School & college failed to teach me health & fitness
Neither did my family
So I ignored it till my mid 30s
Then to fix my own health, I spent the last few years studying & experimenting nutrition & exercise physiology
Went from a 32yo overweight to 40yo endurance athlete.
🧵
This is Lisa Su. CEO of AMD
Interviewer : Excuse me do you speak English? You are a random person here.
Lisa Su: Yes, I do. I’m with AMD and we are sponsoring the Ferari car. 😂🔥
Most of us can't do what Simran just did. And yet she isn't trending or in the news. She is a blind runner and just won gold for India 🇮🇳 in 200m finishing in 25.95 secs at ParaAthletics World Championship.
Go out and try running 200m at that pace. You will feel your lungs in
This is Preetismita Bhoi from India. She is 16yo and just set a World record in Youth World Weightlifting Championships and won a gold for🇮🇳 . There is no news talking about her.
She doesn't have an Instagram profile or a wikipedia page. Search her name on Google and you will not
India plays cricket. And cricket makes money. Can that money be used to fuel other sports? BCCI earned 16,875 crore($2billion) last year. And it has 30 players under active contract.
These 30 players are collectively paid 88 crore as salary annually. Ofcourse they earn in
That's Mariyappan Thangavelu. Just few hours back he won India's 🇮🇳 first ever Gold Medal in High Jump at World Para Athletics. Media won't share stories of such incredible athletes. But should know more about him.
At the age of 5, he met with an accident where a drunk bus
In 3mins, Sifan Hassan from London Marathon will teach you the greatest lesson for life & entrepreneurship. Goosebumps guaranteed!
Sifan ran her debut marathon while training through Ramadan and fasting and was pitted against the best athletes in the world.
Day before the race
Great way to start the week. An Indian woman just set a world record few hours back. Sports in India has to be more than cricket and will only happen when we celebrate every sport.
Deepthi Jeevanji won gold in women’s T20 400m in para world champs. Go to
@IndiaSportsHub
for
Okay, about the recent post by Nithin and all the crazy theories being spread around – there are a few things people should know.
First, I work with Nithin closely. We have done workouts and races together. I know him a little more than others making opinions and commentary on
There is one health advice you will never hear from anyone. You can go to gym and build muscles, you can train to run and become a marathoner , you can get your 4ltr of water everyday, you can get your 7hrs of sleep , you can get all the superfoods and supplements.
But if you
117 athletes going to represent 🇮🇳 India in Olympics. 6 days to go. 70 men & 47 women. The youngest is 14yo and the eldest is 44yo.
These are very talented and determined humans who spent countless hours of their life for just one goal. To be an Olympian. To represent the
People know about Yashish Dahiya as the CEO of Policybazaar who went to IIT, IIM & built a billion dollar company.
I’m going to tell things most don’t know about him. Stuff that makes him a high performance athlete even at the age of 52.
We spent few hours together talking
Met a company that makes hangover cure pill. Two fresh college graduates. They sell just one product and does sales of 8Cr+ annually. Ten member team.
Zero money spent on performance marketing.
Their biggest referrals are bouncers, guards and parking wallet assistants at pubs
Was at the airport today and the immigration officer looked at my passports and asked if this is for real? I'd a hard time convincing it's not photoshop or AI generated. Sometimes being fit can also get you in trouble.
-> Being fit is not equal to being healthy. Most people believe being healthy and being fit are one and the same. It’s not. They are not synonymous and are distinct states of physical well-being.
-> Being fit means your ability to perform physical activities such as endurance,
Nithin Kamath & Rainmatter took bet on me three years back.
I'm now taking a bet on others with the same team.
@Nithin0dha
@Rainmatterin
Here's a backstory. A thread 🧵
32000 people have added "Career Break" and 53000 added "Sabbatical" as their current position on Linkedin.
Most common description is " Working on my health & fitness" How did we get here?
Unpopular opinion - Start doing your home chores and cook your own food. Use more public transport.
The next generation of your maid, cook and driver are not going to follow what their parents do for work.
They are learning AI & machine learning.
They want to be a YouTuber.
In this podcast, I’m talking to Seema Patil. A mother, cancer warrior and a Director at Zerodha. This is a special podcast.
We were planning to do this for a long while but never got enough confidence to do it. Finally we sat down and spoke about a lot of things that are mostly
The largest healthcare company in India is Apollo Hospitals that has a market cap of $10billion. The largest healthcare company in US is United Health group that has a market cap of $486billion.
