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        <title><![CDATA[Stories by Nathalie Rohlen on Medium]]></title>
        <description><![CDATA[Stories by Nathalie Rohlen on Medium]]></description>
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            <title>Stories by Nathalie Rohlen on Medium</title>
            <link>https://medium.com/@nathalie.rohlen?source=rss-4d7a0d75590f------2</link>
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            <title><![CDATA[How to stay confident as a startup founder —  when doing new things every day]]></title>
            <link>https://medium.com/zymego/how-to-stay-confident-as-a-startup-founder-when-doing-new-things-every-day-6d8c3b962aaa?source=rss-4d7a0d75590f------2</link>
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            <category><![CDATA[challenge]]></category>
            <category><![CDATA[startup]]></category>
            <category><![CDATA[woman-in-tech]]></category>
            <category><![CDATA[female-founders]]></category>
            <category><![CDATA[entrepreneurship]]></category>
            <dc:creator><![CDATA[Nathalie Rohlen]]></dc:creator>
            <pubDate>Wed, 13 Apr 2022 11:37:34 GMT</pubDate>
            <atom:updated>2022-04-13T11:37:34.206Z</atom:updated>
            <content:encoded><![CDATA[<h3>How to stay confident as a startup founder — when doing new things every day</h3><p>My life for the past 1.5 years has been full of new and exciting experiences. I am the founder and CEO of a healthtech startup, but I have never been a CEO, founded a startup or worked in health tech before. Therefore, I have had to learn a whole bunch of new things and I am still learning every day in all sorts of areas, and I am definitely in for an exciting journey as we expand. Fortunately for me, I love to learn and easily get bored by doing the same things every day.</p><figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/800/1*_Ps_ABWMpr_LORBcW6IraA.jpeg" /><figcaption>At Digital Helath Revired 2022 exibition in London 2022.</figcaption></figure><p>People that I, and one of our co-founders Ingmar Veinberg, talk to outside the startup community, usually get a bit perturbed when we tell them about all the projects that we manage in the company. We have been lucky to have some excellent advisors, such as <a href="https://sting.co/">Sting</a> and <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/aleksi-partanen-896885">Aleksi Partanen</a>, and to be part of great <a href="https://healthtechnordic.com/">communities</a> that offer guidance and insight to help us as we enter the healthcare industry. However, while we get valuable general advice on how to build a startup and how different parts of the industry work, it is up to us to figure out the many details. When it comes down to our specific company with a platform that is the first of its kind, we are the specialists, since we have now been immersed in this for more than 1.5 years. Thanks to we three founders being able to combine our knowledge and experience in business, tech and healthcare, we have managed to figure most things out along the way, and accelerate our way forward. We are working as a team in such a frictionless way and at such high speed that even other fellow startup founders (who are doubtlessly used to a high pace) get startled when we talk about our journey.</p><figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*haFfecyqdSaJVlRr3zbw_A.jpeg" /><figcaption>Trip to the UK with one of our founders Ingmar Veinberg, as a part of the Swedish health tech delegation.</figcaption></figure><p>Knowing that Ingmar and Simon have my back, I have thrown myself into meetings with the biggest <a href="https://www.largestcompanies.se/topplistor/sverige/de-storsta-foretagen-efter-omsattning/bransch/halso-och-sjukvard">healthcare</a> and <a href="https://www.svetf.se/2020/04/07/tandvardskedjorna-tagar-in-men-langsamt/">dental care</a> groups in Sweden, the Nordics and <a href="https://www.ramsayhealth.com/Our-Businesses/Ramsay-Sante">Europe</a>. We have met with big European hospitals and have been introduced to several high representatives and institutions in the <a href="https://www.nhs.uk/">NHS</a>, such as <a href="https://www.healthtechconnect.org.uk/">healthtech connect</a> and <a href="https://orchahealth.com/">Orcha</a>, that are now assisting us in entering the UK digital health market. The healthcare and dental care groups we meet with are all large organizations, used to doing deals with incumbent global healthcare companies, and we have nevertheless managed to make a good enough impression to get their ears.</p><p>In other words, our journey this far has really been a success story, but I need to remind you that I have not done any of this before. Hence, listening to our excellent advisors, doing research and paying attention during conversations with potential customers, partners and other stakeholders is key. But also to dare to throw myself into unknown territory and dare to fail, because if we do not dare to fail, it is impossible to succeed. Moreover, failing is a fast track way to learn and therefore to succeed.</p><h3>Handling self-doubt</h3><p>Although I have accomplished a lot for the 1.5 years we have run Zymego, I sometimes have doubts about my ability as a CEO. When I end up in such thought patterns, I lose both energy and willpower. I ask myself whether I have what it takes to be a CEO and lead this company as we expand rapidly, when I have no previous experience of leading a fast growing startup. How will I manage to lead our organization when we expand from 7 to 70 people? Will I deliver in all of these high-stakes meetings that can potentially boost our journey immensely? And will we be able to pull off all of our bold plans and stretch goals that we set up? Every now and then, questions like this occupy my mind. While accepting that I am on a challenging journey which makes it totally normal to sometimes doubt oneself, I also acknowledge that self-doubt is just a point of view, nothing more.