Nichol Bradford on Human Performance and Technology
Nichol Bradford argues that founder wellbeing is not a perk but essential to startup success. Founders face higher rates of depression and stress, and their internal state radiates to their team through emotional contagion. She outlines four practices: quality sleep, hydration, heart-rate variability training, and breathwork, supported by wearables like Oura and Whoop.
Chapters
Okay, so now we're going to switch things up a little bit. I'd like to bring Nicole up to the stage. I'll let Nicole introduce herself, but we've been talking a lot about tactics, really kind of the things that we need to do to grow revenue and get more customers and raise funding. And we wanted to bring Nicole on today because we want to switch things up a little bit and talk about really the human resource and the importance of making sure that that's top of your mind as you're building your business.
So thank you. Thank you so much for having me. Hi everyone. So when your team invited me to speak, One of the things that we were talking about was founder mental health. And as you know, and have probably experienced, founders rate higher in the likelihood of having depression. Founders are under a tremendous amount of stress. Founders this, that, this, blah, blah, blah. The reality is that the compromises that we take with our health, mental, social, and emotional, when we're building something. It's really hard to make the argument to not stay up, to not miss a night of sleep, to not do the things that we do when we cut into ourselves to build these things that we have so much passion for. Does anyone out here know what I'm talking about? Yeah! We all do it. But what I hope to do with this talk and this conversation that we're having is maybe to shift that a little bit from something that is a nice to do to something that's actually a part of your success. So why am I here? I am an investor, I'm a founder, and I'm a builder. So Neremia Collective is a pre-seed and seed stage fund. and we invest in wellness and wellbeing technology. I started that fund with my co-founder Naoko Okamoto at the beginning of the pandemic, after many, many years of having a similar founder community called Transformative Tech, solely dedicated to technology for mental, social, and emotional health. And so I did that after really deepening into this question. And as I look back on my life, this question has really been a part of every move that I made, but it took me a while to get into it. But I'm obsessed and so interested in how can technology support human potential. How can technology allow each of us to become our fullest? Expressed self. And that came to me after a meditation retreat. So my story is this: I was in video games for a very long time, and that included operating a game called World of Warcraft for China. And so at that time, it was one of the biggest branches of one of the biggest games in the world, and I operated that game for 6 years. And then spent some time in Hong Kong. And on my way back to the US, or on my way to Hong Kong, I went on a meditation retreat and I had a profound experience. I had this experience where my mind, my self-criticism, my constant anxiety my deep, deep loneliness went away, and I really truly felt the web of life. So on the other side of that, because I was a believer in technology, one of the things that I had seen in World of Warcraft is I had seen all of the player data on the backend. So I saw the relationships, the friendships, the families that played together, and so It seemed obvious to me that the key would be to use technology to make these kind of experiences available to more people. So my first big idea was, oh, combine meditation and technology. And then it expanded because I realized not everyone was going to meditate. And so that got me into mental health. And then I realized, well, mental health without emotional health doesn't happen. And then that got me into social health because there is no emotional health without social health. And really my thesis is a very integrated one. We are holistic creatures. There's not one part of you. And so with that, I want to tell you something that maybe you haven't heard before, and it's a little heartbreaking. There are some investors who want you to be broken, and they want you to be broken because that lack of self-worth or the fear of abandonment or the things that drive us to build. They want you to tap into that. And so there are— I have actually been in conversations around meditation and other things where people are like, well, they're driven, and if they're not driven, will they do what they need to do to build this? But it's a really outdated idea. And I'm glad. It's outdated and it's wrong, like as in morally wrong. And I'll tell you why, and I'm hoping that I'll convince you. The reason why is because in the age that we're moving into, especially in the age of AI where everything moves so fast, it used to be that the momentum and the progress in a company could absorb the behavior that stemmed from your, what I call MDIs, Mommy Daddy Issues. It used to be that that behavior could get absorbed. People would say, "Yes, but he can raise money." "Yes, but she knows product." And we can all think of founders that we've heard of, or who documentaries or movies have been made of, that when you watch that, you thought, oh, that person's broken, right? But now the speed is such— imagine a Formula One race, but instead of it being a loop, it's got curves and asteroids. I made this on Midjourney. And the curves and the turns are shorter and faster than they used to be, even 5 years ago. And in addition, what is also happening is that the companies will be smaller, which means that it's going to be harder and harder to get the right people to stay stick with you on your vision if you have unresolved mommy-daddy issues. If you are a walking problem, you won't be able to build the team and you won't be able to make the turns. And a mistake in the age of AI with this speed can be the last decision you make for your company. I put this up here. I love James Currier. He's one of the founders of