Starting a Pro Running Team From Scratch

Описание: Meridia is a professional running team based in Colorado.
Instead of being founded by a coach or a running brand, the team is founded and operated by the athletes themselves.

This episode is a deeper dive into the why and how with founder and Olympian, Colleen Quigley.

About Colleen:
Colleen graduated from Florida State University in 2015. While in the NCAA she earned All-American status 9x and won an NCAA Championship title in the 3k steeplechase.
After graduation she joined Nike's Bowerman Track Club and helped grow the team from 3 women in 2015 to 12 at it's peak in 2018-2020. During that time she ran for Team USA 5x, went to the Olympics and World Championships, won a US National Title in the indoor mile, and was part of the World Record 4x1500m team in 2020. During those years she also suffered from an uncountable number of injuries that started to eat away at her happiness and her ability to race on the track.
In 2021 Colleen left her team, coach, sponsor, and city of residence and started over.
Since then she has been an ambassador for lululemon, WHOOP, ROKA, Superfeet, Runna, AG1, Zico coconut water, and more. She dabbled in triathlon and has been on a long journey with her mental and physical health.
In 2024, Colleen decided to take on a big challenge: starting a professional running team.
This episode is the story of what happened next.

If you have more questions about the team, drop them in the comments and we will make sure we get back to you!

00:00 Introduction
00:56 Early years of Colleen's career
02:40 Market research for Meridia
03:54 Pitfalls of traditional track teams
04:06 What if your team doesn't have a coach?
04:34 What makes Meridia unique
05:33 What does "Meridia" mean?
06:08 Creating the Meridia brand
06:30 Meridia values
07:21 The financial structure of Meridia
08:08 What kind of brand partners we are looking for
08:44 Where we are telling our stories
10:02 Why we launched YouTube
10:36 Lessons learned in the first 6 months
11:05 Try, fail, and try again
11:27 Colleen's role on the team
12:38 How does an athlete join the team?
13:40 Thanks for watching! How to follow along with the team...