Lee Comerford, CEO at Eat Sleep Cycle

Great Companies: How did you get your idea or concept for the business?

Lee Comerford: Along with my partner Louise, we moved to Girona (Spain) for better cycling conditions. We found a cycling paradise and wanted to help other people experience it. We saw a huge gap in the market for a quality local provider. Then our guests started asking us to take them to new places through Europe so we did.

Great Companies: What are the various services provided by Eat Sleep Cycle?

Lee Comerford: Eat Sleep Cycle offers cycling tours worldwide and has Cycling Hubs in Girona and Málaga. From these hubs we offer cycling services like bike hire and cycling day trips. Eat Sleep Cycle also has an online and bricks and mortar retail leg.

Great Companies: What makes Eat Sleep Cycle different from hundreds of other similar service providers?

Lee Comerford: Eat Sleep Cycle has a unique business model because we offer cyclists a 360 degree service, from the bike they ride to having an amazing experience on that bike. Really we have built a cycling brand with a strong community backing due to our grass roots foundations. Our customers would say we provide the friendliest and welcoming service compared to competitors.

Great Companies: What were the struggles and challenges you faced and how did you overcome them?

Lee Comerford: Starting a business in a foreign country is always difficult, I am English and we have a Spanish business. I quickly looked for the local people that were connected and willing to help us. We lost €1 million in 2 weeks when COVID hit and travel ground to a hault. We never stopped working and remained positive, always looking for ways to keep supporting the community of cyclists (virtual cycling tours and local community social rides for example). This is when our retail business grew to absorb the costs of our team, we didn´t want to lose them. Now there is a crash in the cycling retail business and again we are adapting. External conditions are always changing. The important thing is to stay strong, have faith and adapt quickly.

Great Companies: How do you plan to grow in the future? What does 5 years down the line look like for Eat Sleep Cycle?

Lee Comerford: We regularly ask ourselves what we are doing and why. Our core is our cycling tours, it´s what we love doing. We break down barriers through cycling, like visiting a place you never would have dreamed of. It is also a sustainable tourism which needs to be every business focus for the future. So we plan to grow our cycling tours business A LOT the next 5 years.

Great Companies: If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting out, what would it be?

Lee Comerford: You do not need to re-invent the wheel, you can always do something better than a competitor, just follow your passion because in the down times you need that motivation.