Our Story

A bigger calling 

Meet Maddie and Chris. Maddie was a dual D1 athlete (soccer and lacrosse at Long Island University) and spent six years after her college career working in the NCAA as a strength and conditioning coach and managing local gyms. Chris, also a D1 athlete, was drafted out of high school by the Philadelphia Phillies, played baseball at East Carolina University, and spent eleven years as a sales advisor and consultant after his college career in the enterprise technology space.  From the beginning of their relationship, they knew they had a bigger calling in life. After transforming their own lives after their college sports career, they shared a passion for health and wellness. Being close to burnout working their full-time jobs, in December of 2023, they started brainstorming how they could help others, more than their local communities, live longer and healthier at an affordable cost. 

The Vision 

In January, shortly after the New Year, Maddie and Chris left for a "getaway" trip to Belize that ultimately changed the trajectory of their life. They had both been working long hours throughout the year and needed to decompress and recharge. On that trip, they discussed the vision they had for their life together. Both were in similar situations in different industries. They both felt they had a more significant calling and had a passion for helping others get healthier. During that trip, they decided that they were going all in on following their passion. The VLT Athlete idea was born. 

The Early Days 

Over the next two months, Maddie and Chris got to work building out the foundation of VLT Athlete. They both were still working full-time jobs, so a lot of the original work for VLT Athlete was done in the morning, at night, and on weekends. Their rental property didn't have much office space then, so the dining room doubled as their makeshift office. On March 16th, VLT Athlete officially received their letter of confirmation from the state of Pennsylvania approving their LLC. 

VLT Athlete is Officially Launched 

After years of working with great mentors and coaches in fitness, athletics, and business, Maddie felt ready to forge her path and take the entrepreneurial leap. In April, Maddie left her six-year career in the fitness industry to launch VLT Athlete officially. At that time, Maddie worked primarily with clients 1:1, coaching clients in nutrition and building customized workout programs to match. Maddie and Chris continued to build the VLT Athlete infrastructure, app, and content in the background - although an unexpected vision and pivot was ahead. 

The Trip that changed it all

In May, Maddie and Chris left for a 10 day RV sprinter van trip through Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. This trip completely changed their perspective and vision for VLT Athlete. Life out west felt different—active, healthy, and centered around outdoor living. With free access to stunning parks and outdoor activities, the lifestyle clicked for them, and they even considered moving there. They asked themselves, “How can we bring this quality of life to the Northeast, where fitness often means costly, indoor options for most of the year?” That’s when the idea for the VLT Athlete community was born.

Pivoting

Once they got home, with a clearer vision, Maddie wrapped up her client contracts and shifted focus to building the back end of VLT Athlete. Maddie and Chris wanted to create more content to support VLT Athlete but didn’t have the space. One of Maddie’s closest friends, who owned a local gym, generously let them shoot content there, but they never felt comfortable taking over her space. 

They quickly realized they needed their own space to create the program and community they envisioned. Leasing a brick-and-mortar wasn’t an option, as it would increase overhead and force raised subscription prices—defeating their goal of removing financial barriers to health and wellness. They knew that whatever they invested in, they had to own it.

VLT Athlete Headquarters

Maddie and Chris realized the best way to bring affordable fitness resources to the local community was to create their own wellness oasis. An online, low-cost, subscription-based community came about with plans to host "community days" for active members. They wanted to offer members healthier activity options that didn’t involve spending money on dining out or bar hopping.

Their vision was to have a living space, build a gym to host workouts, saunas, cold plunges, and host friends, family, and community members. They wanted to create a "third place" for people outside of home and work. They even wanted a work-from-home space so remote workers could fit in a workout during the day. The search was on. To save money and buy more time, they moved into Chris's brother's house (shoutout, Matt!), which served as their living and office space, while searching for the perfect property to build VLT Athlete HQ.

VLT's 2nd Full Time Employee 

At that time, VLT Athlete started to take shape. People in the community and potential partners began to show interest while the back-end software, content, and app were being built. It was becoming too much to handle with Maddie being the only full-time employee. After much thought and conversations with family and mentors, Chris also decided to take the giant entrepreneurial leap of faith, leaving behind a successful 11-year career in technology consulting to fully commit and follow his passion.  

Offer Accepted!

After 2.5 months of searching, Maddie and Chris finally found a property that fit the vision! A quaint little farmhouse on 2 acres just outside Chesapeake City, Maryland, just south of the PA and west of the DE border. The kicker, the property had a recently built 1200 sq. ft. barn that would serve as the future home of VLT Athlete Headquarters. 

Relaunch and Gym Buildout 

Maddie and Chris moved into their new space at the end of August and relaunched VLT Athlete on September 1st, 2024. The relaunch featured a new app, website, nutritional content, and workout programs. In the background, they worked on building the VLT HQ gym. Through the good fortune of a few friends making a connection, they built out most of the gym using equipment from a gym that was shutting down. This was a game-changer, and the finances saved were used to add other features to the space, such as a sauna, cold plunge, pickleball, and half basketball court. 

We're Live!  

After months of hard work, sleepless nights, and envisioning, VLT Athlete HQ is officially live! With the help of some amazing local community members, friends, and family, the gym was built out and even broken in over the last month. The finishing touches are scheduled to be done over the next couple of weeks.  As we continue to add more features, resources, and content for our community members, the updates to the VLT Athlete app include At-Home, In-Gym, and Hyrbid Athlete tracks while also featuring specialized programs such as: Age 50+ programs, upper and lower body mass gainers, pull-up programs, couch to 5k, etc. as well as our growing list of nutritional content including recipe books, meal plans, grocery lists, etc. As VLT Athlete continues to grow, our mission remains the same, bring as many health, fitness, and wellness resources to our community members as possible.