NFX. And so that you're not just hearing it from me, the well-being tech woman, I'm just going to read it, so slow down. He says it really well. And I never really read slides, but I want to get this in your head. Particularly outstanding founders have an unusual drive coming from somewhere inside their personality. For some of them, that drive comes from feeling unworthy and thus needing to prove something. But the paradox of that personality is that these people also do things to self-sabotage. And all humans do this to some degree. But for founders in the age of AI, there isn't time for this. If you have this, you need to be aware of it and get past it, past it, and have your co-founders call you out on it. So it's not just me. And then to prove it a little bit further, I want to just give you a couple of cases. So, emotional contagion. What this is, is it's the proven— proven at this point— situation that your emotions infect the people around you. And so this particular case, in 2015, Facebook did an emotional contagion test. And what they did is they changed the feed of 638,000 people, and half of those people got a happy feed and half of those people got a sad feed. And then because they have the ability, they watched to see what the follow-on effect was. How wide was the blast radius? Meaning, if you post— if you saw happy and you— did you post happy? And it's about 3.2 times. and this is digitally, so this is just text. This isn't even as impactful as in-person is. There was a study that just came out 2 days ago with a thing called hyperscanning, which is where you can see 2 brains at once, where they show that brains on Zoom are different than brains when people are talking together. This is also one reason why remote teams should get together periodically. But this is, you know, the in-person impact is even stronger of emotional contagion. The second one is emotional broadcasting. And so what this is is that we are constantly broadcasting what is going on internally. So what that looks like is pupil dilation, heart rate variability. You might not know this, but The whites of your eyes change color with every heartbeat. It's not something you notice consciously, but one of the things that happens is that when human beings are in rapport, which is the third point, their heartbeats start to coalesce. So pupil dilation, respiration, microfacial expressions, even octaves. So basically, when we're together, we dance and we sing nonstop. And when people are in rapport, when teams are in rapport, they go into synchrony. And synchrony, many people think, is the precursor for group flow. Flow is a good thing; group flow is even better. And so this is happening. And so what this means is that you can't hide. All you can do is shift. So when you're coming from a place where you're coming from trust or where you're coming from fear, everybody knows it. Everyone knows it. Now they might— the degree to which they know it and can name it has everything to do with the way— the level to which they know themselves. But the point is, is you can't hide. Your body is always broadcasting, and you are always also picking things up. So all you can do is shift. This is one person. Now, this is heart rate variability, and so it's the same person, and your mind and your body are so connected So this is this one person thinking, you know, stressful thoughts, and this is the exact same person thinking, or intentionally thinking, calm and happy thoughts. Mind-body completely connected. This is a test that was done with someone, with a SWAT officer. So, you know, the reality is even though when we build it can feel like death. And by the way, let me— I want to say something like I'm a founder too. Everything I'm talking about has so been my life. I won't take you into my mommy-daddy issues, but the 10 years that I spent building transformative tech, I also spent discovering myself and healing. And so this is a very personal thing for me. This is definitely not a, you know, is not me saying you. This is me. This is we. And so in this case, this is a SWAT person. This is someone who is routinely facing real danger to their lives, their actual lives, not their ego death, but like real death. And they were trained to be able to use their breath to shorten their stress response in moments, in seconds. The reason why I'm showing this to you is because I'm going to show you how to do this. But, you know, so against the argument that we don't have time to take care of ourselves, this is a case of it. And it's because founders are athletes. You're an athlete. You are running a race. This is the Olympics. You know, this is the arena. You're in rarefied air. The people who choose to do this, the people who are willing to do this, you are some of the most extraordinary people on the planet because no one does this unless they have the heart of a warrior. Right? So you're an athlete. And so when you think about your mental, social, and emotional health, your physical health and fitness, it isn't just intellectual, it isn't just your ability to see the market opening and this and that. It's also really seeing your body as your foundation. And so I call it cognitive athleticism. And so there's a whole long list of things that you can do, but these are the basic 4. And if you do these 4 things for 4 weeks, your stress level and your life will change. Now, a lot of people, you probably have heard about, "Get more sleep, get more sleep." What you can do is you can just make sure the sleep that you get is quality sleep. Drinking destroys your sleep. It just does. The only way you can— the only way for drinking to not destroy your sleep is if you do it 6 hours before bed. So if you can only— if you know you're going into a tight period and you can only sleep for 6 or 7 hours, for like 6 hours, then just make sure it's quality sleep. Don't drink before bed. Avoid sugar late at night. Avoid caffeine late at night. So, you know, you are balancing it yourself. Another one that people really typically disregard is hydration. Hydration directly affects your cognition. There's more than enough studies that show it. I don't have the time to show