Each month we sit down with women across our community to talk innovation, impact, and what fuels their drive to shift the dial in their industries. This time, we caught up with Heather Lawton to hear what's keeping her focused right now!
Tell us about what you are working on?
GymAware has been developed over the last 25 years. Based in Canberra, Australia, our hardware emerged from a desire to bring laboratory-grade measurement into practical coaching environments.
GymAware gained traction in the early-to-mid 2010s as velocity-based training started becoming more mainstream in elite strength and conditioning. Today our products are used by 220+ Pro Teams | 190+ Colleges & High School | 55+ Sports Institutes around the world.
Why is innovation important to you?
Product innovation is our purpose; we make hardware that gives coaches and athletes a competitive edge. An edge can only exist if the tools are ahead of what's possible elsewhere.
The tech and S&C (Strength and conditioning)landscapes are constantly evolving; new research is always being published, which intern cause training methodologies shift. If our products dont change, we stop being useful.
As a 25yr old company, innovation isn't just about releasing new products, it's about continuously asking whether coaches are solving a problem; is the data more actionable, and could our platform be more intuitive than it was yesterday.
What drives you to make a difference?
The coaches using GymAware are trying to help athletes achieve a better performance. Every improvement we make, whether it's in sensor connectivity, software usability, or how we surface insights to a coach, has a direct downstream effect on real athletes in real training environments.
That connection between our work and performance outcomes is what gives us the drive to make our work better.
What are your goals for 2026 and beyond?
Company goals are to grow new customers and additional staff in the US. We plan to roll out an update to our sensors given some new technologies available. Have fun, find the joy and surf more ;)
Do you have any advice for getting more women into innovation and entrepreneurship?
Informal networks are where a lot of opportunity is. It is introductions and warm referrals that create those initial pathways to access broader networks. Be choosey and deliberate.
Fact check people and information. Never take someone's word for it. Don't be lazy because you are busy. Take the time, make the call, ask around.
Take rejection as data and not personally.
What are you proud of right now?
What I am proud of right now is the GymAware team. Their commitment and trust has been something else of late. It has been genuinely a challenging time and like true high performance athletes they have continued to move forward as a gold standard team.
