There are uncanny parallels between the performance expectations of athletes and those of founders, so we got talking to performance expert Wayne Diesel to see what founders can borrow from the world of elite sport.
It’s common to hear founders say that the startup game is “a marathon, not a sprint”. Yet the daily pace and intensity of founderhood feels like a sprint most days: the sheer scale of the to-do list, combined with the context-switching the role demands; and that’s before we dive into how much of that pace and intensity is our own drive and impatience to make progress. It’s compelling and compounding in equal measure.
Yet sometimes that sprinting can catch up with us: I think we all know the signs—the fuzzy thinking, decision-fatigue, endless procrastination (rather than from focusing on the one-big-thing we should be doing). All signs we’ve been sprinting for too long, and forgetting the long-game.
In sport, there are common terms for when we physiologically or psychologically hit a wall. In rowing or cycling, you’ve “blown up” when there’s a sudden, drastic drop in output – usually caused by going over the anaerobic threshold for too long without the correct fuel. In tennis, it’s not uncommon to hear the term “choked” to explain the mental collapse in a high-pressure situation, where anxiety takes over and physical ability vanishes. I’d argue we need similar terms to become the norm in startup life too.
Not because they’re nice sporting situations to be in (neither are—I can attest to both—in fact, they can be heartbreaking in big competitions). But because they are known quantities we can train for and manage against. If we had similar terms in our startup world, we’d be able to do that too and our ecosystem would be thinking about founder capacity in the same holistic body and mind way that we do in sport.
As an athlete it is now intuitively understood that your mind is as vital as your body: our physical capabilities can never be fully utilised without the mental strength to match. As a founder, our minds are the performance engine, and our bodies are the vital enablers: the creativity and clarity that we depend on so much is a product of our mind-body chemistry. Yet we struggle to appreciate how vital this is to our own performance as business operators.
The parallels between founders and athletes
I appreciate that the sporting analogy doesn’t resonate for everyone, but humour me this once, because the extreme performance expectations are uncannily similar between athletes and founders. Both jobs demand we bring our A-game everyday: forever on show, forever the ‘face’ of the output, with high-pressured expectations from everyone (including ourselves). Add to this, highly uncertain environments that are constantly changing and unknown, and high levels of adaptability and resilience are the norm week-in week-out. All whilst projecting unshakable self-belief and navigating the doubts alone.
When viewed through this lens, it’s easier to see why tuning into the engines of our brilliance makes a whole lot of sense. So what if we started thinking like athletes and fuelling body and mind in a way that keeps your mind clear, maintains momentum and helps you bounce back stronger when you’ve taken a hit?
That’s what I got talking to Wayne Diesel about, who I met when we both spoke at Notion Capital’s Negative Split report launch event. The Negative Split report was born out of a passion of Itxaso del Palacio, Partner at Notion – who believes that a healthy mind and body are the foundation of clarity and lasting performance for a scaling VC backed founder. She brought Wayne in to meet the founders and shed light on performing under pressure.
Like athletes, founders are not ultimately judged on how they start, but on how they finish the race.
– Itxaso del Palacio, Partner at Notion Capital
Wayne Diesel’s three decades of performance coaching in elite sport
Wayne’s career spans three continents and an eclectic mix of sports that most coaches could only dream of, spanning the NBA, International rugby, football and even ballet. He was NBA Director of Player Care for the San Antonio Spurs, Sports Performance Director for the Miami Dolphins, led medical services for Tottenham Hotspur, and established a physiotherapy practice in the Sports Science Institute of South Africa. Currently, he is working as Performance Consultant for Red Bull. Here’s some ideas that came out of our discussions.
Pace performance for the long-haul
Recovery mindset defines high performers from the rest
Exercise and movement boosts cognitive output
In high-pressured roles be proactive with “deloading”
Pace performance for the long-haul
In elite marathons, it’s thought that the real race begins in the second half. That’s where fatigue sets in and only those who’ve paced themselves, and established dependable routines, can push through to the finish. Founders face a similar test. The early stages often feel exhilarating and the real strain comes later, when long hours, sleepless nights, investor pressures, and isolation compound. When starting out, it’s easy to dream of a speedy exit—but the vast majority of startup founders need to be in it for the long haul, so treat your performance engine like that.
Recovery mindset defines high performers from the rest
Athletes and entrepreneurs both struggle with taking recovery—often seeing it as a sign of fragility or weakness in some way. Yet, Wayne reframes it as a cornerstone to high-performance—both physically and mentally. Without strategic recovery, a spiral of declining output begins, with physical capabilities unable to repair and strengthen and cognitive clarity deteriorating. This is where downtime and sleep—particularly deep sleep— play a fundamental role in a founders’ life. It’s easy to trade sleep with “just getting one last thing done” but it becomes a downward spiral impacting performance the following day. Consistent high performance comes not from constant strain, but from intelligent alternation between stress and restoration, so reframe those negative perceptions about recovery and build it in as a priority. In particular, sleep routines came out as a top habit amongst the most high performing founders.
