Start-up Secrets: Rollercoasters, comfort zones and masochistic pursuits...

My latest project — Fiit — started a little over seven months ago with two very good friends and professional rock stars! Dan Shellard and I have spent the last 12 years working together, first at Google and most recently at Qubit (the company we founded). I’ve known Sammi Adami for 15 years, running student parties together in Bath and London before he took the Dubai property and entertainment world by storm.

Setting up a business is never easy and it’s not for the faint hearted. Startup life isn’t about good weeks and bad weeks; not even good days and bad days! But more the hourly roller coaster of each day, which is part of the startup drug I’m masochistically hooked on.

Having set up a successful business before certainly puts you in good stead and makes things less daunting — like getting the right company structure, efficient fundraising, leveraging your network to beg, borrow and steal in the early days, and investing in the right activities like building the brand, getting market validation and tons of market research! BUT although you vow never to make the same mistakes twice, sometimes you can’t help but take on too much too quickly, or try to run before you can walk. There are always new and unexpected challenges to overcome in those first months.

Just over a year ago I was living in New York running a MarTech company — Qubit — and loving the challenge of breaking into the American market. I was immensely proud of what we had achieved in the seven years since leaving Google. Fast forward a year and I’m now running a FitTech startup on a mission to make fitness addictive for the majority of people disillusioned with the gym and the 150k+ mobile apps that exist — most of which are in the app graveyard!

We’re not just creating a fitness business or technology business (two sectors I know extremely well). We’re creating a social business, with connections to some of the leading fitness influencers around the world, and we’re creating a media business and content machine!

If you’d have told me a year ago that I’d be building a TV station grade production set in the Olympic Park next door to BT Sport, I’d have laughed in your face!

One thing I never did at Qubit was document our journey, so I’ve started this series partly to process what I’ve learned so far and in the hope that my stories will be useful to others setting up a business.

So, expect more posts like this in the coming weeks and months. If you want to hear about specific topics or want to share your comments about startup life, please leave a comment.

If you’re interested in being one of the first to try Fiit then sign up to our early access waiting list at Fiit.tv

We officially launch in early 2018! Follow us on Instagram to find out what we’re up to!

Finally, a massive thank you to Balderton Capital for providing space for us in their Kings Cross office for the last six months! As investors in my previous business, we continue to feel part of the family!