Adam is a visionary global executive with 25 years of successful leadership in technology and multi-unit environments. He thrives in helping companies accelerate growth through his extensive strategic, innovation, and execution capabilities. He is currently the President & CEO of Intelivideo, a global provider of on-demand and digital technology platforms for the fitness industry. Adam draws upon almost two decades of fitness technology and club operating experience to guide Intelivideo to a leadership position as a trusted partner to gyms and health clubs worldwide.
Prior to joining Intelivideo, Adam served as the global President & CEO of Gold’s Gym, where he led the resurgence of the world’s most recognized fitness brand, with over 700 locations in 29 countries. He currently resides in Dallas, TX, with his wife, 4 children, and 2 loyal dogs.
What is Intelivideo all about?
Founded in 2013, Intelivideo is a video-on-demand (VOD), livestreaming, and digital technology platform for gyms, health clubs, and sports and recreation operators. The combination of our end-to-end technology platform, marketing, and content strategy services helps our customers build a successful digital fitness and sports offering to complement their brick-and-mortar facilities and services while attracting and retaining their members in a hyper-local fashion.
Tell us a little bit about your background and how you started your company?
I was an entrepreneur almost right out of college, starting my first technology company in the video conferencing and audio-visual space six months after getting my first job. About a decade after exiting that business, I found myself an investor, and soon the President of, a small upstart SaaS provider in the recreation and fitness industry. We grew that business over four years and then sold it to a division of a publicly traded software holding company in Toronto, and I took the helm of their U.S. fitness and sports software business unit. During that time, one of the companies we acquired had Gold’s Gym as one of its largest customers, which is how I got to know the brand’s former executives and owners.
In February of 2016, I accepted the role of global CIO for Gold’s Gym and later became the President & CEO after a few years. I began working with Intelivideo on the next phase of Gold’s Gym’s digital fitness rollout in that role. When the pandemic hit, I guided Gold’s Gym and its global team through the crisis and helped migrate the company through a pandemic-induced bankruptcy process. This led to the eventual sale of the brand to a European fitness company.
After overseeing the sale and the successful transition of the day-to-day executive duties to the new owner, I was offered the position of President & CEO of Intelivideo. Given my passion for the hybridization of the fitness industry, I proudly stepped into the leadership role on October 1, 2020.
What was the biggest problem you encountered with your business and how did you overcome it?
I have been with Intelivideo for about six months, and I’m very quickly learning the business’s ins and outs. Since I am fairly new, it’s hard to elaborate on the most significant “problem” I have found with our company since arriving. Still, I can say that the one big “area of change” that I implemented early on was a revamp of our onboarding, deployment and support model to help facilitate a higher-volume scaling of the company’s growth over the next few years. We have been historically onboarding larger, enterprise-sized clients over a three or four month period. Although this is still a big part of our business model, we needed to have an onboarding and deployment process for smaller, independent fitness operators who desire to be “live” on our platform in three to four weeks rather than months. The new process is being deployed now, and we expect this to be a large contributor to our company’s future success in the U.S. and European markets.
What were the top mistakes you made starting your business and what did you learn from it?
I’m still learning and doing some things right and some things wrong since this position is fairly new to me. I can tell you that in both this role and the one at Gold’s Gym, one of the biggest mistakes I made (and saw) was “doing things this way because that is how we have always done them.” Business changes constantly, customer needs change all the time, and priorities change within a start-up business, sometimes monthly.
The worst thing we can do as a company is to keep doing things a certain way just because that’s how they have always been done in the past. I’ve made the mistake of waiting too long to make changes, and I’ve also made the mistake of not wanting to “push” the new team too much in fear of upsetting the status quo. But, as the CEO and leader of the company, my job is to push the limits, make people comfortable with the uncomfortable, and make sure we are doing things the right way and the best way for the business, and not just because that’s “just how we have always done things.”
What is one thing that you do daily to grow as an entrepreneur?
I workout five to six days a week as a means to stay healthy first and foremost. However, when I’m in the gym at 5:30 a.m., I put my headphones in and am in the zone with my workout. This is where I do some of my best thinking and idea generation. There is no flurry of emails coming in at that time of day and no text messages to distract me. It helps me focus on my agenda for the day ahead and gives me a place and time to think creatively, both for the business, my team members and myself.
What is the one thing you wish you knew before starting your business?
I knew it already, yet I still became so engrossed in the business from the moment I joined the company that I forgot how important it was to focus even more than usual on my team. I certainly consider myself a very people-focused, servant-hearted leader, so making the transition to a new company that is growing so quickly in the middle of a pandemic should have had me even more focused on bonding with my team. Yes, it’s important to make strides and accomplish new things quickly when stepping into the CEO role in this scenario, but getting to know your people as fast as possible and earning their trust is a critical component as well.
What has been your most effective marketing strategy to grow your business?
We have had a tremendous amount of success utilizing many virtual events occurring over the last year within the fitness industry. Intelivideo has sponsored a number of these conferences in the North American, European, and Asia-Pacific markets. We have received a reliable lead response and continued our brand awareness in the fitness industry from these events. In addition, we have worked very closely with our PR and media agency partner to maintain a strong interview, podcast, and press release cadence over the last two quarters, which has had a very positive impact on our position as thought leaders in the digital/hybrid fitness industry around the world.
If you only had $1000 dollars to start a new startup, knowing everything you know now, how would you spend it?
- Google Adwords
- Keurig Machine & Coffee Pods
- A few sessions with a psychologist
What’s your best piece of advice for aspiring and new entrepreneurs?
Be prepared to pivot at least eight or ten times a day, especially as a technology entrepreneur and CEO. After five years of leading a global fitness brand at Gold’s Gym and then returning to running an upstart technology company, I forgot how fast-paced and rapid-fire operating a small and quickly growing technology company can be. I love every minute of jumping from one thing to another, but it can be mentally and physically exhausting so prepare yourself for this aspect – exercise regularly, eat right and stay hydrated throughout these long days.
What is your favorite quote?
“Only a person who risks is free,” from the anonymous poem of the same title. I came across this in my early 20’s and made the decision then that I would live by this life lesson/mantra, letting it guide my decision-making process throughout my career. It has helped me in many areas, especially in starting companies from the ground up and running/operating major organizations. It is a quote/poem that I refer back to and often reference in my daily life.
- Hubspot
- Seamless
- Trello
How is running a tech company different than what you thought it would be?
Before taking the CIO and then the CEO role at Gold’s Gym, I spent the first 15+ years of my career running global technology companies. Running a tech-based company within the fitness industry is something that I am very comfortable with now that I am at Intelivideo.
How can readers get in touch with you?
I would love to connect with readers on LinkedIn – you can just search my name there. In addition, I can be found on Twitter at @adamzeit.
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