Sports nutrition business goes the distance for record-breaking athletes
Josh Elston-Carr and Jack Gray co-founded the startup and its flagship product, BiCarrb, has already helped endurance athletes to record-breaking feats.
Four national, one European, and one world record have been set by athletes who are customers.
And the duo tell us: “Despite starting with no external funding, FLYCARB is now competing with global brands, giving back to local athletes and even creating and sponsoring races – such as the recent King & Queen of the Hill competition at the English National Cross Country Championships.”
Elston-Carr and Gray are the only employees of FLYCARB. Josh is a mechanical engineer by trade and has broken the 4 minute mile. Jack is a Transport Planner by trade and has competed for Great Britain multiple times, with a best of 28:27 over 10km.
Remarkably, FLYCARB has been entirely self-funded, growing organically through word-of-mouth among grassroots and elite athletes. Its many clients have been mainly in the UK but even that profile is changing.
As Jack says: “We've faced the issues of being a micro-enterprise (post-Brexit) head on. But we have recently opened up sales to all European nations covered by IOSS – the Import One-Stop Shop EU scheme. And we have demand from Australia, New Zealand and Norway.
“We also have a lot of latent demand from the US but are trying to get our heads around how best we can support them.
“We’re focused on expanding our reach internationally, supporting more athletes across a diverse range of sports, and continuing to innovate in sports nutrition with new techniques.
“We’re also looking at further partnerships, events sponsorship and community initiatives to give back to the running world.”
While FLYCARB operates primarily as an online business, its products are stocked in select specialist retailers and the duo work directly with clubs and teams. “We have effectively built the business all in our spare time (evenings/weekends) with our own money and no funding from external partners, which is very satisfying,” says Jack.
Some of the standout performances powered by BiCarrb include Hannah Irwin, who set two Northern Irish national records (Half Marathon and 10km), and Baldvin (Vinny) Mangusson, who recently set an Icelandic record of 7:45 over 3000m and 3:39 over 1500m.
