PIONEERS

Building the World's Most Popular Marathon - Hugh Brasher, CEO @ London Marathon Events

What does it take to build the most popular race on the planet? In this episode, Hugh Brasher (CEO of London Marathon Events) sits down with Sam Browne (CEO of Let's Do This) to break down the real playbook behind scaling a global event. • From 1.3 million applicants to the London Marathon… • to launching during race weekend… • to innovating through Covid, AI, and global expansion… This isn’t theory. It’s what actually works. 🧠 What you’ll learn: • Why “oversubscribed” is not the goal (but happens anyway) • The 3-phase growth model: scarcity → revenue → scale • How to build a team that outperforms you • Why curiosity is the most underrated leadership skill • How to innovate in an industry that only iterates once a year • The real reason community is beating technology right now • How to turn failure into competitive advantage (the Blackwall Tunnel story) 🎯 Key idea: You don’t grow by chasing outcomes. You grow by obsessing over the experience. Get that right → everything else compounds. 🚀 About the series This is part of a new series from Let's Do This, unpacking how the world’s best events actually grow. If you’re building: • an event • a brand • or a category This is for you.