‘A London Marathon every weekend? I think we can get to that – and sell out’
Sam Browne, co-founder of the tech platform, Let’s Do This, which runs the London Marathon ballot, on its rapid growth… and the coming AI revolution.
On Sunday 59,000 keen runners, amateur plodders and fundraisers dressed as, among other things, a pair of testicles will line up to take on the London Marathon.
This year’s ballot attracted 1.13m applications – more than all of the other six World Marathon Majors combined – meaning entrants had just a five per cent chance of a place on the start line.
“It’s now almost certainly the most oversubscribed and popular experience at scale on the planet,” says Sam Browne, co-founder of Let’s Do This, the tech platform credited with helping to grow the number of sign-ups by 300 per cent in three years.
Of course there are other factors behind the surging demand. It is well organised, takes in iconic locations and at £80, it remains more affordable than many of its peers.
The competition has also benefited from a post-Covid boom in appetite for fitness and shared experiences but, like Paula Radcliffe in her pomp, the London race is way out in front.
“The World Marathon Majors as a group have grown about 50 per cent in the same period. We’ve outperformed culture by 6x, so something different is going on,” Browne tells Morning Wire.
Let’s Do This: Backed by Bolt and Serena
Let’s Do This leans into AI to make it easier for runners to apply and for organisers to convert curiosity into commitment. Among its first backers was OpenAI founder Sam Altman, who Browne pestered until he took an interest.
A similar approach persuaded Usain Bolt and Serena Williams to invest and ground down London Marathon CEO Hugh Brasher.
“It looked like it wasn’t going to happen,” Browne recalls. “We had to get the contract done in the next three days, and so I sent him a text message and shared my location.
“I found out where he lived, and I went and parked outside his house at 11pm and said, ‘I’m not going to leave here until you sign the contract’.” Rather than call the police, Brasher let him in at 4am and signed.
Browne is an amateur runner but his zeal is for shared experiences, a lust for life he says was borne out of childhood illness that gave him multiple heart-stopping fits every day.
“I wanted to spend my career trying to drive as many experiences as I possibly could. And so we started trying to power all of that,” he says.
Let’s Do This has raised more than $60m in funding – the latest from Accelerate Ventures, who are also invested in Wigan Athletic and Wigan Warriors – to get from start-up to scale-up and now works with the world’s biggest event organisers, including Atlanta Track Club, Chicago Event Management, LifeTime Fitness, Nike and the Great Run Company. Revenues have doubled year on year and it expects to turn a profit for the first time in 2026.
“We’ll be profitable this year, which I’m over the moon about,” he says, adding of the pandemic disruption to its growth: “It’s been a bit like a marathon where you’re sprinting and then walking, and then sprinting and then walking.”
London Marathon ballot, AI and the ‘war for the future’
Let’s Do This has aims way beyond profit, however. Browne is convinced that a coming AI revolution will cause mass unemployment, sowing the seeds for civil unrest – unless people have something better, more fulfilling, to do with their free time.
“The really important thing for us now is that it does feel like we’re in a kind of war for the future,” he says.
“If we can build this world, if we can use AI to mean that there is a Glastonbury every weekend, a London Marathon every weekend, or there are just, like, 1000 times more experiences, and that’s where people choose to spend their time and live meaningful lives, I think that’s the future I want for the next generation.”
A London Marathon every weekend? We are down the rabbit hole somewhat now, but Browne believes that officialdom’s resistance to closing city centres 50 times a year could melt away in the face of a more dangerous, violent alternative.
“As mad as it sounds now – and the taxi drivers are going to hate it – I think that’s what we can get to,” he says. “If there was a London Marathon every weekend, we would sell it out every weekend.”
The mention of Glastonbury is a hint at the company’s plans for expansion into non-sporting participatory activities such as camping, food and wine events, and yes, musical festivals. In time, Let’s Do It has ambitions to take on what he calls the “evil” global ticketing giants.
“Amazon was never about being a book shop, it wanted to be the Everything Store,” Browne says. “Let’s Do It has never been about running, it’s about experiences and that’s always where we wanted to go.”