Peloton bikes had been all the craze through the pandemic, making co-founder and then-CEO John Foley, a billionaire. After which, after folks started venturing exterior their houses once more, Peloton struggled to maintain its mojo. 

Earlier this yr, Foley left the corporate, shedding 87% of his wealth on paper by the tip of his tenure there. Now, he has a brand new curiosity, and it entails rugs.

His enterprise, referred to as Ernesta, will provide custom-made rugs beginning within the first half of 2023, the Wall Avenue Journal reported Wednesday.

Having all the time liked inside design, Foley advised the Journal that even earlier than the founding of image-sharing platform Pinterest, he would rip the pages from design magazines to create temper boards of his visible concepts. He discovered that custom-fitted rugs had been usually costly and that purchasing store-bought ones meant being caught with solely the particular sizes obtainable.

Together with his new enterprise, Foley needs to create a approach for folks to purchase reasonably priced rugs—they might begin at $200, in keeping with the Wall Avenue Journal—that may very well be made to suit totally different dimensions. The problem, Foley mentioned, is to persuade consumers they have to spend money on custom-fit rugs.

“The group right here is earnest in its work to carry lovely, {custom} rugs to your own home in a well timed, cost-effective method,” Foley mentioned on Ernesta’s web site. The corporate’s title, Foley wrote, displays his fascination with writer Ernest Hemingway.

Foley co-founded Peloton in 2012 after elevating $307,000 on Kickstarter to assist construct the exercise-bike startup. By January 2021, the corporate was price almost $50 billion, swelling Foley’s web price.

However after the pandemic began ebbing, Peloton confronted a actuality examine.

The bike maker underwent a restructuring in September, throughout which Foley and his co-founder, Hisao Kushi resigned from their government roles. In October, his stake within the firm was price $100 million, down from $1.5 billion a yr earlier.