</p><p>This summer while watching the Olympics, I was given an eye-opener when I listened to the Swedish-American pole vaulting superstar <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armand_Duplantis">Mondo Duplantis</a>, in an interview about his chances of winning the Olympic gold medal. He was asked about the enormous pressure on him to win, and just calmly answered that he had been jumping 6 metres time and again, and had been winning all the competitions before the Olympics. So why would he not be able to do that at the Olympics? The way he said it, so relaxed but yet confident, made me realize how that is such an obvious and empowering perspective. While others might fall into self-doubt and ask themselves how they will manage to fulfil their high expectations, he just flipped the question from “how will I be able to make it?” to “why would I not be able to make it given my track record?”.</p><p>Hearing that, I realized that this is the exact mindset I used to have in races and interval sessions as an elite runner.</p><h3>Casting off hesitation</h3><p>When in the middle of a race, I cannot hesitate. Every time I finish a lap I can see the lap time, and it will be clear whether or not I am keeping up with the planned pace. If things are going well, it does not make sense to start doubting whether I will manage to keep up with the pace for the rest of the race or not. The plan is clear, and my job is to execute and keep up the focus, so why not feel empowered while everything is going well anyway? If I am lagging behind the planned pace, self-doubt will definitely not help much, if the goal is to finish the race in the best way possible.</p><figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/800/1*YLsYCripx0zJL3VTh55sTw.jpeg" /><figcaption>Interval trainng in Potchefstroom (South Africa).</figcaption></figure><p>The same applies to training sessions when running intervals. After making sure I have a good plan, I need to focus on what I do in the present moment, and keep my focus on the task. If I do not do that, and instead start thinking about how tough the last intervals will be and how the lactate will spread through my body, I will most certainly fail.</p><p>It is super important to have a well thought out strategy and plan, then I can focus on the tasks I need to do right now, and avoid getting stuck in thoughts about tasks and potential problems that I need to solve tomorrow, next week or in the coming months. That can lead anyone to doubt their own capacity.</p><p>Naturally, many successful startups are founded by people who have never founded a startup before. If that was not the case, we would not have much of a startup scene, obviously. We are all beginners at some point, and while it is no doubt challenging and holds a lot of uncertainty, I have realized that being a first time startup founder also has its advantages. Since we who founded Zymego are all beginners, we are not stuck in a certain mindset and thus often think in new innovative ways, compared to people with previous experience who have been doing this for years. People sometimes get surprised by our way of doing things. More than once, someone has burst out “but is that really possible?!” or “how did you manage to do that?!”. The answer is usually that it was the obvious way forward, as we do not have any preconceptions on how to handle the challenges that come before us. We start with a blank sheet and choose the path that seems to be the most efficient.</p><figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*JBoSFuwCltJA5n_kdoS4Hg.jpeg" /><figcaption>Our awesome team enjoying the traditional Swedish “semla” (bun with whipped cream and almond paste).</figcaption></figure><p>If we want innovative solutions that make a real change, which is the whole purpose of startups, we need people who have the courage to take the leap and pave new ways. I took a great leap, and seeing what I have accomplished so far, I decided to start thinking like Mondo Duplantis. Why on earth would I fail at being a great CEO and leading this company to success, given my track record? Added to that, we have a team of awesome people who make up Zymego, so there is really no limit to what we can achieve!</p><img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=6d8c3b962aaa" width="1" height="1" alt=""><hr><p><a href="https://medium.com/zymego/how-to-stay-confident-as-a-startup-founder-when-doing-new-things-every-day-6d8c3b962aaa">How to stay confident as a startup founder —  when doing new things every day</a> was originally published in <a href="https://medium.com/zymego">Zymego</a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.</p>]]></content:encoded>
        </item>
        <item>
            <title><![CDATA[We need to talk about startup feminism!]]></title>
            <link>https://medium.com/zymego/we-need-to-talk-about-startup-feminism-3efc2b00ae0f?source=rss-4d7a0d75590f------2</link>
            <guid isPermaLink="false">https://medium.com/p/3efc2b00ae0f</guid>
            <category><![CDATA[healthcare]]></category>
            <category><![CDATA[feminism]]></category>
            <category><![CDATA[women]]></category>
            <category><![CDATA[life-lessons]]></category>
            <category><![CDATA[startup]]></category>
            <dc:creator><![CDATA[Nathalie Rohlen]]></dc:creator>
            <pubDate>Wed, 09 Feb 2022 18:52:56 GMT</pubDate>
            <atom:updated>2022-02-09T18:52:56.007Z</atom:updated>
