I’m an Olympian and 2x health tech founder. Here’s how I’m trying to fix the personalised supplement industry. Plus a new Methylation DNA test.
I’m Andrew - Founder and CEO of Stride.
I’ve spent my life dedicated to human performance and health optimisation. First, I was an Olympic athlete (with an Olympic medal from the Beijing 2008 games!), and then I was a founder of two successful digital health businesses.
Now, in 2024, I'm super excited to launch Stride, a digital-first health company at the intersection of wellness and long-term chronic health management.
Let’s rewind for a minute so you can understand how I got to today.
I spent 15 years as a professional sprinter, running the 400m for Great Britain. During that time, I learnt what it meant to tune everything in my life for one single goal and to be the best I could be mentally and physically. As you can imagine, supplementation played a big part in my daily life.
But back then, supplements were far from what they are today. To take anything other than a standard multivitamin meant going down a rabbit hole of huge, scary-looking pots geared towards bodybuilders. Protein shakes were sickly sweet and took up most of your cupboard.
I then found myself taking multiple different supplements every day just to meet my needs - pills, capsules, powders, drinks - all the time. I’d have some basic tablets for my daily vitamin and mineral needs, fish oil capsules for my omega 3, drinks for certain amino acids or adaptogenic aids and big dusty powders for protein and recovery. Not to mention any specific goal-based additions I needed to help with my sleep, for example. It seems crazy to say now, but that was the only way back then in the olde world of the noughties.
As my athletics career was ending, I found myself on an entrepreneurial journey. With no work experience, education or money, I had to become a founder.
Thankfully, a serendipitous turn of events led me to try a swab test sent to me by a scientist who was looking to understand how a sportsperson’s genetic variants may affect their response to exercise and nutrition.
I sceptically took this test while at a training camp in Arizona in 2013, and was surprised to find the results that came back a few weeks later actually to be super helpful. I discovered that I was an outlier for elite sprinters in a number of factors, had an increased predisposition to certain injuries and was genetically coded to be able to metabolise caffeine quickly. A number of these findings matched closely with my experience over the previous ten years, so with my mind thinking about my own future outside of sport, I sent the founder an email in response with some ideas about how the product could be improved - I don’t know what made me think I had the right or the knowledge to suggest such improvements, but none the less, it worked.
The next thing I knew, I had joined as a co-founder of a new company called DNAfit. We were at the forefront of commercialising the ‘wellness’ industry.
DNAfit went on to grow into multiple award-winning technologies, used by everyone from absolute beginners to elite sports teams, and 5 years later, we were lucky enough to get acquired. My first-ever job and first foray into science and tech was a surprise success!
In 2018, DNAfit joined Prenetics - a larger health technology company based in Hong Kong. We became the Prenetics EMEA team and built bigger and better products as we scaled into broader business sectors like clinical health, employee benefits and bespoke precision health systems for enterprise customers. Our team became 100 strong, with offices in London and South Africa. We launched a game-changing product called CircleDNA, and we had a whole team of dieticians, health coaches, and exercise physiologists consulting with customers daily.
Then, in early 2020, we got a call from our group ownership in Hong Kong… On this call, they told us that the new respiratory disease spreading throughout China was a world-changing event, and we should immediately stop everything we were working on and pivot to infectious disease testing.
I thought they were mad. Of course, there wasn’t a global deadly virus that would change everything that was about to take over the world. Nonetheless, we heeded their advice and repurposed our products and lab capabilities for this mysterious disease that had not yet reached Europe.
Thank goodness we listened!
By the time Covid-19 really hit the UK, we were ready and fully capable.
The first contract we won was to execute the entire Covid testing operation for the Premier League. That meant building testing structures at all 46 sites training grounds and stadiums, hiring nationwide networks of sample collectors and site managers, building world-leading bespoke software to control access at every single match, and staffing this, upskilling our scientific team with virology expertise. Not only was this a lot of work, but the Premier League was such a high-profile project we had zero room for error - the biggest sports league in the world was the global focus as the first major sports league to return to action after the global lockdown. One mistake here, and the world knew about it within seconds.
I’m glad to say our success here precipitated the most challenging but rewarding years of my career after sport. We won many huge contracts, and our team grew (in one year) from 100 to 700!
In May 2022, we listed Prenetics on the NASDAQ at a valuation greater than $1 billion!
So here we are today.
The Irony of Being an Olympian, Healthcare Founder Who Struggled To Find the Right Supplements
Despite having access to the best training staff and some of the brightest minds in sports science, I was never able to solve the problem of finding the best supplement regimen. The irony is profound. As an Olympian, I had nutritionists, coaches, and sports scientists working with me, yet the supplement industry’s one-size-fits-all approach left me constantly second-guessing. Walking into a supplement store or browsing online was overwhelming. There were hundreds of products, each claiming to be the best, but with little guidance on what would be most effective for my specific needs. Labels were often filled with jargon, making determining what was truly beneficial difficult.
Even after transitioning to a career in healthcare, where I built and sold successful businesses in health and diagnostics, I was still frustrated by the generic solutions offered by the supplement industry. This experience underscored a significant gap in the market: the need for personalised supplements tailored to an individual’s unique genetic makeup and personal health goals.
Over the last ten years, I've built two successful digital health and diagnostic businesses from scratch. Now, I'm excited to use everything I've learned along the way, from my sporting career and founder experience, to bring together a wide range of unique capabilities in Stride.
