The Informed vs The Uninformed
The Informed vs. The Uninformed
One of my favorite parts of being a founder is the conversations. Not the pitch meetings, not the investor calls, although those matter too. I'm talking about the organic ones. The ones that happen when someone asks what I'm building and I just start talking. Those conversations have taught me something that I now treat as a core part of how I think about building HUMN. Not all perspectives are created equal and the ones you least expect are often the most valuable.
Two Types of People Walk Into the Conversation
I've started to categorize the people I talk to about HUMN into two groups. The informed and the uninformed. The informed are people who are already inside the world of health and fitness in some way. They work out regularly, they have a membership somewhere, they follow the industry, or they work in it. These are typically easier conversations because there's a shared language. They get the vision quickly, they ask sharp questions, and they often validate what I already believe.
The uninformed are the people who don't work out, don't follow the fitness industry, and have no particular connection to the space. On the surface, you might think those conversations would be less useful. I've found the exact opposite to be true.
Why the Uninformed Are the Most Important Room I Can Be In
When someone who has no relationship with premium fitness looks at the HUMN model and says it makes sense, that means something. It means the concept is communicating beyond the converted. It means the value proposition is clear enough to land without context. That's not a small thing when you're building a brand that needs to attract a broad enough customer base to sustain a premium health club at scale.
There's another reason I seek out those conversations. Confirmation bias is real and it is one of the most dangerous things that can happen to a founder with momentum. When everything is moving in the right direction, when investors are engaged and the energy around the brand is building, it becomes easy to only hear the things that confirm what you already believe. The informed crowd, as valuable as they are, can accelerate that problem. They speak your language, they share your assumptions, and they're often already sold on the premise before you finish the first sentence.
The uninformed force me out of that. They ask questions I haven't thought about. They challenge assumptions I didn't realize I was making. They see the concept with completely fresh eyes and no loyalty to how things have always been done in this industry. That perspective is irreplaceable.
What Those Conversations Have Actually Taught Me
The uninformed have pushed me to sharpen how I communicate the HUMN concept at its most fundamental level. Not the features, not the amenities, not the competitive comparison to Equinox or Life Time. The core of it. Why does fragmentation in how people live, work, and take care of themselves actually matter? Why does solving that problem justify a premium price point? Why Denver and why now?
When I can answer those questions clearly to someone who has never set foot in a premium health club, I know the message is right. When I stumble, I know where the work still needs to happen. Those conversations are some of the most honest feedback I get and I treat them that way.
This Is a Practice
I want to be clear that I'm not just talking about casual networking. This is something I'm intentional about. As HUMN grows, as the brand gets louder and the community gets bigger, the pull toward an echo chamber will only increase. The people who find us will largely be the people who already believe in what we're building. That's great for momentum and it's not enough for growth.
I will always make time for the uninformed. The person at the dinner table who has never paid more than twenty dollars a month for a gym membership. The executive who hasn't worked out in years but is curious about why this concept is drawing investor interest. The friend who looks at the model and says "I don't really get the fitness industry but this actually sounds interesting." Those people are not outside my target audience. In a lot of ways, they are exactly who HUMN is being built for.
The Bigger Lesson
The best founders I've learned from all share one thing in common. They stay students. They don't let success or momentum close them off to the perspectives that challenge them. I left corporate in 2025 to build something new and one of the first things I had to unlearn was the idea that expertise makes you the smartest person in the room. Sometimes the smartest perspective in the room belongs to the person who knows the least about your industry and has no reason to tell you anything other than the truth and I'm building HUMN with that in mind.