            <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>When I founded Zymego about 1.5 years ago, together with Ingmar Veinberg and Simon Fridlund, I never reflected on me being a female CEO at a tech startup. It was just not something that struck me as being of that much importance. But when we started talking to people, both inside and outside of the startup community, it became apparent to me that being a female CEO was something that people acknowledged in ways that I absolutely did not expect. Within the startup community people were mostly cheering me on, but it still felt a little odd in some way. A few weeks ago, Ingmar wrote a story about some of the reactions we got in a <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6884483088416571392?updateEntityUrn=urn%3Ali%3Afs_feedUpdate%3A%28V2%2Curn%3Ali%3Aactivity%3A6884483088416571392%29">LinkedIn post</a>.</p><figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*0KKHRULDVV7TmjRvXTcwRg.jpeg" /><figcaption>That awesome feeling when taking an idea and making it real.</figcaption></figure><p>My attitude, that it is completely natural for women to take up high positions, might stem from my upbringing. I was brought up by a single mother, an absent father and four older sisters with strong personalities, who never let themselves be pushed back. I also had the privilege to be in a class in secondary school where the girls made themselves heard and took part in all kinds of discussions, while the boys sat quietly listening to our wild discussions and opinions. Because of that, I fortunately do not recognize the way many women describe their school years, with the girls being quiet and the boys wreaking havoc.</p><h3>Are VCs and the startup scene lagging behind?</h3><p>Of course I am very well aware of gender inequality and other inequalities in the labour market, as well as in society in general. Being a feminist from an early age, gender equality, and later also LGBTQ rights, diversity and inclusion, is something I am very passionate about. However, after being in the startup community for a while, my impression is that it is lagging behind in some ways regarding gender equality. In other parts of the labour market, gender equality seems to have moved on further, with the share of women in managerial positions in<a href="https://www.scb.se/hitta-statistik/statistik-efter-amne/arbetsmarknad/sysselsattning-forvarvsarbete-och-arbetstider/yrkesregistret-med-yrkesstatistik/pong/tabell-och-diagram/andel-kvinnor-och-man-i-chefspositioner/"> Sweden being 36%</a> in the private sector, though only <a href="https://chef.se/83-procent-av-sveriges-vdar-man-bara-17-procent-kvinnor/">17% of Swedish CEOs</a> are women.</p><p>Looking at the startup community, the share of VC capital going to <a href="https://hbr.org/2021/02/women-led-startups-received-just-2-3-of-vc-funding-in-2020">all-female-founded</a> companies is remarkably low at around 2%, and the share going to startups with <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/geristengel/2021/11/08/female-founders-can-get-their-fair-share-of-venture-capital-heres-how/?sh=d3825b17006c">at least one female founder</a> is only around 17%. A contributing factor to this issue might be found by taking a look at the VCs. The share of female partners is incredibly low, <a href="https://news.crunchbase.com/news/venture-capital-female-gender-diversity/">around 15% in North America</a> for instance, and 81% of funds in the CEE region have <a href="https://sifted.eu/articles/female-vc-partners-europe-list/">no female general partners</a>. Since being a founder of Zymego is my first encounter with the startup ecosystem, I was not aware of how very unequal this sector is, but this fact might explain the fascination for female founders.</p><p>Luckily the industry is changing, however slowly, but some VCs stand out as great examples, proving that rapid change can be achieved. Icebreaker VC recently revealed how they have <a href="https://medium.com/icebreakervc/icebreaker-vc-wrapping-up-2021-cf3c060e68ba">doubled the number</a> of female founders in their portfolio, increasing the proportion of female founded companies in their portfolio to 31.6%. Another example of progress is the increase in the number of VC deals for female-founded companies, as presented in a <a href="https://pitchbook.com/news/reports/2021-all-in-female-founders-in-the-us-vc-ecosystem">report by PitchBook</a> and illustrated in the graph below.</p><figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/800/1*-aFe9VoYUAC5Kd2Y2zSNKA.jpeg" /><figcaption>Going in the right direction.</figcaption></figure><p>Furthermore, the issue of gender inequality among investments is not only acknowledged in the startup and VC community, but by big daily newspapers like <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/education/2019/mar/25/we-need-more-female-entrepreneurs-universities-can-help-create-them">The Guardian</a> and the Swedish <a href="https://www.dn.se/">Dagens Nyheter</a>. Recently, Dagens Nyheter published <a href="https://www.dn.se/ekonomi/kvinnorna-osynliga-for-manliga-kapitalister/">an interview</a> with Sabina Wizander, the first female partner at <a href="https://www.creandum.com/">Creandum</a>, where she talked about the importance of bringing more women into venture capital. I believe news coverage like this, where minority groups are being represented (women are indeed considered as a minority group in the startup scene) is of great importance if we want to see change. Representation is one among many factors contributing to minority groups starting to believe in themselves, and strive for achievements that have previously been confined to other groups, men in this case. Another vital factor needed to tackle this issue, as I see it, is for investors and startup founders to acquire knowledge about this subject and hence get a deep understanding of the structures behind it, and methods to overcome it. No matter how obvious it might seem, the current situation suggests that it needs to be pointed out until we achieve fundamental change.</p><figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*2gqDhszermuM5j-petL3jA.jpeg" /><figcaption>Getting shit done!