There is an opportunity for 10-15 billion dollar healthcare companies to build in
Health, fitness and sports startups in India 🇮🇳 you should know off. 12th list in the series. These are companies we've met at
@Rainmatterin
These are entrepreneurs solving for problems across different spectrum of health, fitness, nutrition & sports. We may invest only in a
We invested in a flour making company. Here's why.
Roti/Chapati is a staple food for most regions in India after rice.
The avg consumption is 6kg of wheat/month/person.
15% of India currently buys packaged wheat flour spending approx $2 billion every year.
But most of the
You should never bet against a founder who is bootstrapping and making profits, lifts weights six times a week, ships features so fast that Usain Bolt looks slow, goes for trek every month, blogs about skin care routine , gifts books to strangers and never compromises on 7hrs of
India won the cricket world cup. That's great. But for us to be a sporting nation there is a lot more to be done. You may not know this, India has won only 35 Olympic medals in 122 years. China won 634 medals in 32 years.
India's sports budget last year was 3397 crore. China
15 months back, I finished a marathon in 2hr 55mins. That’s an avg 4min 10sec/km pace for 42km. Today running a 5k at that pace is crazy tough for me. I did few experiments in between. Here’s what happened and what I learnt.
That guy who overtook all the Americans on the field is an Indian boy, Pravej Khan. Spent his growing years in a village in Haryana training with limited resources and and now competing with olympians.
His story is a fine example of committing to chasing your passion with all
We often look at athletes or movie stars as fit and healthy. But often they are not. If you want to understand the science, read this
You may be a runner, go to gym regularly or get your ten thousand daily steps. Fitness doesn't guarantee health.
While
Why isn't anyone building a healthier chocolate brand in India?
India is 11th in world wide chocolate consumption. It’s a $2.3B market opportunity today expected to be $3.6B by 2030.
All you need to crack is low calories, find a way to make it sweet and not use sugar and fix
The gap between being healthy and looking fit is a modern-day confusion caused by social media.
Fitness is important and can be achieved through specific physical activities.
Health considers various dimensions of well-being and is achieved by sustainable long-term practices.
Health startups in India 🇮🇳
There are many entrepreneurs solving for problems across different spectrum of health, fitness and nutrition.
Not every story is shared.
Not every product gets visibility.
At
@Rainmatterin
Health, we meet many founders and startups. We may invest
We all live a hectic life and are exposed to stress and distractions all the time. It’s even more important for people who prioritize fitness to balance it with healthy living. Stress+ rest = growth.
Going to a gym or doing a run doesn’t get you a heart attack or stroke.
Doing a podcast with
@theliverdr
this weekend.
What would you like me to ask him?
Suggestions on questions and topics?
My idea is to explore what is right & wrong about health that we see and read daily.
And maybe establish some tools that everyone can use to create their
Since this is blowing up. I should also say, yesterday I did a podcast with Narain Karthikeyan, India’s first Formula 1 driver.
If you are a motorsport enthusiast, the podcast will be released here
Met a founder last week building a new age fitness studio who said, majority of women in India don’t go to a gym/fitness centre because they lack clean toilets and changing rooms.
Is that right?
I know a guy building the Eightsleep for India. Made for Indian conditions and he promises to make a product better than Eightsleep. I want you to give some feedback. He is reading this post.
Will you buy a better Eight Sleep for India?
How much will you pay? 50k+, 80k+, <1Lac
I’ve a huge respect for people who do not use any audio device in the gym or while running. Rarely I see someone not checking their phone between the sets.
Developing a muscle to sync your mind & body and not getting distracted is a superpower.
It’s the difference between
@chandrarsrikant
Chandra, how will wedding news be useful to the readers of a business daily?
Followed and cheered for the good reporting the team does. But this….
Because some people admire Hrithik Roshan.
So listen up!
Becoming unhealthy is not an event. It is a process.
Like loosing money, loosing your health is rarely caused by one thing going wrong. Usually, it is a series of ignorance and wrong doings.
Take control now.
Every start of a new training block
The first workout is hard
The first long run is hard
Adaptions takes time
Recovery is slow
And a constant internal debate is why the hell I’m doing this again.
Then slowly, fitness compounds.
Week after week.
Hard runs give a sense of
Mother of Two. An Ultramarathoner.
And perhaps the fastest CFO in India.
In this eighth episode of "The Other Side", I'm talking with Rashmi Mohanty who is currently the CFO of SBI cards. And an endurance athlete who runs 100km races to explore her mental & physical limits.
