“Over the past few years I had to re-learn to manage my time and energy more responsibly and it turned out to be relatively small things – like switching off all notifications from my phone, doing sports regularly, taking time off from work and family once in a while – that made a huge difference.”

Nico Jaspers Founder

Had I planned my life for a 30 year journey, things might have been quite different. We believe there is a better, smarter way of working – as the elite sports industry and individuals in far-ranging fields, like the performing arts or medicine, have already figured out. We are doing this because we believe that the best way to change the world is to start a company. And that for those companies to change the world, they need leaders who can last as long as their vision.

Suranga Chandratillake General Partner at Balderton Capital and a former co-founder and CEO of Nasdaq-listed blinkx

88%

of founders feel that VC investors can help create a culture where entrepreneurs can look after their wellbeing, directly impacting performance and increasing the likelihood of success.

I was in the burnout zone most of last year. Mixture of challenging markets and endless investor meetings with bad sleep, bad diet and low exercise. Putting more and more hours in as the solution… It was lose-lose-lose for everyone. It impacted strategic decision-making, team dynamics, morale and performance.

88%

agree excessive stress can result in bad decision making.

I find that when I’m under a lot of pressure, I am terrible at longer term thinking. Setting strategy and direction requires deep thinking, research and creativity. This is vastly reduced under high pressure – your mind is not free to explore when it’s crowded.

84%

feel there is an expectation that entrepreneurs must always work long hours in order to be successful.

There was a very noticeable impact on how well we tracked as a company. Spent too long working on the wrong things, we were not agile enough, etc. I was distracted and unable to focus and work effectively on the right things.

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