Tonight: ORADA Leadership Conversation with Dr Sam Decombel, CEO Fitness Genes

Dear Leader, the ORADA Community is about (responsible) innovation and invention as well as celebrating leaders that leverage technology to make bold, pioneering moves. That’s why I am excited to invite you to the ORADA Leadership Conversation with Dr Sam Decombel tonight. Taking on a massive market using a scientific base and making progress is no small undertaking. That’s why I am excited to moderate tonights ORADA Leadership Conversation with Sam. Join us and let’s benefit from the spirit of a warm fireside chat where we engage, learn and develop key insights together. Read more about tonight’s leadership conversation and the benefits of joining the ORADA Responsible AI Innovation community below!

What does it take to dream (& work) yourself out of humble beginnings, achieve scientific success as a Gene scientist, then transition from the lab to the boardroom by registering patents and raising over £15 M in funding? 🤯🔬

Better yet—how do you rethink fundraising & crowdsource your next round, as an alternative to knocking on every investor door or when your users get it and the investors don’t? That requires a mindset shift…, so let’s talk about:

🧠🔄The Mindset Shift: from building in public to fundraising in public & daring to watch the outcomes real-time? 📈👀

🎯 The Path Less Taken: Sam + the Fitness Genes Team launched a crowdfunding investment campaign that’s at 68% of their target £10m round and climbing.

🔥Why This ORADA LC is Unmissable

It is a text book power of agency case. Dr. Decombel didn't leave her R&D findings (already an incredible feat) in scientific archives for others to decide if her breakthroughs would see the light of day, she took it upon herself to use them to help the world get healthier, building a business while at it.

It's a rare opportunity to get live insights on how a founder Becomes, builds a compelling & defensible value proposition & navigates public fundraising while scaling a patented B2C health-tech platform.

📖Asking yourself what we’ll cover? We’ll unpack the journey + the playbook:

🔄The Pivot: How to transition from a PhD in Genetics to a visionary CEO;
🏦The Capital: The specific strategies used to secure £15m+ in funding and government grants;
⚛️The Live Case Study: Navigating a live crowdfunding campaign + turning your customers into investors;
🌍Purpose: Pioneering a new market while championing gender equality in STEM; and
🌟Dreaming Big: Rising out of humble beginnings & working towards your vision aka, pulling yourself up by the bootstraps and, no, not the silicon valley version.

ORADA Leadership Conversation Event Details
📅 Tonight, Wednesday, 3 December 2025
⏰ 19:00 SAST | 18:00 CET | 17:00 GMT
🎟️ Ticket Price: ORADA Sustainability Contribution (Pay what you can or what it’s worth to you)
🔗Register: https://www.oradaconference.com/event-details/orada-leadership-conversation-demystifying-world-of-personal-health-leveraging-tech-for-customized-wellness-solutions

About Fitness Genes

🧬 Fitness Genes offers DNA testing + analysis to provide personalised insights & actionable recommendations for optimizing your exercise, nutrition, & lifestyle. Leveraging a patented data model, they use insights about how your unique genetics influence your response to different training & diet approaches, allowing you to eliminate guesswork in pursuit of your health & fitness goals.

About Sam Decombel

Dr. Decombel is a force of nature. Coming from a household where her parents worked tirelessly at a supermarket to raise her right😉—she became a University of Birmingham Alumna of the Year & a Red Woman of the Year shortlist honoree. Today, she cuts through the noise in health and fitness, providing an alternative, science-based pathway to better health. Her company, FitnessGenes, combines biological data with lifestyle actions to help people live longer!

FitnessGenes is endorsed by industry experts, including David Lloyd, Dr Rupy Aujla, David Stalker Justin Musgrove Jean-Baptiste, Cazier Andrew and Vallance-Owen

📜We welcome Dr Decombel to the ORADA Leadership Honours List that includes Dr Brandeis Marshall, PhD, EMBA Vukani Mngxati Carrie Yury Yolanda Cuba CA(SA), Jesmane Boggenpoel, Melissa Slaymaker, Lesiba Mothata, Kele Boakgomo!

The ORADA Leadership Conversation with Dr Samatha Decombel, Co-Founder & CEO of FitnessGenes will take place tonight, 3.12.2025.

We’re closing the year with a conversation about what it takes to go from humble beginnings to a gene scientist turned entrepreneur extraordinaire!

We’re setting up an ORADA Responsible AI Innovation Group on WhatsApp.

Before you say, "not another WhatsApp group" 😫... we get it! Check out the benefits and our governance plan below to see how we'll keep it valuable and spam-free.

Reply with a thumbs up 👍🏾 and the number we should use (including country code) on this email to affirm your addition to the group.

✨ Community Benefits ✨

📢 Be the first to be informed about ORADA leadership conversations, masterclasses, and other learning and networking events.

🎟️ Access exclusive offers and discounts for ORADA and partner events, including the ORADA 2026 Conference.

🗣️ Be part of shaping the content and topics that get covered during each ORADA season.

🚀 Be amongst the first to hear about speaker opportunities, publication feature opportunities, career/entrepreneurship opportunities and upskilling opportunities shared via ORADA.

💼 Be part of a new technology and responsible AI Innovation Community of Practice where community members share experiences leveraging new tech and AI, pose questions and benefit from community swarm intelligence.

🤝 Engage with and learn from other ORADA members.

🛡️ Governance

To ensure that the group is a valuable, spam-free, and respectful space for you, we’ll have a set of rules governing the invitation of members, posting, data privacy, and making contact with other group members.

🤔 Why this Group?

Aside from the benefits above, we want to provide you with valuable information, opportunities, and access to ORADA and partner events without that information being lost on "point-in-time, continuous stream" platforms like LinkedIn.

✅ GDPR Compliance

By providing your consent as outlined above you’re opting in to receive messages from the ORADA team and by extension Inno Yolo UG over WhatsApp. You are informed that Inno Yolo UG owns of the ORADA Conference, Learning and Events Brand.

Visit the ORADA Conference site to learn more about the ORADA Responsible AI Conference. Join the 2026 waiting list to be amongst the first to be notified when we release early bird tickets and run ticket promotions!

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