Saravanan Balakrishnan’s Post

Govind Shorewala is a prolific angel investor you have never heard of.  - Started on his own when he was 23 - Built a profitable commodities and mining business - Took some of the money and invested in 40 startups (including Amura Health) - Invested in multiple VC funds including Blume Ventures, Sixth Sense Ventures, etc. Today, he is all of 34. A year ago Govind started with us as a client. We got him out of his prediabetes. When launched a longevity program as a limited beta a few months ago, Govind got to know about it and wanted in. We invited him to #Chennai to spend a day with us for a complete health workup. Impressed by the team he met at our office, he called me from the airport on his way back to Mumbai and asked if we were doing a fundraiser. You know what they say…when someone offers money… 😃. Of the 40 startups he had invested in, Amura and Level SuperMind (by Harshil Karia and co) were the only two where he was an user first and then decided to become an investor. When Govind wrote in his newsletter that these were his most favorite investments, I asked him why. He said we are do something meaningful. I am touched. Last time when Govind was in Chennai, he took a day off to spend time at our office, going through Amura-the-business and giving us a zillion suggestions. We could make many improvements to what we are building. If that were not enough, he also gave us a bunch of contacts that are changing our trajectory as we speak. If you ever do a startup, this is the kind of angel you want on your cap-table: - He chases the founders down when he sees something special in the startup (I have heard such stories from the valley; but seeing it in India for the first time) - He sends in the check without wasting any of your time - He spends time and efforts to make you a success - He is well connected and does not mind sharing those connections with you - He is a founder himself - The way he is building his business is a source of inspiration for most young founders Govind, thank you for placing your trust in us my friend. #AmuraHealth #WeightLoss #Diabetes #Prediabetes #AngelInvesting

Proud founder moment: When laptops are on the dining table during the lunch time :-D Amura Health, Janani Sunile, Dr. Sibi Chakravarthy, Arun Deepak #TempleOfExcellence

Of late I have been thinking a lot about building global level excellence at Amura Health. So, I can't help looking at these two amazing people through the lens of excellence: - For Gopal Srinivasan, excellence is just a matter of duty, his dharma. - For Priya Rajan, excellence is an incidental byproduct of finding her life's calling, her source of joy. They make the world more beautiful by just being themselves. Didn't want the meet to end...ever!

One more DHEA post and we are moving on. I told you how DHEA (a hormone) is needed for recovering from stress. DHEA is also important for libido (more so in women as they make most of their testosterone (another hormone; important for sex drive in both men and women) from DHEA). This is why many people who handle stress poorly also have low sex drive. On the other hand, when people with optimal DHEA may end up using sex as a stress buster. Now you know.

Yesterday I told you about how optimal level of DHEA (a hormone) in your body helps you to handle stress well (particularly, stress recovery). The body odor you get is the DHEA being broken down by your skin bacteria. If you don't make enough DHEA or poor skin microbiome, and you won't have the body odor. Body odor is a mark of overall health (there are body odors associated with ill-health too). That is why younger people have lots of it. Before you call me a pervert, let me add this: I am anosmic (cannot smell). It could be because of a minor accident I had in the playground as a kid. Or it could be something more sinister (no dementia; just got an MRI done) like impending Parkinson's (getting a DaT Scan soon).

Yesterday I told you how you should see stress as a source of strength. Easier said than done, right? All you gotta do is to find he right guru who would teach you all the right tricks. There is an easier way: Make sure that your DHEA (a hormone) is optimised. When you are stressed out, your body produces two hormones: Cortisol and DHEA. If you make more cortisol, you will handle stress poorly. If you don't produce cortisol at all, even then you will handle stress poorly. But if you produce good amount of DHEA, then you will have fantastic stress recovery. Ask any gym rat. They will tell you that it is all about "load -> recover -> load -> recover...". Of course, I am over-simplifying things here. You need many more aspects of your health going right to handle the stress without getting stressed out. But watching your DHEA is a strating point.

Look at stress as the source of your strength. Don't look at it as the source of your weakness. If you draw strength from stress, you tend to grow to great heights and live a happy life. If you see stress as something bad, something that breaks you, you tend to get stressed out, fall sick, fail and run away from life. You won't think of becoming a body builder without carrying heavier and heavier weight, right? Why do you expect to become a Master of the Universe without continuously taking bigger and bigger challenges? What is bigger challenge? Well, ask your gym trainer: What is heavier weight? Answer: A weight that pushes you to the point of failure but stops just before you fail.

Question 3 on “stress hypothesis” =============== If stress gave you your hypertension, why do kids never get high blood pressure, even though many of them are bloody-stressed for several months during the school years? ===============

Stuff on stress you should be asking yourself Question 2 =============== Why would your doctor tell you that you got sick because of stress, but never tell me how stress is connected to my sickness? =============== PS: No, chronic stress hypothesis is not sufficient to explain it PPS: When the doctor gives one of the following five reasons for your poor health, usually they all mean the same thing: Genetic, familial, stress, imaginary, idiopathic.

Our understanding of stress is wrong and dysfunctional. It spawned multi-billion dollar industries (may be even multi-trillion dollar industries). And it had made our lives unpleant. Let me start with my own industry, healthcare: Here is a question that we all wanted to get an answer for, but didn’t know whom to ask: ============== Why would your doctor ask you to work less as stress is killing you, but then go on to work harder than most other people you know of, yet end up being one of the healthiest and long lived people you know of? ============== I am sure this question crossed your mind, didn’t it?