Chasing Extremes, Finding Balance: Joao Andrade on Stress, Strategy, and Starting Over

Today, we welcome Joao Andrade - a man whose extraordinary journey from biotech entrepreneur to heart‑tested ultrarunner offers powerful lessons in health, resilience, and leadership. 

In just five years Joao progressed from novice runner to conquering the legendary Badwater 135 - all while founding, scaling, and exiting a successful biotech business. 

He’s also the co‑founder of One Hundred’s global endurance‐race series, he pitched and was initially backed by Stephen Bartlett on Dragons’ Den, and faced a near‑fatal heart event mid‑race. 

This conversation digs deep: how Joao balances the demands of business and ultra‑endurance, uncovers the moment his body made him stop, and explores the mental shifts that fuel his rapid performance rise. 

You’ll hear how business strategies mirror ultra‑race tactics, why body‑listening is non‑negotiable, and what it takes to lead with grit, heart, and vision. If you’re striving for a healthier, higher‑performing life - this episode is your roadmap.

Highlights:

• Stress, Shock, Stop: A stress-driven arrhythmia, tachycardia, and blackout - his body’s non-negotiable wake-up call.
• Badwater, Empty Finish: Crossing the line with nothing inside; the moment he learned outcomes aren’t the goal - alignment is.
• IPO Grind to Ultra Mind: 120-hour weeks, a London float, and the realization that endurance can heal - but only if you change the load, not just add to it.
• From Stem Cells to Safety Nets: Pioneer of a stem-cell insurance model - innovation aimed at certainty on life’s worst days.
• Costa Rica’s Monster: 209 miles, two Everests of vert, night jungle - fear swapped for presence; joy found mid-suffer.
• Design the Pace: Sleep, fuel, delegation, and boundaries - because the body keeps the score, and balance is a strategy, not a slogan.
• Tap > Faint: Jiu-jitsu wisdom for life - know when to endure, and when to tap, reset, and return stronger.
• Harder Than 200 Miles: For Joao, entrepreneurship beats ultrarunning on difficulty - daily problems, infinite rounds, no finish arch.
• Dragons’ Den, Different Door: On-screen “yes,” off-screen no deal - then a better fit with Macca and a clearer path for The 100.

Links:

Connect with Joao on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joaoandradehq/

Connect with Joao on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joaoandradeultraceo/

The One Hundred Website: https://onehundredtrail.com/en/

This episode was sponsored by The Trusted Team and 4th Discipline

Episode Transcript

Joao Andrade (00:06):
Yeah, what I had was an arrhythmia developed by
stress, which led intotachycardia and eventually loss
of consciousness at that daybecause of peak stress.
So that is the biggest wake-upcall possible to see how we can
stress our body so much intonon-existence if we push it

(00:27):
beyond what we should do.

Charlie Reading (00:30):
Today we welcome Jao Andre, a man whose
extraordinary journey frombiotech entrepreneur to
heart-tested ultra-runner offerspowerful lessons in health
resilience and leadership.
In just five years, Jaoprogressed from a novice runner
to conquering the legendary BadWater 135.
All while founding, scaling,and exiting a successful biotech

(00:54):
business.
He's also the co-founder of the100 Global Endurance Race
Series, which he pitched and wasinitially backed by Stephen
Butler on Dragon's Dead.
And he's faced a near-fatalheart attack mid-race.
This conversation digs deep onhow Jell balances the demands of

(01:14):
business and ultra endurance,uncovers the moment his body
made him stop, and explores themental shifts that fuel his
rapid performance rise.
You'll hear how businessstrategies mirror ultra-race
tactics, why body listening is anon-negotiable, and what it
takes to lead with grit, heart,and vision.

(01:35):
If you're striving for ahealthier, higher performing
life, this episode is yourroadmap.
So let's dive into theconversation with Jiao Andre.
Do you know what?
When we look at the back end ofthis podcast, then we see
something really interesting.
We see that 57% of the peoplethat regularly listen to it

(01:56):
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So could I ask you a quickfavor before we dive into
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(02:17):
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So thank you so much for yoursupport and for being a part of

(02:37):
the business of endurancecommunity.
Let's dive in.
So, Jao, welcome to theBusiness of Endurance podcast.
Really looking forward tochatting to you about running
and about business today.
So I think we've got we've gotlots to cover.
And it's actually the businessplace that I want to start.
Normally I start with theendurance sport piece, but for
you, I want to start on businessbecause you founded, built, and

(03:00):
then sold a uh a successfulbusiness in the insurance space.
Um, and what I'd I what I'dlike to start by understanding
is what motivated you to stepinto the entrepreneurial world
and what were the earlychallenges you faced when you
did so?