</figcaption></figure><h3>Let’s get rid of the lack of fit effect once and for all</h3><p>In recent years femtech has been trending, and we have seen an uprising of successful femtech startups. This is thanks to the ambitious women who have decided to solve some of all the health issues women face, caused by the neglect of women’s health issues for centuries. It is definitely needed, and I am truly impressed by the women who have had the courage to take on this challenge, when so few VCs understood the need for such solutions only a few years ago. Furthermore, the media loves to write about female founders in femtech, which is great, but sometimes I get the feeling that it is much easier for people and investors to acknowledge female entrepreneurs when they focus on femtech. As if solutions to female health issues would be their only expertise. Although I do not believe the journalists or other people highlighting femtech founders consciously think that is the case, it nevertheless leaves me wondering.</p><p>While doing some research on this topic, I found out that my observations about women being disproportionately acknowledged as femtech founders is part of a bigger problem in the venture capital market. In a <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abd7664">study</a> published in Science Advances in late 2020, the researchers investigated if female founding CEOs are disadvantaged when fundraising based on the industry served. In the abstract we can read the following:</p><p><em>“Female-led ventures catering to male-dominated industries receive significantly less funding at significantly lower valuations than female-led ventures catering to female-dominated industries. In contrast, male-led ventures attain similar funding and valuation outcomes regardless of the gender dominance of the industries to which they cater.”</em></p><p>This is called the “lack of fit” effect. In this context it means that investors perceive a lower degree of fit between female founding CEOs and their ventures, if the ventures operate in male-dominated industries. This effect, caused by investor bias, constitutes a substantial entry barrier for female entrepreneurs, a barrier that needs to be addressed and broken down by the VCs. Seeing as female-dominated industries represent a minority in the labour market and are less lucrative, it becomes an even more pressing issue to conquer.</p><p>For VCs who doubt the importance of getting rid of the investor bias, the study mentioned above also confirms what is nowadays well known — that <a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/diversity-and-inclusion/diversity-wins-how-inclusion-matters">gender diversity outperforms less diverse companies</a> on profitability. It shows that not only do female-led ventures report significantly higher profits than male-led ventures in male-dominated industries, but they also outperform male-led ventures in industries requiring venture capital.</p><p>Another phenomenon that has been acknowledged in Swedish media lately, is femwashing among startups. In this context it refers to companies being promoted as female-led and founded, while the female partners only have a few percent of the equity and the actual founders are men. From what I have seen so far in Sweden, e-commerce companies with products targeting women engage in this in particular. Moreover, Sifted recently covered the issue of female co-founders owning significantly less of their companies than men, in an article about the so-called <a href="https://sifted.eu/articles/uk-startups-gender-equity-gap/">gender equity gap</a> in the UK’s most valuable startups.</p><p>Thus, barriers for women can be found at many stages of the startup journey, not only when it is time to fundraise, but they are apparently often established already when the company is founded. Ownership and fundraising is, from my point of view, the foundation for startups to thrive and become successful. It is the necessary fuel that enables ambitious people to drive innovation and accelerate the development of society. But, when it comes down to distributing resources, bias against women persists even as women take positions as founders, positions that are supposedly highly focused on the individuals. It undoubtedly seems like bias against women is triumphing over the fascination for eccentric individuals in this case.</p><figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*J9FfRfks8DaVxy7FCWw24g.jpeg" /><figcaption>Together with some of my awesome team members at <a href="https://swedental.se/english/">the Swedental exhibition</a>.</figcaption></figure><h3>Time to welcome more women into the tech industry</h3><p>Despite the numbers regarding gender equality looking gloomy, I am convinced that we will see change in the coming years, although it will probably take longer than we would like. Only 1.5 years into this startup adventure, I have already seen so many truly talented, outspoken and strong women within the startup community, in positions as founders, investors, advisors and executives. With all these awesome women spread out over the startup ecosystem, change will doubtlessly come.</p><p>As mentioned above, women have brought femtech to the front of many VC’s minds, but to accelerate change further, we need to see more female founders daring to take their place in the male-dominated part of the tech industry, such as deep tech, healthtech, medtech and fintech. A common argument as to why it is nearly impossible to bring about change in this matter, is the lack of women in these industries in general, and in high positions in particular. The share of women in sectors such as deep tech is of course substantially lower than in other industries, but if you look into the amount of talented women in these industries, it should be enough to improve the numbers in the startup community significantly.</p><p>If we work together to stop making decisions based on unconscious bias, both in startups and VCs (and naturally the rest of the labour market as well) I am convinced that it will be enough to improve the numbers considerably. To do this, we need to make it a top priority and a common goal, and make sure values to improve equality, diversity and inclusion are embedded in the startup ecosystem.</p><p>As addressed in <a href="https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20210326-the-complicated-battle-over-unconscious-bias-training">an article</a> by the BBC, it is not enough for companies or VCs to give their employees and partners a web based course on unconscious bias every once in a while. We need change from deep within the organizations, that brings structural change and becomes part of how we do business.