Not many people have heard of Sam Pilgrim and his mountain biking exploits, but in recent years he has become something of a spectacle. Born in 1990, Pilgrim was a normal kid living in England but something changed when he was 9 years old, he began riding bikes. It wouldn’t take home long to quickly become a fan favorite as in 2007 he won his first major competition. His career was only up from there winning a number of major competitions before eventually winning the FMB World Tour in 2013. Although his professional freeride career was very successful, he would truly come into his own when he made a YouTube channel under his namesake.
Most notable for a missing front tooth and his willingness to try nearly anything on a bike, Sam Pilgrim began to amass a following. Pilgrim can be seen riding some dangerous routes on some of the sketchiest bikes you’ve ever seen. Nobody had ever seen anything like this before, a crazy Englishman who can ride bikes better than anyone else, which makes sense why he amassed around 2 million subscribers. Eventually, he began to release his own merchandise and companies began to take notice of his videos. Large companies like Monster Energy, GoPro, and Canyon sponsored Pilgrim which gave him the opportunity to further push the envelope on his extreme style of riding.
Sam Pilgrim might not be the founder of a billion dollar company, but he found a way to gather people using the skills that only he had. Pilgrim built a channel around himself using only the skills he learned over many years of trying and failing. Pilgrim demonstrates the ability to find a niche market that has nobody within it, which in this case was a market that didn’t have an English guy who does flips and tricks with road bikes on dirt trails.
I think this is a very unique entrepreneurship venture that not many others are even considering. This is a great example of how a skill can become a successful venture!