Exercise and movement boosts cognitive output
The brain and body have a complex and reciprocal relationship which you can use to your advantage: Regular physical activity (exercise, walking etc) actually strengthens connections in the brain and generates new neurons, and even a single bout of exercise can improve cognitive focus and emotion regulation for up to 2 hours, making a strong case for adding it to your daily routine. This can be seen in the founder data too – with the most resilient, high performing founders using exercise as their ‘first line of defence’ against the everyday pressures of founderhood.
Even a single bout of exercise can improve cognitive focus and emotion regulation for up to 2 hours
– Wayne Diesel
In high-pressured roles be proactive with “deloading”
In elite sport, “periodisation” is a standard practice that allows the strategic planning of training and recovery to maximise performance—especially for performance peaks like competitions or key games. It’s easy to think, “every day in startup life is intensely busy” but in truth we do have peaks – be it fundraising, pitches, product launches or projects – and the notion of periodisation can help manage the load. During the peaks, it helps to be even more intentional with sleeping, eating and exercise routines that fuel you to manage the daily load. Once the push is over, be proactive about planning “deloading” time to reflect, rest and reset. This could look like taking a few days off (Scheduled recovery), or blocking a week to catch up on life and work admin and restore for the next peak (Active recovery).
Under-fuelling is costing your cognitive clarity
Across both sport and business, Wayne sees high performers under-fueling, be it skipping meals, pushing for hours on empty, or running on caffeine and forgetting to hydrate. These are all common, and they’re compromising your performance in subtle but significant ways. By not having stable energy and hydration, the neurological consequences of under-fuelling—even in the short term—can leave you with “brain fog”, impacting your focus, as well as decision-making and problem-solving capacity. It messes with your mood too, with under-fuelling affecting serotonin and dopamine production, which impacts sleep and can leave you demotivated and apathetic. By contrast, regular, nutritious food and hydration helps keep your system stable and optimised.
Metrics that matter – your founder KPIs
Tracking metrics is intuitive in a startup—letting us spot potential problems before they escalate and intervene effectively. Your founder KPIs act in much the same way—letting you spot potential issues before they wipe you out completely. Wayne recommends tracking three key physiological metrics:
- Heart Rate Variability (HRV) – which offers insight into nervous system balance and stress levels.
- Resting Heart Rate (RHR) – which can reveal early signs of overload, illness or inadequate recovery.
- Movement – which could be steps, or exercise minutes depending on your movement of choice.
All these can be monitored with simple trackers like Garmin or WHOOP, and Wayne recommends looking at weekly averages—rather than daily fluctuations—complemented with a self check-in to reflect on stress, energy, mood and sleep quality. Everyone is different (we even sweat differently) so more than anything, tracking gives you a baseline of your norms, so that you can spot signs early and intervene, before it takes hold as illness or burnout.
Take the 3 minute FounderFuel Pulse and get a personalised snapshot of the founder fuel that underpins your day-to-day performance—benchmarked against what high-performing founders do differently to stay focused and perform under pressure. Get your free snapshot here.
No founder or athlete is an island
Despite being the ‘face’ of the endeavour, both athletes and founders need an army of support around them to go the distance. In the same way, athletes rely on support teams to sustain long careers, founders need a circle of trusted peers and advisors who understand the journey and can help spot blind spots, challenge you constructively, and keep you accountable. Support looks different for everyone, but in the Negative Split report founders expressed a preference for high trust, bespoke support – valuing strategic empathy, lived experience, and contextual intelligence over generic well-being interventions.
Alongside partners and family, the data suggests founders prioritise peer-level connections, shared experiences, and practical frameworks that address their unique challenges at different stages of their company’s growth.
Peer-powered problem solving – Join a FounderCircle group: There’s no playbook for startup life, so our FounderCircle group-coaching lets you tackle every startup challenge with the support and shared intelligence of others that get it. Find out more here.
Speaking to Wayne, it became apparent that some of the most important steps are very simple to execute and do not demand a lot of time. Simple protocols like good sleep, regular eating, and movement breaks throughout the day, can go a significant way to maintaining the performance engine that you are. Warding against “wellness hacks” Wayne stresses that there are no silver-bullets, and instead encourages practice and patience with small steps executed consistently.
If you start anywhere, make it the founder KPI tracking: when we’re head down in the business, it’s hard to intervene, but this data acts as an early-warning system to stop far greater disruption, like illness and burnout which can be destructive to your productivity and performance—taking much longer to rebuild back from. It’s much easier to refuel, than rebuild from empty and that’s what the founder KPIs help you do. So, what’s the one thing you’ll start tracking this week?
The Negative Split report by Notion Capital applies endurance sports principles to long-term founder performance, and uses data from Foundology’s Founder Resilience Research to dive into the performance habits of VC-backed founders. The report includes practical strategies and lived experiences from founders too, as a reflection of how every founder has different levels of resilience and unique ways of coping with the pressure of founderhood.
Other FounderFuel articles on a similar theme
The vital role of peer support networks for founder problem-solving and performance
Let’s give erst and recovery a reframe in your head
The performance power of knowing body and mind as a founder
Understanding the truth behind founder performance
The habits that fuel the most resilient high-performing founders
Download the Founder Resilience Research Report, with insights from nearly 400 entrepreneurs
