A session at SaaSBOOMi Annual 23

1. Founder Wellness
18th March, Chennai, SaaSBoomi 2023

2. Some data: Mindfulness
•A wandering mind is an unhappy
mind - Killingworth & Gilbert

3. Some data:
Physical Fitness and Business Performance
•Marathon CEOs deliver better returns than non-Marathon CEOs
•15 year study from 2001 to 2015 S&P 1500 companies –
Performance of companies with CEOs who ran a marathon vs the
rest
•CEO Fitness and Firm Value: Peter Limbach and Florian
Sonnenburg

4. Top 8 things that is important for you to lead a satisfied and fulfilled life
as a founder
1. Professional (Your Startup)
1. Personal (time with family and friends)
1. Physical fitness and health
1. Mental and Spiritual health
1. ___________________
1. ___________________
1. ___________________
1. ____________________

5. Wheel of life
• Mark your list on the wheel
• Give yourself a score on all
the listed parameters
• Join the dots

6. How does your wheel look like?
RED YELLOW GREEN

7. Equanimity comes when there is a balance.
Balance comes when your LIFE is closer to being a WHEEL.

8. Some tips to create balance
Personal (Family & Friends)
- Weekend trips with family – atleast once a
month
- Weekend routine with kids [Cubbon, Airlines
and a movie]
- No email, WA, browser on your phone, only on
desktop
Professional
- Learn to have difficult conversations
- Say no when you need to
- Have a mentor or coach (unbiased or non-
judgemental person)
- Ask for help
- Plan your day, keep scheduled time for focused
work, email response, meetings etc.
Physical Fitness and Health
- At Least 4 – 5 hours per week of physical
fitness
- One day detox [Zoe]
- Trekking - one a week
- Enrolling for outdoor games or tournament
Mental and Spiritual Health
- At Least 30 mins per day of mindfulness/ sitting
in silence – self observation
- Taking 3 days a quarter or 10 days an year out
to retreat/ introspect and reset a bit
- Mute notifications on your phone
- Everyday have a forced end time to your work
day.

9. Call to Action
Speak to a
therapist or coach
Reach out to a
mentor
Help other
founders

10. Regain your balance…
Things I will START doing to regain
balance in my life
Things I will STOP doing, reprioritize or
delegate

11. God Syndrome - Entrepreneurs
•Our false belief of control - We control very little
•All we can do is work hard and do the right things and hope things
will work out – and be equanimous whether they work out or not
•Be grateful and kind

12. Team Wellness – Some tips
•There is nothing like Work-life balance in startups
•Your best employees generally maximize, and it rests on you to make sure
your best folks don’t burnout
•Preventing burnout – 10 days vipassana / retreat leaves every year
• High correlation between top performers and folks who have done a
vipassana
•Every 4 years – 1 month sabbatical – month focused on travel/ health