Matthew Januszek joined forces with the FitTech Summit, Holy Health, and Emma Barry for a special Escape Your Limits Podcast series exploring the role technology plays in transforming the fitness space — and his first guest is someone who has spent nearly two decades using technology to connect communities across remarkable distances.
Greg Zinone, founder of Pro vs GI Joe — now Joint Forces Initiative — and 514eSports, sits down to trace his journey from bringing competitive gaming to troops in the Middle East to building NFT platforms for professional athletes, and what all of it has to do with the future of fitness.
About Greg Zinone
Greg Zinone is the founder of Pro vs GI Joe, now rebranded as Joint Forces Initiative, which he co-founded in 2007 with his combat veteran wife Addie. The organization was the first of any kind to bring online gaming competitions to troops stationed in the Middle East, setting up events that pitted professional athletes and celebrities against military personnel around the world.
Building on the reputation and relationships that came from that work, Zinone founded 514eSports, an esports strategy and media company that helps professional athletes, sports teams, celebrities, and influencers find their footing and make their mark in the gaming world.
More recently, Zinone moved into the blockchain space with KLOUT, a platform built to house celebrity-driven and creator-made NFTs alongside in-game playable tokens — extending his work of using technology to create new kinds of competitive and commercial experiences.
What Greg Zinone and Matthew Januszek Talked About
- Greg Zinone explains the core purpose that ties his multiple businesses together — using technology to create meaningful, competitive connection across communities that would otherwise have no way to meet.
- He traces the evolution of esports from its early days to where it stands now as a commercially mature and culturally significant industry, and why he saw the opportunity long before most people took gaming seriously.
- Zinone walks through how Pro vs GI Joe became the first organization to bring online gaming to troops in the Middle East, and what that mission has meant for the veterans and service members who participated.
- The conversation covers his move into NFTs and blockchain with the KLOUT platform, explaining how celebrity-driven digital assets create a new kind of fan relationship that goes well beyond traditional merchandise or social media.
- He discusses how 514eSports helps professional athletes and teams navigate the gaming space strategically rather than opportunistically, treating esports as a serious commercial and cultural platform.
- Zinone reflects on what fitness and esports have in common — both are arenas where discipline, identity, and competition intersect — and why the FitTech Summit context is a natural home for this conversation.
- The episode positions Web 3.0 and blockchain not as separate phenomena from the fitness industry but as infrastructure that will eventually reshape how fitness communities are built, monetized, and experienced.
Why This Conversation Matters
Matthew Januszek has always believed that the fitness industry leads culture rather than follows it, and Greg Zinone's career is a case study in that principle — identifying what technology can do for community years before the mainstream catches up.
As Matthew builds Escape Fitness USA and co-hosts the LIFTS Podcast, the question of how technology — whether in equipment, content, or digital platforms — changes what fitness businesses can be remains one of the most generative questions in the space.
▶ Watch the full episode on YouTube
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About Matthew Januszek
Matthew Januszek is the co-founder of Escape Fitness, the functional-training equipment brand he built from a UK startup into a global name supplying many of the world’s leading gyms, studios, and hotel fitness spaces. Following the separation of the UK and US businesses, Matthew’s focus today is Escape Fitness USA and the next chapter of the brand in North America. He hosted more than 300 episodes of the Escape Your Limits podcast and now co-hosts the LIFTS Podcast with SweatWorks founder Mohammed Iqbal, covering the business, science, and technology shaping the fitness industry. Explore more interviews and episodes on MatthewJanuszek.com.
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