I believe there is a third way for healthcare. One which is digital-first and affordable and that bridges the gap between proactive wellness products / services and ongoing medical care. Our mission is to help every user find their Stride in life through health. We simplify the process of supporting your complete health journey, whether that's with personalised vitamin supplements or preventative health intelligence testing with our DNA, methylation, gut health and blood panels.
We want to go even further in the future, adding complete care and treatment for common but under-diagnosed conditions, all supported with holistic wellness and functional adjacent products in one simple ecosystem.
Welcome to Stride, there for every step of your health and wellness journey.
Meet StrideDaily, our first product, a personalised supplement based on biology, goals and lifestyle.
StrideDaily takes your health routine to the next level. I’ve spent the last 12 months developing our first product. Made from cutting-edge liposomal liquids, StrideDaily offers the highest nutrient bioavailability possible. Our medically guided health quiz helps us tailor your personalised vitamin supplement formula, and our precision, easy-to-use, at-home StrideDNA testing kits take personalisation to the next level, providing you with the best nutritional support ever.
Why StrideDaily?
Next-level Personalised Nutrition: StrideDaily is a scientific supplement containing custom vitamins based on your DNA, lifestyle, and evolving health goals. It uniquely enhances everything from energy and immunity to muscle recovery and skin health.
Everyday Convenience: StrideDaily offers a simple, compact, daily liquid liposome shot that’s tastier and easier to take than traditional pills. Delivered monthly to your door, StrideDaily makes maintaining health effortless.
Superior Efficacy: StrideDaily delivers the highest nutrient bioavailability on the market, significantly more than the standard High St Vitamins. Developed through rigorous R&D by leading scientists and dieticians, each daily shot is formulated to exceed pharmaceutical-grade standards. StrideDaily delivers the best vitamins to take daily.
Here’s how StrideDaily works:
Step one: head over to GetStride.com.
Step two: take our health quiz and tell us about your goals and current lifestyle. We offer a nutrition DNA test for those looking to enhance personalisation further.
Step three: we'll build your personalised supplement formula with everything you need in one simple, single, liquid daily sachet. Just mix your Stride Daily in water, a smoothie, or drink it straight—whatever works for you.
No more buying tons of different pills from various brands in different dosages, trying to figure out which ones work for you and wondering if they’ll even be effective. With StrideDaily, you never need to worry about this again.
Made in the UK: Proudly developed and manufactured right here in the United Kingdom.
Free Next-Day Delivery: Get your StrideDaily delivered to your doorstep without any delays.
30-Day Money-Back Guarantee: Try Stride Daily risk-free. If you're unsatisfied, we offer a full refund within 30 days.
Next up is Stride10x: Our StrideDNA test with Methylation Reports.
Our StrideDNA Methylation Test is a game-changer in health testing, designed to unveil the secrets of your DNA. Leveraging our extensive experience in DNA testing for wellness products, the Stride team has recently developed this Methylation report for the StrideDNA test. Methylation testing, popularised by Gary Brecka and Dana White, has hugely grown in popularity over the past year.
A significant 44% of the world’s population has a genetic mutation, such as the MTHFR gene, which can cause nutrient deficiencies and manifest as common symptoms like anxiety, depression, gut issues, weight gain, brain fog, and more. Uncovering your methylation capabilities, such as the Folate Cycle, is a pivotal step in your health journey. While we may not be able to change our genes, we can certainly enhance their function. It’s about time we all harnessed the power of our genes - something we at Stride have believed for many years now.
Our detailed methylation pathway analysis reveals vital insights, allowing you to tailor your lifestyle for optimal health. Pair it with our Nutrigenetic Reports for precise diet recommendations and support from our expert dieticians. Or go all in with our Optimal Health product, which includes comprehensive reports covering Methylation, Nutrition, Fitness, Sleep and Stress, and Skin Genetics.
Why Stride10x?
In-Depth Analysis: Analysing 9,000 genetic locations and 110 research-backed genes (Gary Brecka’s test in the USA looks at only 5 genes!). The methylation report covers all 5 methylation cycles (e.g. Folate Cycle) and key genes (e.g. MTHFR, MTR, COMT).
Fast Turnaround: All DNA samples are analysed at our in-house UK lab, and the turnaround time is industry-leading: 10 business days.
Expert Human Support: Includes consultations with health experts, including dieticians and exercise physiologists.
So, discover your unique DNA, simplify your nutrition, and build your personalised supplement today at GetStride.com.
What Our Customers Say
"Absolutely love using Stride every day in my morning smoothie. Takes away any thinking needed as to which supplements I need which is great. Also, slightly honey taste which is lovely :)"— Rob C.
"I've just finished my third week of taking Stride, and I love how easily it's become part of my morning routine. I even took a weekly box on holiday with me as the packs are super compact! I've swapped my daily Beroca and various vitamin pills/tablets for my one Stride sachet."— Hilly T.
"It’s been 26 days since I started taking Stride Daily, and I am very pleased with the results I have seen so far. I started with the health quiz on the Stride website which I found to be very useful. By answering some basic questions, my initial program was tailored to my needs."
— Brandon W.
See all reviews
Get started today by building your personalised StrideDaily formula. Save 25% off your first order! Visit getstride.com.