Why I Built VENU

I’m Deb, founder of VENU — a fitness travel service built for people who don't want travel to interrupt their training.

I'm based in Chicago, and I've spent years taking fitness seriously — not as a side hobby, but as part of how I live. That changed when I started working with a performance coach and began treating strength, conditioning, and nutrition as a real system.

Then I started traveling more frequently.

Suddenly, every trip meant figuring out whether I could train the way I wanted to. Would the hotel gym be usable? Was there a proper studio nearby? Could I keep my routine without turning travel into a compromise?

Most travel resources didn't answer those questions. So, I built VENU.

VENU puts training first. Instead of booking a hotel and hoping the gym works out, we start with your training — sourcing the right gym or studio for what you actually do — and build your stay around that. Then we layer in Protocol, our nutrition concierge, so your fueling is pre-ordered and waiting for you before you even land — no guessing, no last-minute scrambling, no half your suitcase taken up by supplements.

Because if training matters to you, travel should support it — whether you're the everyday athlete or training at an elite level.