Founded in 2022, the Ten Percent Club is a sports performance brand specializing in nootropics, mushroom blends and botanical ingredients.
The brand was born from a desire to provide athletes with clean and effective supplements to support both performance and recovery. Each product is Informed Sports certified and independently tested for over 250 banned substances, protecting professional athletes from inadvertent doping.
These assurances have made the brand trusted by high-profile athletes such as Aston Villa footballer Matt Cash, Wales Rugby star Christ Tshiunza, world champion boxer Chantelle Cameron and Manchester United and England footballer Maya Le Tissier.
But it was an early endorsement by Eddie Hearn, English sports promoter and the chairman of Matchroom Sport and the Professional Darts Corporation, that pushed the brand into the spotlight, later leading to an official partnership.
Now, the company has its sights set on expanding its consumer base, including targeting women as well as men, and everyday consumers as well as elite athletes.
NutraIngredients+: What is the origin story behind the Ten Percent Club? How did it get its start?
Luke O’Reilly: The journey unofficially started in 2013 when my mum was diagnosed with cancer. She was in significant pain and I began looking for natural supplements to help her. I discovered CBD oil, which was amazing for her discomfort—it calmed her down, eased her pain and really helped her. Although we still lost her, the impact of natural ingredients stayed with me.
At the time, I was a design engineer working on major projects like Harry Potter World and Centre Parcs, but I had absolutely no passion for it. So, off the back of what happened to mum, I started buying and selling CBD, teaching myself how to build a website and handle branding and marketing through online training packages. People loved the product, but due to restrictions around CBD in the European market, I couldn’t grow the business.
I also had some friends who played for Lincoln City Football Club who would take CBD during the off season to support their recovery, but were wary of taking it during peak season due to drug testing. So, I started researching ingredients that offered similar benefits to CBD. I came across nootropics and mushroom formulas and started taking them myself. I couldn’t believe the impact they had on me. I was sleeping well and focusing better at work, and that’s what spurred me on to start the Ten Percent Club.
NI+: What was the very first product you launched? And when did the business take off?
LO: When we first launched, I was working full-time from 8am to 5pm. I would wake up at 5am to package orders, put them in my car, and then drive to the local post office during my lunch break to ship them. In the evening, I would work on admin and marketing until I went to bed. I was the accountant, marketing manager and social media manager all at once.
The first product we launched was the Unwind & Sleep. I designed a blend of nootropics including ashwagandha, bacopa monnieri, L-theanine, zinc, black pepper and Montmorency cherry. It was popular, but the major turning point was getting the product Informed Sport certified.
This allowed me to get the product into the hands of professional athletes. It went viral in the football community through word-of-mouth, and I soon saw orders from people like Jamie Carragher and Brendan Rodgers. This led to a massive uplift in sales due to their endorsements.
NI+: How did your partnership with Eddie Hearn come about? And what has your funding and investment journey looked like since then?
LO: When sales began to grow, I was able to outsource fulfilment, which gave me the freedom to move to Dubai. In Dubai, I took another engineering role that I hated even more—working 12-hour days and staying in a portacabin in the desert. While I was still getting sales through the brand, I wasn’t making much money, but I still believed it would work out.
Eventually, I met a guy at the gym who loved the products and introduced me to a couple of his friends who were investors. Around that same time, I was approached by Matchroom Boxing for a partnership. It was incredible—Eddie Hearn, the chairman, added me on Instagram and messaged me saying his Whoop data was unbelievable after taking our supplements. He introduced me to his team and we agreed a partnership deal. Eddie genuinely loved the products and was even talking about them on social media before we officially signed anything.
Eddie showing interest in the brand really helped me to secure the investment. Now, we have four investors, Adam Wolf, Len Pindley, Jamie Wilks and Michael Leighton, who helped us secure a £400k seed raise earlier this year. These guys came in and not only helped me raise the capital needed, but also brought so much expertise to the business.
We are now preparing for a Series A funding round towards the end of the year and are speaking to interested parties in Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi.
NI+: What is your approach to formulation?
LO: When it comes to formulation, I come up with the ideas based on customer feedback. Right now, for example, we’re developing a female-only wellness supplement and night-time hydration sachets based on our consumers’ key concerns.
I then work with Dominic Rae, our head of sports medicine and performance, who was previously the head of medical at Aston Villa, to finalize the blends. We then test the formulas and develop taste profiles. There’s a lot of R&D involved to get the products right.
We manufacture in Halifax and source all our ingredients as locally as possible. That being said, we always try and use the highest quality ingredients. We get our Celtic sea salt and Irish sea moss from Ireland and our mushrooms from China as that’s where they’re best.
NI+: What is your best performing product? Are you targeting everyday consumers as well as professional athletes, including both men and women?
LO: Our Unwind & Sleep blend is definitely our best performer. Almost everyone struggles with sleep due to the stress of modern life and finding a natural, effective solution with no side effects has been a game-changer for us.
Our Tongkat Ali which we launched online with Holland & Barrett also sold out within two weeks of hitting shelves, as did our pocket-size electrolytes which we launched in partnership with OccaStore and Bright.Blue.
In terms of our consumer demographics, we accidentally became known as an athlete brand because of the Informed Sport certification and our athlete endorsements. But now, we’re trying to educate the market that our supplements aren’t just for athletes. This fits into our growing portfolio of ‘everyday ingredients’, like electrolytes and creatine. And because our current customer base is very male-led, we are currently developing a female-only range. We want to encourage women to take products like creatine, which is often misunderstood as just being for bulking.
NI+: How did you come to partner with such a wide range of athletes?
LO: All the ambassadorships came about very organically. Matt Cash, Chantelle Cameron, Patrick Bamford, Maya Le Tissier and our other ambassadors were normal customers buying off the website. I noticed these big names coming in and I reached out to them and asked if they could provide some feedback once they’d used the supplements for a few weeks. I then asked if we could share their testimonials. There’s nothing paid for—these partnerships are organic, natural endorsements from people who believed in the product.
We’re now exploring partnerships with several Arsenal female footballers and a high-profile darts player.
NI+: Looking back, what were your biggest successes and challenges? And what are your goals for the brand?
LO: The low point was definitely the early days in Dubai, working 12-hour days and then getting home and working on the business. When I eventually quit my day job, I knew I had 60 days’ worth of money to make the Ten Percent Club work. I was counting food in my house to see if I could survive. But equally, having the business as my sole focus allowed me to really push it forward to the next step. The high point followed shortly after—having people back me and believe in the brand was amazing.
Now, we’re focused on moving towards a more personalized route, including an AI-driven self-diagnosis system on our website to help people identify which supplements they need based on their symptoms. Unfortunately, having a good product in this day and age isn’t everything, and we can’t just be another supplement brand. We’re really homing in on marketing—we’ve got the products and now it’s about building a platform to get them out there.
NI+: What is your advice to other start-ups?
LO: Persistence is key—keep going and keep trying new things. And, don’t quit your day job too early. I see a lot of people with start-up companies quitting their jobs and taking all the profits for themselves. This won’t help the business grow. I didn’t take a penny out of the business for three years; every bit of profit went back into marketing, product development, and testing. You have to go through that initial struggle to get to the other side.