Sync
In my last post I spoke about the personal journey I've undergone over the past two years towards rediscovering my body and becoming increasingly passionate about all things health and longevity-related. But another, equally important, transition took place during the same period: after 10 years, I decided to leave the company I co-founded.
It was a very dense two-year period, getting from a very ambitious vision in making Beat one of the biggest technology companies in Europe in the next 10 years, to the moment I had to leave it - and it was painful. Of course, the pandemic of 2020 was both the enabler and the breaking point of this change. I'm not in a position to say much about the reasons behind my leaving but I found myself in a situation where I could not execute on my vision for Beat and that was the moment when I realized I had to leave.
By the end of August 2020, I had left the company and the amazing team I was working with. My first thought was that I needed to take a long break, at least for 6 months, to get some rest and figure out what my next steps would be- or so I thought. One month later I was already itching to get going; I wanted to build again. I had learned too many great things about what goes behind building a strong company in the last 10 years, that it felt wrong to let the knowledge go to waste.
I began looking for ideas and inspiration: what problem can I solve? (After all, that's what 'builders' do). What market needs are out there? I came across many exciting ideas in my search, most of them already addressed by other startups, but none that really sounded like "me". Nothing had the perfect 'product-founder fit' for me. The point wasn't simply to “have an idea”, the point was to solve a problem that genuinely represented who I am, something that would keep me up at night with ideas, something that would best fit my personality.
Sometime in mid-October last year, I was on a lunch with Chris Habachy, a Greek, New York-based venture capitalist, and friend. I was talking to him about all the ideas I was considering when he dropped the bomb: "You have to work on something around health. It suits your personality much better than anything else!"
I was shocked. "How could I have not seen this before? I'm an idiot!" I thought to myself. Improving my health through data, learning, and experimentation had been my passion for at least the last 2 years already. It became clear to me that I could easily help others do the same if only I could give them the right tools and knowledge. Here was an idea that felt "genuinely me". It was in front of me, but it took someone else pointing it out for me to realize it.
Getting down to work I soon realised that the most revolutionary tool I was using was the Freestyle Libre CGM. This glucose monitoring wearable device has until now primarily been used by diabetics. But lately, more and more 'healthy' people have begun to use it and appreciate its importance for everyone. In the weeks and months to come, I'll talk in more detail about the hundreds of benefits (both short and long-term) that someone can gain by monitoring their glucose levels. But having seen the benefits myself, I soon decided I needed to help other people do the same.
At that moment, Sync was born. So, what is Sync?
Sync is a biotracking company that helps people understand how their body reacts to their daily lifestyle habits, and helps them adapt these habits for maximum health and longevity. Our goal is to help people improve their metabolic health, which is one of the biggest health crises of our time, with millions of people suffering from type 2 Diabetes, obesity and many other health conditions.
There are two main reasons why people get diseases:
Our genes
Our lifestyle habits
Sync's mission is to use data and technology so people don't get diseases from their lifestyle habits.
I have started assembling an amazing team of builders and hopefully, this team will soon start growing fast (look out for announcements about job positions). We have a temporary website that is under re-design, but enough to just put the word out there about who we are and what we do. If you want to get on the waiting list to test our app and send you the CGM sensors, you can apply here. Unfortunately, Sync will only be available on iOS for the next few months.
In the next post I will talk about the big picture of what lead me to an idea like this, along with what the actual problem we are trying to solve is.
Your feedback is always welcome