A Founder Who Built a Regional Powerhouse and Still Can't Call Himself a CEO | Grey Matter Ep 8

He's built a regional wellness powerhouse across five countries. He still can't call himself a CEO. In 2012, Pete Thew and Alicia Pan opened the first Yoga Movement in a borrowed Carpenter Street dance studio, mirrors still mounted from the belly dance lessons that came before. They couldn't afford a water heater on the men's side, so they marketed the cold showers as polar bear showers. The reception desk was a door pulled off the building. 13 years later. Move Repeat operates across five countries. Yoga Movement, People People, building Revl Training and Strong Singapore. 300 employees. Regional reach. Pete still calls himself a guy figuring it out. This is the conversation we sat down to have with him. About the "is this it?" feeling that quietly arrives in your late 30s, even after you've ticked every box. About the pandemic that turned his relationship with the business from emotional to transactional and never fully turned back. About the partnerships that look great until the goalposts move, and the uncomfortable conversation he now insists on having before any new deal closes. About the shitty take on power he now believes ("the person who cares less has the most power"), and the only antidote he's ever found ("the truly powerful part of a relationship is surrender"). About the imposter syndrome that 13 years of building a regional powerhouse hasn't quieted. About the moment Alicia paused him last night and reminded him they've done well, and how he still has trouble hearing it. Plus the things holding him together. Black line fever from a decade of competitive swimming, breaking impossible sets into bite-sized pieces. The walks with nothing. The dishes most of Singapore outsources. The energy balance sheet of debits and credits. The standard he holds himself to at every threshold. And the long, generational work of changing an industry that still defaults to "this is my job before my real job". Sit with this one. Pete doesn't perform. He tells you what nobody warned him about when he started building, and what he wishes he'd known.