Why the blog …? Why Nine Yards and Some?

Happy new year and welcome to my blog 

To the short answer.   I’m signed up to to Janathon a new competition that challenges people to run and blog every day in January. And it’s sponsored by ‘us’ – AudioFuel – and Talk to Talk.  Nice prizes - a Garmin Forerunner 405 (worth £200) and £100 vouchers awarded to the best performers, and you don’t have to run - walking, cycling, rowing, jumping puddles, building snowmen all count – as long you do it every day and blog about it.

To the longer answers ..  AudioFuel and the NineYardsandSome.  I’m working my way towards achieving a lifelong ambition which is to help create a business with an innovative  proposition and a respected brand.  Nine yards and some .. because that’s what it’s taking ... and it resonates with the first focus for AudioFuel which is running.  A quick recap:  I started my first business fresh out of university, sold it for a dime two years later; set out on a decade of interesting and enjoyable learning with consultants SRU; then went client side to spend a fantastic half dozen years taking the ‘screw it let’s do it’ approach to setting up businesses for the Virgin Group; in parallel I set myself the challenge of creating a fund raising initiative for Macmillan Cancer Support in 2006 (partly driven by philanthropy, partly as a test for my entrepreneurial skills), and with the help of a brilliant committee, raised over £200,000 in 2007.

In 2008, my friend and now co-founder Sean told me about an idea he’s had around creating music with a beat to match the running stride … and the brilliant name that our other co founder, Howie, had come up for it … and AudioFuel was born. 

It’s now a small, often challenging but exciting 2 year old with lots of potential.  At the heart of the proposition is the music. You wouldn’t go out and run wearing a pair of sandals would you?  If you wanted to perform at your best and enjoy the experience you’d be wearing a pair of trainers specifically designed for the activity.   I believe that music designed for specific sporting activity, will soon become standard, with AudioFuel as the market leading provider.

We currently focus on walking, jogging and running and by combining coaching with the custom composed music, we provide our customers with ready made programmes (playlists).  They can be used by people across all age groups and fitness levels: whether they are looking to make the taking of gentle exercise easier, more enjoyable and more effective; or training to run in a half or full marathon distance.

In the coming year, we intend to start applying this concept across an increasing number of exercise and sporting activities.

Enough of the theory … and onto the exercise; my 11 year old on her new bike and I, listening to AudioFuel on my shiny new iPhone,  will be moving at post indulgence speed around Battersea Park in between chasing after our dog Monty, later today. 

Ps.  My current blog background is a small tribute to my hugely talented colleague Sean who designed this brilliant stand for the London Running Show.