Our founder, Lee Ackerley, had been working at a Fintech startup and his job involved a lot of travel. Most trips were to banking conferences, where ‘networking’ took the form of hanging out in the lobby bar with clients until 3AM, and then waking up to a full day of sitting, eating, and sitting indoors, and then doing it all again the next day, and the next day. These conferences were vital for business, yet many attendees were burnt out after a couple of days at the event.

Every conference centered around alcohol and bar culture for socialization while omitting any physical activity or any attempt at stress mitigation that wasn’t food or alcohol-related. After having multiple Groundhog Day experiences of boarding a plane back to Austin; exhausted, hungover, and fifteen pounds heavier – Lee kept thinking about It became apparent how outdated and uninspiring these events were and how vital exercise was to someone's overall well-being and sense of community.

During this time, Lee began a side hustle called City Running Tours Austin that showed tourists the city while running. City Running Tours offered a variety of 5k running tours that highlighted music, history, and other unique Austin points of interest. By the end of the run, perfect strangers were friends and people were happier and more energized.

After getting requests from corporate teams to organize fun guided running tours, Swift Fit Events was born! Companies in high-stress industries like finance, legal and medical also wanted yoga, cardio workouts, and meditation practices for their event attendees and Swift met those needs with our extensive network of Austin fitness and wellness experts. Companies in other industries weren’t far behind. It’s clear that improving the physical and mental health of employees isn’t just great for business, it’s great for humanity!