</p><p>All of us in the startup community need to contribute, but also the rest of society. We need to keep encouraging girls and women to take part in the tech scene, something that startups like <a href="https://imagilabs.com/">ImagiLabs</a> and organizations like <a href="https://women-in-tech.org/">Women in Tech</a> and <a href="https://www.pinkprogramming.se/">Pink Programming</a> are already doing.</p><p>Sometimes I imagine how young girls would react if I asked them whether they could lead a big tech company when they grow up. I know that many girls would be confused even by the question, since it is so obvious to them that they have what it takes. Just the thought of this gets me inspired. I want to reinforce that belief so when they are grown up and come up with great ideas, they will be as likely to believe in themselves and get funding as men, not being hindered by old fashioned beliefs of where women fit or what they are capable of.</p><p>I have realized that the further I, as a CEO, take Zymego together with our great team, the more power we hold to significantly contribute to that vision coming true. If there is anything I want to be part of, it is to change the foundation of the startup community, in order for girls and women to reach their full potential.</p><img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=3efc2b00ae0f" width="1" height="1" alt=""><hr><p><a href="https://medium.com/zymego/we-need-to-talk-about-startup-feminism-3efc2b00ae0f">We need to talk about startup feminism!</a> was originally published in <a href="https://medium.com/zymego">Zymego</a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.</p>]]></content:encoded>
        </item>
        <item>
            <title><![CDATA[What it is like to be a challenge-aholic]]></title>
            <link>https://medium.com/zymego/what-it-is-like-to-be-a-challenge-aholic-850abe7d0e34?source=rss-4d7a0d75590f------2</link>
            <guid isPermaLink="false">https://medium.com/p/850abe7d0e34</guid>
            <category><![CDATA[running]]></category>
            <category><![CDATA[female-founders]]></category>
            <category><![CDATA[entrepreneurship]]></category>
            <category><![CDATA[startup]]></category>
            <category><![CDATA[life]]></category>
            <dc:creator><![CDATA[Nathalie Rohlen]]></dc:creator>
            <pubDate>Wed, 26 Jan 2022 16:51:32 GMT</pubDate>
            <atom:updated>2022-01-26T16:51:32.936Z</atom:updated>
            <content:encoded><![CDATA[<blockquote>I am addicted to challenges!</blockquote><p>When I decide to do something, I do it no matter what. If I sense a good challenge, I will be on it in a second, and when I decide to set goals, I set them sky high, otherwise I don’t get motivated.</p><p>When someone tries to lower a goal to make it more attainable and reasonable, I can see that it is sometimes rational, but I get bored and my motivation fades.</p><figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*GhF-T1cQarCes-bWY5wFjQ.jpeg" /><figcaption>On the starting line for the national cross country championships about 10 years ago.</figcaption></figure><p>My high determination to reach my goals started already at a young age. At 15, I decided to skip half of a London family trip to celebrate my mother’s 50th birthday, to be able to participate in a small local cross country race, in order to get the best possible preparation for the national cross country championships that spring.</p><p>At a family holiday in Greece the summer before, I spent my whole time there preparing for the national track and field championships by running mile after mile in the pressing Greek summer heat. I even did some of my runs at the water’s edge with salt water to my ankles, only to include jumps over small cliffs in the water to simulate a steeplechase race. I got my shoes soaked and skin chafed every other day, but it was worth it in the end when I came well prepared for the nationals and won two gold medals.</p><figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*wf2M_qEjzaYEqQmti-9xoA.jpeg" /></figure><p>Having this kind of determination, in combination with years of experience as an elite runner, makes it natural for me to optimize my whole life to achieve my goals. When I was running, one of the national team coaches often repeated the importance of being a “24-hour runner”.</p><p>Nowadays, I have transferred that thinking into the “24-hour startup founder”. This means that recovery in terms of sleep and nutrition is optimized to enable me to perform. Vacations are designed with the purpose of recovering, in order to be able to perform during the upcoming months. No pseudo-scientific ideas of waking up at 5 am to be more “productive”. If you know anything about how the brain works, you know those kinds of ideas are nonsense (if you don’t go to bed around 9 pm). Jeff Bezos is on point when he says that <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jeff-bezos-why-8-hours-sleep-important-when-making-important-decisions-2018-9?r=US&amp;IR=T">he needs at least 8 hours of sleep</a> to be able to make high quality decisions and interactions.</p><figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*JRQS-U9V1vcBH-CYlb7j0w.jpeg" /><figcaption>Sweating like never before in 30-degree heat and no air-conditioning, but determined to finish my training session.</figcaption></figure><p>Furthermore, activities in my spare time need to be planned in relation to my current workload and focus. I lock my phone in an unbreakable box with a timer in the evening, to be able to properly relax my mind before going to bed, and to make sure I’m not able to use the phone during the night. Grocery shopping, cooking and all kinds of errands are automated and outsourced as far as possible, which is thankfully made possible by all the fantastic <a href="https://beststartup.eu/101-top-e-commerce-startups-and-companies-in-sweden-2021/">Swedish startups</a> that make life easier for individuals. This enables me to perform at the level I need in order to make this company succeed.