people to lean into their passions because you can make a business in anything today."
Lestat added: "You have to love what you're doing. We say that to all our team members. You get so much more out of someone if they genuinely love and are fulfilled by what they do because they think more about it, they obsess over it, they can spend more time on it. That's definitely something we both believe in."