Joao Andrade (03:14):
Well, have first of all, thank you very much for
having me, Claire and Charlie.
It's very good to be here totalk about the two things I like

the most (03:22):
endurance running and endurance entrepreneurship as
well.
So, answering your question, II guess I uh perhaps didn't deal
very well with kind of whichwas my initial jobs on the
corporate structure of having toface too many corporate
barriers to introduce innovationinto any of the areas that I

(03:42):
have previously worked.
And I guess one way I like todo things is to try and find
simple ways to do it, like theOccam's Razor, the simplest
solution possible, and go for itand try to bring things to
market as as soon as it'sfeasible.
And not a perfect product, butthe best product we can launch

(04:02):
and then improve it as it is inthe marketplace with feedback
and so on, which tends to beperhaps what everybody thinks
entrepreneurship should be.
But then in the real world,implementing that is very
different from a theory.
And I guess that's what led meto start my own company.
More debt than any particularbusiness opportunity.
I think it was something I hadinside of me already.

Charlie Reading (04:25):
Brilliant.
And tell tell us a bit aboutthat business.
You know, what led you to tofind that opportunity?
Tell us it, you know, whatproblem are you solving?

Joao Andrade (04:32):
So previously to my current work at 100, I used
to work in the biotech space.
And so I worked for three UKcompanies.
The last one is the one Ifounded.
I'll get to that in a minute.
But I used to work to two stemcell labs, one based out of the
University of Brunel and theother one in Nottingham.
And basically, I wasresponsible for marketing and

(04:55):
international developments,particularly in the last one.
And these were technologieswhere we would, when a baby is
born, the umbilical core bloodis harvested and the umbilical
core tissue.
The stem cells that arecontained in the umbilical core
blood are then isolated, andthey can be used in the future
to treat family members from thenuclear circle.

(05:16):
Normally, parents' siblings ortheir own the own baby.
And the technology was toprocess, isolate the cells, and
freeze them in a large freezerfor periods of up to 30 years.
And so basically, this wassomething that was starting to
be normalized in more advancedcountries, more people having
the opportunity to do that viaprivate companies, then some

(05:37):
public core blood banks startedto appear.
And at a point, there was anopportunity to start harvesting
stem cells and processing fromdental pulp, adipose tissue, and
also something which is verycommon, but most people don't
recognize it as being a stemcell transplant, which is a bone

(05:59):
marrow transplant.
Effectively, bone marrowcontains what is called
hemopoietic stem cells that canbe used to treat blood diseases
and disorders.
And so there was an opportunityto harvest stem cells from
grownups, not only from babies,via extracting wisdom teeth or
adipostation on liposuctionprocedure.
And so I saw an opportunity togo into that space, try and get

(06:21):
some licenses.
And at the time, if I was ableto establish a lab in the UK, I
would be under the Human TissueAuthority able to collect
samples from all around Europe,Middle East.
So I could cover a lot ofcountries with only one stem
cell facility.
And that's the first thing thatcame to mind when launching my

(06:41):
own company, and I had to raisemoney for it.

Charlie Reading (06:43):
And and just for those people that don't know
much about stem cell work, whatgive me give me a really like
high-level what sort of impactto people's health or what sort
of solutions does stem cell workhave the potential to solve?

Joao Andrade (06:59):
Well, what is most common is exactly as I was
saying is a bone marrowtransplant.
And this has been done sincethe 70s.
Actually, when they starteddoing it, they didn't know it
was the hemopoietic stem cellsthat were the enabler of
successful treatments.
Then in the late 70s, the novelwas his name, Professor Bob

(07:19):
Edwards, uh, which is secondright-hand man was Peter
Holland's, which ended up beingthe chief scientific officer of
my previous company.
They started doing and theyinvented the IVF procedures.
And it was exactly throughthat, from working with bone
marrow transplants and thenstarting to do work on IVF that
they discovered stem cells.
And so over the years up totoday, I think there's 82

(07:42):
diseases, if I'm not mistaken,82 blood diseases and disorders
that can be treated.
And mainly it's aggressivecancers.
And the difficulty is finding amatching donor.
That's why so many times we seecampaigns of people trying to
find a bone marrow donor, butit's very hard to find to have
histocompatibility.