</p><p>However, when living like this, there is a thin line between optimizing productivity and exaggerating it to the verge of getting obsessed, which leads to the exact opposite outcome. Regardless of how much I would like to say that this determined and challenge seeking mindset only brings good things with it, you would know it to be a lie if you read my previous <a href="https://medium.com/zymego/from-elite-athlete-to-burnout-to-ceo-9b9419acad73">blog post</a>, where I tell the story of how my determination resulted in burnout and a whole bunch of injuries (among other more cheerful stories).</p><p>I am really grateful to have this inherent determination and goal striving mentality, but as with all extreme things, I need to be cautious to not exaggerate it. Even though it might be suboptimal for my recovery to meet with friends on a late evening, or to spend time with my sisters and their wild and energetic kids, it brings me joy and happiness, something I need to remind myself that is just as important as reaching my goals. The truth is of course that we need all parts of our lives to be balanced in order to succeed, but more importantly, to thrive and be happy.</p><figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/750/1*VsUc7NXMAlntyfGV3k3F8Q.jpeg" /><figcaption>Doing some kayaking along one of the many rivers in Latvia.</figcaption></figure><p>I have heard many stories about successful founders who worked incredibly hard for many years, only to discover that they were completely <a href="https://www.breakit.se/artikel/23486/jessica-schultz-om-entreprenorslivets-baksida-slet-ut-mig-totalt-och-hade-inget-privatliv">exhausted</a> and had no <a href="https://sverigesradio.se/avsnitt/1518770">relationships or anything else</a> left in life, except for their work. At that point, the risk of having to leave to take care of one’s personal life is unfortunately very high, and I do not think anyone plans for that kind of situation. Luckily, previous founders have shared their stories, which is invaluable for all of us who follow the startup path. This, and my other experiences from pushing myself too hard, has made me determined to keep a healthy work-life balance, by cultivating my relationships and interests, such as sports, training, and outdoor life. But also to let myself be sometimes and just do nothing during some weekends.</p><figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*b1j3HK7wzwucdja7HrMblA.jpeg" /><figcaption>My favourite spot for relaxation, in Stockholm’s inner archipelago.</figcaption></figure><p>While working hard and having a strong focus on our North Star goal — to help millions of patients get treatment in time — we at the Zymego team need to prioritize work-life balance and well-being as well, if we really want to reach the stars. We have a strong focus and work extremely hard when that is required, and give ourselves a break to relax and reflect when we need to.</p><p>Are you the kind of person who can’t resist a challenge, but who also knows how to take a break and enjoy your success? Then we would very much appreciate having you on <a href="http://linkedin.com/in/nathalie-rohl%C3%A9n-bb2590145">the team</a> as we embark on this incredible journey together.</p><img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=850abe7d0e34" width="1" height="1" alt=""><hr><p><a href="https://medium.com/zymego/what-it-is-like-to-be-a-challenge-aholic-850abe7d0e34">What it is like to be a challenge-aholic</a> was originally published in <a href="https://medium.com/zymego">Zymego</a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.</p>]]></content:encoded>
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            <title><![CDATA[From elite athlete, to burnout to CEO]]></title>
            <link>https://medium.com/zymego/from-elite-athlete-to-burnout-to-ceo-9b9419acad73?source=rss-4d7a0d75590f------2</link>
            <guid isPermaLink="false">https://medium.com/p/9b9419acad73</guid>
            <category><![CDATA[running]]></category>
            <category><![CDATA[burnout]]></category>
            <category><![CDATA[startup]]></category>
            <category><![CDATA[founders]]></category>
            <category><![CDATA[woman-in-tech]]></category>
            <dc:creator><![CDATA[Nathalie Rohlen]]></dc:creator>
            <pubDate>Wed, 15 Dec 2021 18:59:15 GMT</pubDate>
            <atom:updated>2021-12-15T18:59:15.039Z</atom:updated>
            <content:encoded><![CDATA[<figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/410/1*t9piJ5_8aW4rDUEgWZiG8A.jpeg" /><figcaption><em>Coming into the last lap in the 1500m, at the Swedish Championships in 2013</em>.</figcaption></figure><blockquote><em>When I walked around the stadium in Thessaloniki, Greece, in 2006 after running my first international championship in the 1500m, I could only feel despair and frustration.</em></blockquote><p>I had totally failed and was completely devastated. Arriving at the championships I was in incredibly good shape, but when the competition management decided to call off the heats about an hour before the start and go straight into the final the day after, it became too much for me to handle.</p><p>Performance anxiety had been a problem for me at times, but at this point it by far exceeded what I had experienced before. I had severe nausea, could barely eat or keep the food down, and my anxiety went through the roof. Although I pulled myself together just before the race and was in a perfect position as the final lap bell rang, my body was completely drained of energy. So I hit the wall of lactic acid and barely managed to get myself to the finish line.</p><p>However, my frustration after the race turned into something else, a feeling of determination, the feeling of wanting revenge. I had a big race a week later and was determined to show what I was capable of, so I started visualizing the race and set up a pace chart to achieve a new personal best. When I stood on the starting line in Gothenburg there was no trace of performance anxiety, only a feeling of harmony and self-confidence. I knew I would reach my goal.