We have arrived at the end of week 2 of Entrepreneur First BE9, and what a great start of the journey it was! Looking back on these two weeks there are three aspects that reminded me of my time as a competitive rower.

When you are waiting to swim into the start blocks for a rowing race you do not want to arrive with cold muscles. The umpire calls out your team’s name and the lane you have to line up in. In that moment you need to be ready for racing with full focus. Usually teams start their warm-up rituals one hour before the starting time, first some physical activity on land will be completed before taking the boat on the water and starting to row.With the same mentality I started my entrepreneurial journey. I have not only talked to 22 cohort members already before kick-off weekend (KOWE), but during KOWE, which happened 2 weeks before the actual programme start, also very quickly teamed up with Amine, a brilliant co-founder I have enjoyed working with ever since the first time we sat down together to ideate. Even though we knew that the programme starts on April 4th, we started to warm-up directly after KOWE. We got to know each other better, we did research on the areas we thought we want to work on and we sorted all private stuff like living arrangements etc. in time. In short: we made sure we are set up for starting the programme in our best possible shape. When April 4th arrived we were both pumped to kick this journey off together with 100% commitment and energy.

The first strokes of a race are crucial. It is very unlikely to win a rowing race, that usually runs over a distance of 2000m, already in the first strokes. But if you lose a lot of ground at the beginning it is extremely hard to catch up. More importantly the team has to get into the swing from the very beginning to set a rhythm and pace for the hard minutes to come afterwards. In The *Boys in the Boat *the rowing expert and boat builder George Pocock is quoted explaining swing

“Therein lies the secret of successful crews: Their swing makes the work of propelling the shell a delight.”

Swing is only achieved when the team members work together in perfection. Teams that have swing overachieve beyond the sum of the individual’s efforts.

I dare to say that Amine and I have achieved this swing very quickly. How we work together and the way we amplify each other is a real delight. We have set a nice rhythm and working together feels really good (we are waiting with excitement for our first really hard setback 😉).

Back in 2014, the year I went on to compete at the U23 world championships in the lightweight men’s pair, we started the preparation for the season with very intense training sessions, focusing a lot on boat acceleration. We practiced one start after the other with one main goal: accelerating the boat at each stroke. When we reached the top speed we tried to keep it up as long as possible and repeated the whole exercise as soon as we slowed down a little. At world championship level every crew is firing out of the start block as fast as possible.

At Entrepreneur First we were told a lot about successful teams having urgency for progress. The quicker we learn the faster we can iterate over our belief and idea the sooner we will reach the next stage of our startup journey. Amine and I are pushing each other. We want to accelerate every single day and we know this is going to set us up for the next stage in the best possible way.

Of course starting a company is not similar to a usual rowing race. While a rowing race ends after 2000meters or 6-7 minutes, building a company is a marathon. Having successfully completed a rowing marathon for Shanghai Rowing Club in China in 2018, I also experienced some long distance racing in the boat. And in essence, rowing a marathon is not much different to rowing the olympic distance. The team tries to kick off as fast as possible, find a good swing and then fight to keep it up. The only real difference is there are a lot more phases of pain the team has to endure.

We are ready for the rollercoaster of building a scaling and lasting company, knowing that tough times are waiting for us. We are now moving towards the next stage of the race, stroke by stroke, with a joint big vision and dedication to win.

Stay tuned for more.