(08:03):
And so the the service that weprovided in my previous company
would enable the family if theyhad stored their baby stem cells
from the umbilical core blood.
The baby had that resource forhimself, or if some close family
member needed, they didn't needto go and find a matching
donor, which most cases you'reunable to find.

(08:23):
So they had the resource frozenand they can retrieve it and
then ship it to whateverhospital medical center in the
world they wanted treatment andthen receive it.

Charlie Reading (08:33):
Brilliant.

Joao Andrade (08:47):
Well, I guess so the the pre this company I
started in 2012.
It grew quite substantially.
2016 we had the opportunitybecause we saw a lot of interest
from the the London financialmarket into perhaps going for an
IPO, which we ended uppursuing, and it was the hardest
thing I've ever done in mylife, for sure, by far, by a

(09:09):
long stretch.
And so we ended up doing an IPOin June 2016 on the main
market.
And after the IPO, which is alesson I learned by doing it,
and very honestly, I didn't havethis advice from anyone.
I had to learn it from myself.
Our product was at the point wewere getting the first signs in

(09:30):
the market that it was working,but we were not in a scale
position yet.
And doing the IPO would meanwe'll have to build a stem cell
lab from scratch and thencomplete the final stage of
developments of what became as adream product, which was to
build the first stem cellinsurance policy in the world.

(09:51):
Because as I was saying,families, imagine they have they
had their stem cells stored andthey paid 2,000 or 3,000 pounds
to process and freeze the stemcells.
At the point that the familymember needs to access
treatment, most stem celltreatments are spread all around
the world, not concentrated inone specific country.

(10:12):
So if you need to use the stemcells, you will probably have to
fly elsewhere, which means thatif you have even a good public
national healthcare system,they'll most likely not cover
you to receive treatment abroad.
And no private insurancepolicy, insurance plan would
cover a stem cell treatment atthat point.
And that's the most innovativeproduct that we came up with in

(10:34):
that company.
And that's what truly attractedthe interest from the financial
markets, because here we hadthree million families around
the world with stem cells frozenand uninsured.
If we are able to insure themand sell this policy all around
the world, cheap price, becauseit has very low incidence.
But when it happens, it's verycostly.

(10:56):
It could be a very successfulproduct and help a lot of people
at the same time.
But doing that, in doing an IPOat that time, it changed the
company completely.
We were still a small youngcompany.
It was a nano cap IPO.
And so as we were rolling outthe product in different
countries, I was jumping onplanes.
We were building the laboratoryand trying to get the human t

(11:20):
shirt authority license, thelicense for our insurance
product, growing the teams,burning through cash.
Then we started doingadditional placings in the
market.
Maybe we did five or six,something around 12 million
pounds, something like that.
The reality is I was working100 to 120 hour weeks,
basically.

(11:40):
And that's when ultrarunningcame into my life, actually, was
as a way to bounce back fromthe incredible obsession with
work.
I became an extreme workaholicand I needed a drastic change in
my life.
And ultrarunning came as aperhaps initially as a coping
mechanism, later on as somethingvery, very useful.

(12:00):
And it was perhaps one of themost wise decisions, top three
decisions I've made in my lifehas been to start doing ultra
races.
But in any case, the exits, itwasn't the nice, beautiful
story, perhaps.
I guess end of 2018, thelarger, largest shareholder made
hostile bids because we were aquota company and they wanted to

(12:22):
revert other businesses intoour company, using it almost as
a shell, keep the stem cellbusiness and revert others.
They had a lot of cash.
I couldn't accompany their theinvestment that they were making
from a personal standpoint.
I had put all my blood, sweat,tears, money into the company.
And so we found the mostfavorable solution for everyone.

(12:45):
And for me, it was eithertrying to fight and gain my
position, maybe with 1% chances,or the other one would be to
try and make the best deal outfor everybody and make good
money for myself to start mynext company with a lot of
experience in my back.
And at the time, that's thedecision I made, perhaps to
favor everyone else, not in myown personal favor.

(13:07):
And I was happy with thatdecision.
So that's kind of my exit,which was very timely because at
the back of my mind I had 100already in there.
And so I combine both things.
I guess it's not that it'sdestiny, but things kind of
impose themselves.