</p><p>When the starting pistol went off, there was only me racing against the clock. My competitors weren’t even close to running at my level, so I needed to do all the work myself. When I reached the finish line knocking 6 seconds off my personal best, everyone was in shock. I had managed to achieve a result that would have placed me on the podium a week earlier, and thus I got the revenge I wanted. However, the performance anxiety would make itself felt again.</p><figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/581/1*ZOyYG20ELXx6Aqucp36Ctw.jpeg" /><figcaption>Winning the Swedish Relay Championships in 2011.</figcaption></figure><h3>Not fitting into the box</h3><p>I have never really been able to fit into a box, and since I’ve realized that it’s pointless to try I just let myself roam free, and accept the fact that I might be perceived as a little odd sometimes. As a kid I was a self-confident tomboy who performed well in sports and upset the peace and quiet in the classroom, but I was also serious about my school work and enjoyed horse riding, choral singing and playing the piano. At break times I wanted to play sports with the boys, but because I was a girl they never let me join in, and sometimes rejected me even though I was far better than most of them. When I got those first experiences of what gender inequality can look like in daily life, my passion about feminism started to grow.</p><p>My elite sports career actually started by accident. On the island where I grew up in the inner archipelago of Stockholm, the world’s largest cross country race happens to take place every year. After finishing several races with good results, a track coach called me and so my athletic journey started. Through running I found an outlet for my competitive instinct and excess energy, but having fun with my teammates also made life easier when trying to cope with a difficult home situation.</p><p>I went to a track and field high school and performed well both in running and in school. I participated in international junior championships and won several medals at the Swedish Championships. However, I pushed myself too hard and was injured repeatedly as a consequence. Being injured was extremely frustrating, it often meant feeling pain with every step I took, apart from not being able to do what I loved.</p><figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*45APnaaIg6oFvyjvZN9kWw.jpeg" /><figcaption><em>This is me, 14 years old in London, feeling like I own the place after putting on my coolest clothes.</em></figcaption></figure><p>For someone outside the world of elite sports it may sound like madness to get injured time and time again, but it’s harder than one might think to keep the balance when the goals are set high. It took quite a while for me to learn. After graduating high school I went to Australia by myself to enjoy outstanding training conditions and some backpacking. Once there, I couldn’t resist the temptation to train harder than ever before, and even though I had a nice fitness peak for a couple of weeks, I fell into severe overtraining soon after, that took over two years to fully recover from.</p><p>Nevertheless I decided to go to the US for a scholarship at a <a href="https://smumustangs.com/sports/womens-track-and-field">college in Texas</a>, something that is quite common for talented athletes from Europe. For better or worse, I have some authority issues however, hence the controlled life as an athlete at an American college didn’t suit me very well. So I just had to live with the fact that I once again didn’t fit into the box, and thus went back home after a month to enjoy grown-up life in Sweden.</p><p>After a while I ended up studying at <a href="https://www.hhs.se/?gclid=Cj0KCQiAzMGNBhCyARIsANpUkzNNNqKvogrWEYVtQM_pFd5X7-SElT-A-ssi5UgfWQYo2ola-oMMowgaAicZEALw_wcB">Stockholm School of Economics</a> — the best business and economics <a href="https://www.hhs.se/en/about-us/news/sse/2020/sse-is-the-leading-business-school-in-the-nordics/">university in the Nordics</a>. Although it was challenging to pursue my studies and my running career simultaneously, with 10 training sessions a week and racing seasons twice a year, it was also a lot of fun. I still remember the kick of passing an exam that 30% of the students failed, and ending the day by running a tough interval session as preparation for the Swedish cross country championships, where I managed to achieve excellent results a week later.</p><figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*l-sWhdfCIjUPne8QNe043g.jpeg" /><figcaption><em>Graduation from Stockholm School of Economics in 2015.</em></figcaption></figure><h3>From burnout to lift-off</h3><p>It’s a tough balancing act not to break when you perform at a high level, and ambition has its price, something I came to learn the hard way. A sudden family crisis that was practically and emotionally strenuous threw me completely off balance. To give my running career a fair chance, I had started working part-time as a consultant within accounting and financial management, but life steered me in a different direction. About two years of stress and insomnia while continuing to run at an elite level had taken its toll. I felt incredibly frustrated and refused to accept the fact that I needed to cut the training volume in order to recover. In the end, things just got too much, so I hit the wall hard. It was an incredibly difficult time in my life that I never want to experience again.</p><p>To avoid complicating matters further, I made the slightly unconventional choice to continue working part time instead of going on sick leave, and I’m really glad that I did because it worked well for me. However, finding myself in that situation was not what I had imagined when I graduated from a top university. The rest of my fellow students worked at prestigious firms all over the world, and there I was with burnout working part time in accounting. In retrospect, my experience of accounting proved to be of great value since I gained a very good insight into both the financial management and daily operations of various types of small companies, from one-man firms to listed start-ups.