I Am a Disruptor
I have to be careful with that word. Disruptor gets thrown around a lot in startup culture. It’s become a badge people wear before they've earned it. So when I say it about myself, I mean it with full awareness of what it carries and full respect for the people who built the industry I'm stepping into. At first, I thought I was crazy but I’m in a unique position to be a called a disruptor.
I Lived in Two Worlds at the Same Time
For 7 years, I ran a double life. During the day, I was building portfolios from zero to millions of dollars annually in corporate. I was in boardrooms, navigating complex sales cycles, managing executive relationships, and learning how large organizations operate, scale, and sustain themselves over time. After hours and on weekends, I was on the floor. Training clients, competing as an endurance athlete, creating content, and studying what made people show up, stay consistent, and actually transform their lives through health and fitness. Two worlds, both pulling hard, both demanding everything. Eventually, one had to give. But before it did, those two worlds gave me something most operators in this industry simply don't have: a dual perspective that I now consider my greatest competitive advantage.
The Industry Is Overdue for New Blood
I say this with respect and I say it plainly. The health and fitness industry at the premium level has been run by the same playbook for a long time. The leaders who built the major clubs did something genuinely impressive. They elevated the entire category and proved that people will invest in their health when you give them something worth investing in. That foundation matters and I don't take it for granted. But the playbook they built was designed for a consumer and a culture that no longer exists in the same form. The post-COVID relationship with health, work, community, and how people spend their time and money has shifted in ways that legacy operators have been slow to respond to. That's not a criticism, it's an observation. Large organizations move slowly by nature. I know that because I spent 14 years inside one. The window that creates is real, and it won't stay open forever.
Being the New Guy Is an Advantage
I've been inside every type of facility imaginable, from gritty bodybuilder gyms with rusty dumbbells to premium clubs charging thousands of dollars a month. I love them all. Each one taught me something about what works, what people actually respond to, and where the gaps are. As I moved through them over the years, a question kept forming that nobody seemed to be answering seriously. Why is this so fragmented? People trying to take care of themselves, do meaningful work, and build real community are running between three or four different places to do it. The gym. The coffee shop. The coworking space. The wellness studio. None of them integrated. None of them designed around how people actually live today. I didn't need a trend report to see that. I saw it as an athlete, a trainer, and a content creator who spent 7 years on the front lines studying the customer up close. Coming in without the weight of legacy thinking meant I was free to ask the questions that incumbents stopped asking a long time ago. That freedom is where HUMN was born.
Sitting in the Middle of the Gap
When I think about the demographic driving this industry forward, specifically the Gen Z consumer, the hybrid worker, the health-conscious professional who wants more than a treadmill and a smoothie bar, I think about whether the current leaders are truly connected to that customer. I find myself in the middle of that space. Young enough to understand where the consumer is going, experienced enough to know how to build something that actually lasts. I built portfolios from scratch in corporate, managed complex client relationships, and operated at scale inside a large organization. I also trained people, competed, created content, and lived inside fitness culture for over a decade. That combination does not exist at the leadership level of this industry right now. That's not ego. That's the gap I'm stepping into and the reason I believe HUMN has a real shot at changing how premium health clubs are built and operated going forward.
This Is Why I Left
I didn't walk away from a 14-year career because I was bored or restless. I left because I saw something clearly and knew that if I didn't act on it, someone else eventually would. I never wanted to reach 70 years old and sit with the question of what if. So I'm building HUMN, a premium health club in Denver that integrates fitness, wellness, work, and community into one environment designed for the way people actually live today. The vision started as words in a notebook. Now other people see it too. When investors tell me they believe in it, when people who have no connection to the fitness industry look at the model and say it makes sense, that's the confirmation that the gap is real and the timing is right. New blood was coming to this industry one way or another. I intend to be it.