In
Met a mother & daughter this week. Entrepreneurs solving for Autism. Why? Because 1 in every 63 children in India has the risk of Autism. They were not the typical startup founders talking AI & tech.
Spent 1hr+ together and not once they spoke about market potential,
Employee wellness needn’t be complicated.
That’s Nithin
@Nithin0dha
, Vishnu
@vishnus
& me crossing the finish line at IronMan Goa last month.
We participated as a corporate relay team.
Working in a 9am-6pm work environment can be stressful. Be it corporates or startups.
I’ve launched a new podcast- The Other Side
In the first episode,
@Nithin0dha
talks about health, fitness, sleep, nutrition, managing stress,mental health, parenting & more.
You've never known this side of Nithin -guaranteed!
Podcast links
Youtube:
👇
I’ve now spent enough time in the venture and startup world to tell you that there are few metrics that no one tracks as priority. Everything is secondary. If you are a founder, trust me this matters the most.
-Your overall health is the moat of the business.
-Your mental health
We are half way through this year. If you started the year with a list of goals and haven't made an progress yet. I'll tell you the truth again. This will hurt you.
Apps won’t make you calm.
Courses won’t make you rich.
Trainers won’t make you ripped.
Workshops won’t make you
@GabbbarSingh
That’s not fair at all. Not to the athletes. Not to their families. Not to their supporters.
This way, every parent who spends money on their kids education is waste. If they don’t clear engineering or medical entrance.
We can either whine about missed opportunities. Or build
How humans seated for hours and barely moving can loose 6000 calories a day.
This will blow your mind.
It's called the grandmaster diet.
In 1984, world champion Anatoly Karpov lost 10kg at the end of the tournament.
In 2004, world champion Rustam Kasimdzhanov lost 8kg.
In 2018,
2:59:22 at
#BostonMarathon
A personal best in FM and HM ( need to race more of this. I know have better legs).
Finished third Indian 🇮🇳
Thank you
@bostonmarathon
for an amazing experience. The city & the people were amazing.
#Boston126
Met a 65yo aspiring entrepreneur this week. A grandmom to four kids who wants to solve a problem most in this current generation maybe facing. This is the first message she sent. And then I met her.
Her problem statement: In India every minute 51 babies are born. That means
Rainmatter Health
A cheerleader for Indians to be healthy.
What is it?
@Rainmatterin
Health is a giving forward initiative by the team at
@zerodhaonline
. It’s a health focused fund to support founders and invest in startups that are building products and solutions for Indians
Why is there so much misinformation around health? How can it be fixed?
This has been on top of my mind for a long time and the reason to have this podcast with Dr Abby Philips
@theliverdr
He is a specialist in Hepatology and Liver Transplant. He did his MBBs , MD & DM and is
To all founders raising money from investors. Don’t do this.
1) Don’t use dollar for your funding ask and use INR for valuation. Have a uniformity in your numbers.
2) Don’t send password protected decks and expect the investor to generate a password from another link. Don’t add
This is a scary data. Breast Cancer screening in India is 1.9% against 82% in USA, 70% in UK and 23% in China.
Most common cancers in order of occurrence in India are Breast, Cervix and Ovary in women.
Typically it costs inr 5-15k. It can be an affordability issue but not for
In India every minute 51 babies are born. That means 26,805,600 couples become parent every year. That's 26.8 million couples. Parenting is not a skill that is taught and is a stressful journey for the first 2-4 years. Especially for working couples with no support.
I think
The paradox of a common man. Most of us go through this. Few know what to do and they do it. Others don’t, but that is ok too.
1. The Paradox of Freedom: Do a startup to be your own boss and work whenever you want, which turns out to be all the time. Or, get a corporate job and
This is a masterclass on Heart Health. Everything you should know but you dint.
2hrs of learning and unlearning on what, why and how to stay healthy. This is for everyone. The young, elderly, regular with exercise or sedentary. Clarifying the most common misconceptions and
Running is so much more than just running.
Running is empowering
Running is meditation
Running is headspace
Running is tranquility
Running is happiness
Running is sadness
Running is solitude
Running is therapy
Running is escape
Running is energy
Running is peace
Running is
Boston Marathon weekend is here.
The world’s oldest and best known marathon. 30000+ runners from 100+ countries.
Remembering my run in 2022. Finished in 2:59:23. Third fastest Indian that year.