</p><p>The burnout took its time to recover from, and I had to abandon my plans to continue with elite running, but I was happy to be able to work out a couple of times a week after a year or so. As soon as I had begun to recover slightly, I started to long for a new challenge. The medical experts wanted me to stay at my job and slowly increase to full time work, then maybe make a change. That wasn’t my cup of tea though, I wanted to take the next step in life and it felt right to take on a new challenge, even though it wasn’t the usual path to recovery. Yet again, my inability to fit into one of all these boxes came into the spotlight.</p><p>I have always been inspired by people who strive towards making society a better place, and I wanted to be one of them. As an athlete I was used to working hard, setting high goals and taking calculated risks, and I knew those traits would come in handy going forward. From my time at university I had nurtured a dream of running my own company at some point in life, so in the middle of recovering from burnout, I set about to start a new adventure. While spending a few summer holidays in Latvia, I realized that many of their food products would be a perfect fit for Swedish consumers, so I started my own food import company.</p><p>After browsing the Latvian food market, I decided to start by importing healthy cereal for children, something that was completely lacking in the Swedish market. I had no experience in the industry beforehand, but I needed to start somewhere, so I learned everything and started selling to grocery stores and municipalities. However, after about a year I realized that I would need a large amount of money (that I didn’t have) to be able to scale and compete in a market dominated by a few companies. I assessed the risk of taking out a business loan to be too high, which led to the decision of closing the business. It was of course an incredibly hard decision after all the work that had gone into it, but even so, sometimes it is just as important to know when to stop as when to go ahead and be persistent. I wrote down all the lessons I had learned during that journey and decided not to repeat the mistakes.</p><p>Without really noticing it, I had recovered from the burnout in the middle of my adventure into the food industry, despite having encountered more uncertainty, more risk and infinitely more work than I had experienced before.</p><h3>Changing the world</h3><p>Zymego did not come about by chance. Although the idea actually started at my boyfriend’s workplace, it took off in our usual meeting room, i.e. the kitchen where we have brainstormed many ideas over the years. As a medical doctor, he had noticed that many of his appointments were cancelled at short notice, and that it was impossible for the staff to fill all the empty time slots while being busy providing care, so the time slots were wasted. After one of our regular kitchen meetings I did some research on the issue, and found out that up to <a href="https://www.thelocal.de/20190307/german-doctors-debate-added-fees-to-no-show-appointments/"><strong>20%</strong></a> of all healthcare appointments are wasted due to late cancellations and no-shows. To build the picture, <a href="https://www.hcinnovationgroup.com/clinical-it/article/13008175/missed-appointments-cost-the-us-healthcare-system-150b-each-year"><strong>750 million appointments</strong></a> in the US, and <strong>23 million</strong> <a href="https://www.england.nhs.uk/2019/01/missed-gp-appointments-costing-nhs-millions/">GP </a>and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/jan/02/patients-missing-their-appointments-cost-the-nhs-1bn-last-year">hospital</a> appointments in the UK, are <strong>wasted annually</strong> due late cancellations and no-shows.</p><figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*f3LoK6dBriQelr1XdqghXw.png" /></figure><p>Before we decided to take on the challenge to tackle this issue, we tried by all means to identify every possible weakness of the idea, big enough to kill off the project, but we didn’t find anything, so we decided to start working on it.</p><p>Some solutions in healthcare are focused on satisfying the patient’s needs at the expense of the healthcare staff, while others, on the other hand, are focused on the needs of the healthcare staff at the expense of patients’ needs. We wanted to create a win-win solution, a solution that reduces the administrative workload for staff, while increasing patient access and shortening waiting times. After putting in a lot of thought and talking to hundreds of healthcare professionals, patients and experts, <a href="https://zymego.com/">Zymego</a> was born in May 2020.</p><p>Fast forward to today, our solution has started to attract immense interest and we want to double up on our team size. We are inviting everyone, ex-elite athletes or not, who want to help millions of patients and healthcare workers, to come and join us on our mission to unlock the potential of healthcare.</p><p><em>If this is you or you know someone who would be interested in joining us, please send us an </em><a href="/service/mailto:hello@zymego.com"><strong><em>email</em></strong></a><em> or drop me a line on </em><a href="http://www.linkedin.com/in/nathalie-rohl%C3%A9n-bb2590145"><strong><em>LinkedIn</em></strong></a><em>.</em></p><img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=9b9419acad73" width="1" height="1" alt=""><hr><p><a href="https://medium.com/zymego/from-elite-athlete-to-burnout-to-ceo-9b9419acad73">From elite athlete, to burnout to CEO</a> was originally published in <a href="https://medium.com/zymego">Zymego</a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.</p>]]></content:encoded>
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