Then and now... Adam King

In the latest instalment of Bdaily’s Then and now series, Adam King, co-founder and product designer at London-based fitness app Veyr, discusses tailored exercise experiences, learning the hard way as a pot washer and the joy of controlling his own destiny.  

You’re co-founder at Veyr. What does your role entail?

My day-to-day role is head of business, which involves overseeing company strategy, product development, marketing, fundraising, data analysis and operations.

As a start-up in the fitness space, we’re operating in a crowded market, so providing genuine value at every step of a user’s fitness journey is a non-negotiable. 

We've built a fitness intelligence engine that understands your environment and eliminates one-size-fits-all training programmes.

The next stage, and my daily focus, is about connecting with users on a deeper level: understanding their goals, their schedules, how they're feeling and their wearables data, so we can deliver a truly tailored fitness experience.

Did you always want to work in the fitness sector? Or did you have other ambitions when you were growing up?

I wanted to be a fighter pilot. 

My parents worked for themselves, and I saw the challenges that presented, but I also saw the rewards: flexibility, a balance of risk and reward, not trading time for money and being in charge of your own destiny. 

Looking back, being a fighter pilot offers none of those things. 

I had a lucky escape.

What was your first job — and did you enjoy it?

No! 

I was a pot washer in a country pub at 13.

I’m sure the chefs used to burn things on the bottom of their pans just to watch my face. 

The worst was the gravy pan on a Sunday, simmering on the stove for the best part of five hours. 

That said, you learn things: communication skills; the social structure of a workplace; where you sit in the pecking order; doing a job properly, no matter how much you dislike it; and the reward of earning your own money.

I just couldn’t wait to turn 16, so I could progress to waiter and earn tips – but I wasn’t going to get that job unless I could prove my value at the pot wash.

Were there any mentors or individuals who helped shape your career? And are you still applying lessons you learned then to your workforce of today?

Everyone you meet in business is a mentor in some shape or form. 

The ones who taught me most were often those who put me through a negative experience first.

The ‘Yes Man’ – someone who wants to help but is too stretched with their own business to offer real guidance, so they just agree with everything. 

That sounds great, but it leaves you with no structure and 100 per cent accountability.

Then there’s the deep thinker, the one who seems to be in their own world during a meeting, then surfaces with a single line of advice that transforms everything.

Just because someone speaks quietly doesn’t mean they’re disengaged. They often provide the most considered insights.

What attracted you to the fitness sector?

Back in 2002, the image of a gym was Arnold Schwarzenegger, Muscle Beach and training to excess. 

So, when I walked into my first gym as a scrawny young adult, I fully expected to be put off.

What I actually found was groups of friends meeting after work to socialise, to encourage each other, have fun and be positive and healthy. That energy never left me.

I’ve always trained under the best coaches I could find. 

The best of all, across 25 years of training, is my co-founder Liam Hogan. 

The goal with our fitness app Veyr is to take his ethos, his technique, his encouragement and his sense of community, and bring it to a far wider audience, with artificial intelligence as the tool that lets us scale it.

How do you feel you’ve changed as a person over the years? Have career roles brought new dimensions to your personality?

I’ve always admired people who get paid for their passion.

I’ve been in unrewarding roles, but what struck me more was the ladder ahead of me: a sea of faces with more stress, less time for themselves and their families, less happiness, more responsibility, and all for a slightly bigger pay cheque and a new title. 

You’re still working to fulfil someone else’s dreams, while yours sit on the table untouched.

The moment I left that world, I felt liberated. Everything I did for myself from that point felt exciting, unwritten, nerve-racking, but genuinely rewarding. 

Whatever I do, I want to enjoy the journey, because that’s what shapes you. I may struggle. I may fail. I may succeed. But at every crossroads, I’ll have done it for myself.

You’ve seen many changes to the employment world across your career - how do you see the workplace evolving in years to come?

Rigid hours to flexible hours. Office working to decentralised teams. Exclusive corporate space to collaborative shared spaces. Monopolies dictating terms to start-ups disrupting everything. 

It’s been a constant shift, and it’s accelerating.

My parents instilled a strong work ethic in me, but I’ve had to push back against that to find balance. 

Work to live. Work has to be part of you, not become all of you.

Looking ahead, I think we’ll see a continued rise of the solopreneur, artificial intelligence-leveraged employment and an acceleration in the pace of human progress unlike anything we’ve seen.

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