Today I’m talking to Robbie Bent, CEO and co-founder of Othership. Othership has scaled from a DIY backyard ice bath to a cult-like wellness brand with multiple sold-out locations across North America and plans to open a first-of-its-kind “social spa” on the Upper East Side.
Robbie is a former drug addict-turned founder who’s built something genuinely novel: a space where emotional processing and human connection are the product, and sauna and cold plunge are the delivery mechanisms. What’s rare about his story is that he’s done it with four co-founders — two couples working full-time together after seven years — and he’s obsessive about building the best version of the product, not the fastest path to profit.
We talk about the long-term vision, the willingness to go all-in on something nobody thought would work, and what it means to build a company around healing and community in a culture obsessed with optimization. Robbie gets vulnerable about the financial terror of physical retail, the near-death moments when he thought it was over, and why he turned down aggressive investor terms to maintain control and equity.
Topics covered
- From backyard experiment to $2M+ first location — and how he knew it was real
- Why he thinks fear doesn’t disappear when you succeed — it just evolves
- The almost-zero odds of building a successful company with two couples as co-founders
- How a sauna and cold plunge became a Trojan horse for emotional healing and friendship
- Why he’s terrified of competition (and how that terror drives everything he does)
- From ADHD, boredom with early fatherhood to being present — the shift that changed his priorities
SO much more!
Timestamps
00:00 Intro
01:52 The 20-year vision
05:50 Horse trough to $2M
10:00 Building with 4 co-founders
15:39 The New York crisis
22:10 Why didn't he quit
24:25 What still scares him
27:19 The social spa experiment
31:16 Does fear ever disappear?
34:00 His anxiety toolkit
39:25 Health and clarity
40:21 Competition and abundance
43:08 Product creates community
49:48 From addiction to healing
53:58 How his wife changed him
58:35 Fatherhood evolution
01:02:18 The balance act (work, family, health, friends) 01:07:53 Other cultures and values
01:12:46 Learning from founder stories
01:16:31 Bathhouse inspiration worldwide
01:21:05 Creative retreats and psilocybin
01:23:14 Acceptance
Links
Robbie Bent
Instagram: https://instagra.com/robbiebent
X: https://x.com/robbiebent
LinkedIn: Robbie Bent
Luba Yudasina
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lifeoflubaa
X: https://x.com/LubaYudasina
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yudasinal
