Live Interview with Founder of GoodGym | Design for Good Series at Future London Academy

How to build and scale a business that brings together physical exercise and social good

80% of a product's environmental impact is decided at the design stage. So how as designers can we make more planet-centric decisions to ensure the products and services we build increase our positive influence?

To explore this topic, we invited Ivo Gormley, Founder of GoodGym – a platform that connects runners, walkers, cyclists, with physical tasks which benefit their community.

During this 90-minute interview he'll share how he built GoodGym into a movement that helps make the cities greener, less lonely, and better connected and grew it to over 25,000 members completing over 390,000 tasks and community projects across 60 cities

We will discuss:

How a single human insight became the blueprint for rapidly expanding business

Which design and leadership decisions took GoodGym from one runner in Hackney to 60 areas across UK

What it takes to lead an organisation whose core product is human connection

Why "doing good" can be a stronger product hook than utility

Ivo Gormley

Founder & CEO of GoodGym

Ivo is a 2020 winner of the Cambridge Social Innovation Prize and previously led projects increasing public participation for local authorities and NHS Trusts.

He has advised on user participation for technology startups in the UK and the US. He directed the film "Us Now", a documentary about participatory culture broadcast by Channel 4 in the UK and translated into 24 languages.

Ekaterina Solomeina

Co-Founder of Future London Academy

Ekaterina is a creative director, entrepreneur and TEDx speaker.

She worked as a Creative Director with a variety of agencies and in-house teams, including Microsoft, Nike and Samsung and creative legends like Donatella Versace and Michael Wolff (Co-Founder of Wolff Olins), collaborated with product leaders from Uber, Wise, Amazon, Arrival and more.