There is something special about Boston Marathon. Good luck to everyone running
Health, fitness and sports startups in India you should know 🇮🇳. This is the 11th list in the series.
There are entrepreneurs solving for problems across different spectrum of health, fitness, nutrition & sports.
At
@Rainmatterin
Health, we meet many founders and startups. We
Just a reminder. 950 new startups were launched last year. But 35,000 startups were shut down. If you want to build a company, you’ve just one very important decision to make.
No matter what else you do, you should figure out this first. You don't have to go to an accelerator,
I'm quite convinced the next generation of exciting businesses will be not be the typical VC fundable ones. But what most perceive as boring businesses. Think "The dry cleaners, agencies and auto dealerships of the internet". Simple, profitable businesses that do something the
Mother of two.
Leader of a large public listed company.
Trains and competes as an endurance athlete.
That’s Nirupa Shankar Joint MD at
@BrigadeGroup
I had a long conversation with Nirupa last week unpacking her other side.
How staying healthy & fit steered her personal
Running is so much more than just running.
Running is empowering
Running is meditation
Running is headspace
Running is tranquility
Running is happiness
Running is sadness
Running is solitude
Running is therapy
Running is escape
Running is energy
Running is peace
Running is
One of the top VC firms just did a meet up. Selfie pics being shared by partners and their marketing team. They wanted to understand healthcare founders. And served alcohol to make the evening look cool.
Cheers to health, with irony served.
Founders, listen to me. Choose your
Boston Consulting Groups says 67% of corporate employees want access to a wellness program as a key deciding factor when applying for a job. And 89% of employees want direct assurance that their company values their wellbeing.
Do you really expect this from your employer? Which
Winning matters.
But how you win matters the most.
One of my favourite moments in long distance running history.
Kenyan runner Abel Mutai was just a few feet away from the finish line, and got confused with the signage. He stopped thinking he had completed the race.
A Spanish
Behind every star athlete or a champion there is a supporting family. Parents who teach their kids that success is not about winning but how well they can recover when they fall.
This is Nagalakshmi. An unassuming mother of two young Indian chess prodigies Praggnanandhaa and
I think there two massive opportunities in health that is perfect to build now.
First -A McKinsey for personalised health for India.
Second- A Mixpanel for your health data.
More details ⬇ {thread)
Dear Running, thank you!
For the mornings you reminded me to get out and move when my mind wanted me to be lazy.
For the days you gave me the magic pill and pulled me out of stress. I just had to follow you.
For not judging me on my pace and the distance i covered but
If a doctor suggests strength training, a protein-rich diet & 7+hrs sleep.
Refer him immediately to all your family & friends.
Will be your most useful recommendation.
Last few meters of emotional sprints.
On the right is a father, runner & cheerleader who wants his son to overcome his mental & physical struggle.
On the left is a son, runner & an aspiring athlete who doesn't want to disappoint his father. Because the win is in crossing the
I’m often asked how large is the Indian sports and fitness market in India? I don’t have a perfect research on it. But if you want to build something here is how you should look at it.
Top 5 sports brands in India had a collective revenue of over 11,500 crores in FY 23.
People pay the doctors for their advice, but for their kindness they still remain in their debt.
They are healers with an enormous amount of unhealed pain.
This 3hr+ chat with
@theliverdr
is a must listen to explore the other side of this noble profession.
An app that makes gym less confusing.
Newbies in a gym are overwhelmed & intimidated with all the machines and equipments around. They don’t know what it is for and how should it be used.
Not all trainers are friendly. Some people don’t want to talk to trainers or ask
There is a big potential in creating a YouTube channel that teaches kids nutrition. Schools & colleges don’t teach it. Most parents can’t do that either.
Has to be fun & educational.
Will solve for 50% of health issues in the country if the young population learns basics of
35000 startups were shut down in 2023 in India.
And only 1000 odd startups could raise venture capital.
Starting up and raising money is not the milestone.
Building a business beyond the idea and growing it is the real work.
This is Paris Jasmin. One of my inspirations who proves you can do sports even with a full time job. She is a Ph.D. in cancer stem cell and works as a clinical lecturer on chronic liver diseases. She became the first women ever to complete the 100mile plus Barkley marathon. It's
Stop eating 3 hours before bed
Stop looking at screens 1 hour before bed
Train yourself to deal with stress with exercise instead of alcohol.
Be curious and read scientific literature.
Not clickbait articles.
It's never too late to take charge of your health.
Good luck!