Running a startup can be all-consuming, and founders and CEOs often prioritize work over healthy eating, exercise, and even sleep.
Over time, that takes a toll. Byron Deeter, now a partner at Bessemer Venture Partners, recalls visiting the dentist after the successful sale of a company he had founded, where he learned that a steady diet of energy bars hadn’t been the best for his dental health. Despite never having issues with tooth decay in the past, he found himself with 13 cavities.
“I think it was a physical representation of the deeper physical and mental treatment that I gave my body during that time,” Deeter says. “I’d sleep four to six hours a night, seven days a week, and just grind, and so at the end, my body was a wreck.”
To try to help the current generation of startup leaders avoid such fates, Bessemer is working with coaching company Exos to launch STRIVE, a wellness program specifically designed for entrepreneurs, founders, and CEOs. The acronym stands for Sleep, Training, Regimen, Intake, Vision, and Emotional Health, and the program offers participants a mix of one-on-one coaching, online resources, and community forums to help them stay healthy. Though the company was piloted with heads of Bessemer portfolio companies, it will now be available to outside corporate leaders as well.
Deeter, who was himself recently training for an Ironman event, compares the program to the coaching and other resources professional athletes have long received, though he emphasizes it’s adapted to participants’ individual comfort levels and goals, whether they’re longtime athletes or new to thinking deeply about fitness.
“Having seen professional athletes, the support they have, and what they do to be their best and to perform at their peak every day, we realize and firmly believe a lot of those principles should be applied to a corporate executive as well,” he says. “And that to be a top-performing leader in an organization, you have to be mindful of the overall package and taking care of yourself.”
Bessemer even brought in Arik Armstead, defensive end for the Jacksonville Jaguars, as an operating advisor. He participated in a kickoff event for the program and has since stayed in touch with the first round of participants through a motivational group text. Armstead says his participation came from a conversation he had with Deeter a few years back about how professional athletes and CEOs often face similar pressures.
“I thought it would be cool if we could share different techniques and different things and learn from each other how to perform at the highest levels,” he says.
And while STRIVE can’t eliminate the stresses and scheduling demands of leading a fast-growing company, Deeter says the program can help participants work to maximize the impact of the time they do have to devote to health. That could mean getting the best sleep they can in the time they have in bed or building an exercise regime that works around their schedules. One group of CEOs decided to hire a personal chef to prepare meals for them, which when they pool their resources is cheaper—and presumably much healthier—than ordering takeout without the time requirements of cooking for themselves. In general, they’re applying many of the same learning, collaboration, and decision-making skills that made them capable corporate leaders to understand and take charge of their own fitness.
“They are information sponges, and if given the facts and the statistics, it makes sense to them,” says Armstead.
In some cases, wellness decisions might even mean less time at the office, which can still be a good thing for the company if it means CEOs have better energy and less stress when they are working. For instance, leaders might decide to set aside their phones and keyboards for a minute to take a walk or otherwise relax before an important meeting or decision, which can lead to better health and potentially better outcomes for the business.
Leaders who’ve piloted the program have also embraced tools like the Oura Ring and Apple Health, which can help generate hard data on fitness and the effects of different techniques for improving it. Coaches then regularly review health data and goals with participants, discussing their aspirations and what they’re doing to achieve them.
“I’m data-oriented, and so I really care about getting a better understanding of what my sleep score is, and then improving that sleep score,” says Bijal Shah, CEO of the employee education startup Guild. “Those feedback loops are really helpful in making tweaks and adjustments to what time I go to bed.”
Shah also works with her STRIVE coach on mindfulness techniques, like using the Oura ring to monitor resting heart rate and stress levels, and using breathing techniques to decompress. And other participants focus on other aspects of their own health and how their health goals intersect with the ever-shifting demands of their businesses.
“Each one of them, from a work aspect, is on their own journey,” says Amanda Carlson-Phillips, chief performance innovation officer at Exos. “And then where we think about this program specifically is, how do we help those executives get their brain and their body into a place where they can really excel at what they need to be doing at work?”
And for most people, that means devoting some time and energy to personal wellness—not simply pouring every possible minute into the job.
“I believe this is a path to peak performance,” says Deeter, “You don’t need to brute force everything in life.”