all of this to you, but hydration and cognition are directly affected in addition to all of the ways that it affects your gut. And your ability to digest and the way that the gut biome is actually connected also to cognition and to your ability to emotionally self-regulate. Stress, having a quick thing to do that can break stress. I'm going to show you a couple of things and really learning how to train your heart rate variability. And I'm going to show you something really fast for that. So get some devices. I have an Oura Ring on. I have a Whoop on. These are my tools. And then I also have an Apollo Neuro. I wear it on the ankle. It makes me look like I'm on probation. But it's haptic and it sends a signal against your body that actually trains your heart. I'm in a situation right now, I shared with Adeo earlier, I'm a caregiver for an elder. She's starting to forget things, and it's heartbreaking. My stress level's through the roof. So I'm doing all of this nonstop because I'm also, you know, working in my fun and managing my community at the same time. And so HeartMath is heart rate variability training. This is technology, but everything can be done analog. And so for that, we're going to do two things very quickly just so that you know how to do this yourself. So I want everybody— close your eyes. Everyone close your eyes. And now I want you to imagine raising money stresses everybody out. Raising money in a brutal market. And you're at your computer, you're trying to find a lead, you're trying to find someone, you're trying to get an introduction. And imagine— allow for a moment all of the stress to actually come into your body. Just feel it, the tightness in your shoulders, the slight nausea in your stomach, the sweatiness in your hands, asking for money over and over and over again in a rough market. So you have that. And now what I want you to do is clear that out or drop that thought and then keep your eyes closed and you're going to just breathe with me. And we're going to count to 5, so you're going to inhale for 5 when I tell you to start, and then you're going to exhale for 5. And you're going to imagine the breath coming from your heart as if you were breathing with your heart. And we'll do it twice together and then you'll just find a rhythm. So breathe, inhale, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Exhale through your heart, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Inhale, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. And exhale, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. And now do it one more time on your own at a rhythm and a pace. One or two more times on your own at a rhythm and a pace that works for you, but it's in and out of your heart. Now open your eyes. Who feels better? Who felt the difference? Yes, you can do that at any time. You can do that before any conversation. You can do that in a moment. Actually, you can do it with your eyes open on the call when it's happening, when you don't know the answer, when the deal isn't going the way you want it to go. You can do that. And then there's one more thing that I'm going to show you. It's kind of weird and funny. Could someone hold this mic for me? It's a body thing. Thank you, Adeo. So, okay, so everybody stand up. Yeah, stand up. And so this is a brain hack. What it is is that your brain sort of manages, it all works together, but When you cross your arms over, it brings another level of attention to your brain. So what you're going to do is you're going to take your right hand and put it on your left earlobe, and your left hand and put it on your right earlobe. And then just rub your earlobes. And I know that sounds weird and feels weird, but it actually is also a stress hack. And it crosses your— it crosses over the midline, which changes your body. And then we're going to do one more bonus round. So what you're going to do is take your hand and move your hand as if it were independent. And then now get that to go into the elbow, and then get that to go into the shoulder, And then do with the other hand first, just the hand, and then the elbow, and then the shoulder, and then move it, and then get your ankle into it. I know. Move it. Thank you. So little things like that, you and your body are deeply, deeply connected. And so this is the last thing I want to say to you. Well, second-to-last thing. The old way of doing things is to be driven by your— is for us to be driven by our losses, our fears. But there is another way to do it, which is to be driven by love. How many people have children? And you know, like, how many people know what it looks like when your heart in the shape of that child walks out the door and you know you would do anything, anything for that child? And so what I would encourage you to do is, one, to take care of your bodies because it is the cognitive foundation for your brains. And two, whatever it is, only you know, but whatever it is, that thing, that nagging thing from your childhood or a heartbreak or a betrayal that you're still pulling around, and it's getting in between you and connection and getting in between you and being truly deeply connected to the people in your life, whether it's your family or your co-founders. Address it. It's slowing you down. And believe that everything that you're building, you can build it from love too. You can build it from love. And so for me, here's what I'm looking for. I— we do pre-seed and seed, and I'm interested in anything related to mental, social, and emotional health. I'm really interested in collective intelligence. I think right now the message around AI is that you are on your own. Yeah. And I don't think that's actually how we as humanity get there. And I'm really interested in insight. Right now we all have a lot of devices that throw up a lot of data, but it's actually the harder thing is like, how do you actually pull it all together? To understand how the food affects the sleep and the sleep affects the hydration, the hydration affects the biome, and all of that. So these are the sorts of things I'm looking for. That's my email. Connect with me on LinkedIn, um, and do it from love. Thank y'all.
