Andrew Steele is an Olympic medallist who built Stride, a preventative health membership with almost 16,000 paying customers. A conversation about finding out why people really buy, going direct to consumer before selling to businesses, and what keeps people renewing an £800-a-year membership.
What you’ll learn
- Why a £4m run rate in three months, bootstrapped, still left Stride with work to do.
- Why a DNA test is hard to build a business on, and what Stride sold instead.
- The three jobs customers hire Stride for, from its consultation data.
- Why the GLP-1 programme Andrew built never sold.
- Why he always goes direct to consumer first, then practitioners, partners and employers.
- How he has mixed bootstrapping, VC and non-dilutive funding.
- What keeps an £800-a-year membership heading for 85% renewals.
About Andrew Steele
Andrew Steele is the founder and CEO of Stride, a preventative health company whose StrideOne membership combines DNA, blood and gut microbiome testing with quarterly practitioner coaching and tailored supplements. He competed for Team GB for 13 years over 400m and won a bronze medal in the 4x400m relay at the Beijing 2008 Olympics. Before Stride he co-founded DNAfit and was chief product officer at Prenetics, which acquired it.
Will is an investor in Stride and a StrideOne member.
Resources
Chapters
- 00:00 Cold open
- 01:16 Welcome to Healthier
- 01:37 What Stride is
- 02:44 16,000 customers in 65 countries
- 03:31 Selling whatever was ready
- 05:12 A £4m run rate in three months
- 05:31 You can't sell a second DNA test
- 06:26 Demand with no outlet
- 07:28 Talk to customers, or trust your instinct
- 09:14 What the consultation data showed
- 10:06 Healthier Note
- 10:31 Three jobs customers hire Stride for
- 12:48 Why "live forever" is a farce
- 14:00 Health as identity
- 16:47 Health optimisation has been hijacked
- 18:29 One better decision at a time
- 19:28 How Stride chose its product mix
- 22:18 The GLP-1 programme nobody bought
- 24:49 Why consumer first
- 27:12 Practitioners, gyms, resorts, then employers
- 29:10 How D2C data helps B2B partners
- 30:17 Bootstrap first, then raise
- 31:37 Commodity blood tests plus AI
- 32:26 The most ambitious research study in human health
- 34:40 Explaining the value is the bottleneck
- 37:02 85% renewals on an £800 membership
- 38:43 Where to find Stride