Claire Fudge (13:23):
It's just it's amazing.
Actually, when I was listeningand and reading before speaking
to you today, I I I come from ahealthcare background, and it
was really interesting for me tolearn about this insurance
around stem cell.
And I can only imagine whatwent on, you know, as you were
telling that story in terms ofthe kind of everything to build
to build that company.
I mean, God, you were workingso many hours, and and no wonder

(13:46):
you had to find some outlet tothat.
And you mentioned obviouslyabout ultrarunning.
So I'm gonna I'm gonna come tothat now.
So, you know, you were talkingabout the the number of hours
you were working, but ultimatelywhat you know might most people
might say, well, I'll juststart kind of going for a run.
But what drew you intoultrarunning?
You know, was it kind ofescaping?
Was it this huge kind ofneeding something else, like a

(14:08):
challenge or people around you?
Like what was it that drew youto that to ultrarunning?

Joao Andrade (14:13):
I I think it's uh in some cases, I think it's a
good thing for me.
I I think in some other casesit can be a bad thing, and I try
to be more and more aware of uhthese decisions as I'm getting
older and more more differentlife experiences.
But I guess at that point,either it was something a bit
radical, and and that for me waslike it happens to many other

(14:36):
uh ultrarunners.
I just on the 23rd of Decemberbefore Christmas, I was sitting
around the house and I Googledthe toughest endurance sports in
the world.
I didn't know exactly what wasgoing to happen.
And the list came up as itcomes to a lot of other people
that have told me kind of a verysimilar story.
Bad water 135 was at the top.

(14:56):
I went immediately to YouTube,saw a video, and for a very
strange reason, I found that oneof the most appealing things I
had ever seen.
And immediately I spoke with mywife.
It was a five-minuteconversation.
I said, I think I found thesolution to get out of this
situation I'm in of working allthe time.
I explained what it was, showedit to her.

(15:18):
She said, You're definitely abit crazy, but I think you
should do it.
Maybe that's what it is.
And it was a very hard, veryeasy commitment for us to make.
Little did I know what wasgoing to follow after that.
But it was, I guess, to answeryour question, I needed
something a bit, it had to bebig to draw my attention.
If it was something juststarting for fun, I'll I'll just

(15:42):
probably would stop eventually.
It had to be something like along-term goal and I had have to
change my lifestyle to be ableto do it.

Claire Fudge (15:50):
And and what I mean, your your kind of
progression through ultrarunningwas was pretty quick, wasn't
it?
From like in those first fiveyears to to doing bad water.
So what what do you thinkreally changed, you know, for
you, like either, you know,psychologically or physically
during those sort of five years?
What what had to happen for forthis ultrarunning to sort of

(16:10):
work?

Joao Andrade (16:10):
I think initially it was perhaps not the best
approach the first year and ahalf because I didn't really
stop working, stop working asmuch as I was before.
I was just adding all thetraining to it.
So imagine I was in a flightfrom Portugal to the UK, and
then all of a sudden I'm inanother flight, and I do maybe

(16:31):
two, three meetings, fly to SaoPaulo land and go on a treadmill
to run some 20K, maybe run,maybe sleep two hours if I
could, and then jump again onmeetings and jet lag.
And I leave that for a while.
And I think because I found itexciting, this new avenue, I was
able to sustain it.
But it was like I was imagineI'm going down a well, I get to

(16:55):
the bottom of the well, there'sa little door, I opened that
door and there was still spaceto go.
And I think I opened thatlittle door and went in for the
first year and a half, and andonly then I started making the
adjustments I needed.
It was very obvious that I wasgoing in the wrong direction.

Charlie Reading (17:14):
Interesting.
So so for that first year and ahalf, I'm fascinated.
I always talk a lot aboutwork-life balance.
But what I also find is thatpeople, when they get really
busy and really stressed, theythe first thing they drop is the
thing that kept themde-stressed in the first place,
which is typically things likeexercise or hobbies.
So, did you find that in thatfirst year and a half, even

(17:37):
though you didn't take anythingaway, you just added in an ultra
running or running, which isadding an extra commitment, did
you find that you uh you dealtwith that stress from work
better during that year beforeyou started dropping things
away?
Yeah, absolutely, for sure.

Joao Andrade (17:51):
So I I think there was a benefit in terms of the
uh way I was looking into work,and I guess in a way, it's the
sense of perhaps self-worth.
So imagine if if I wouldn'ttrain for a day, I wouldn't feel
worthy.
And so that will draw me intoovertraining, uh, which is not

(18:15):
positive.
And uh because of that, I wasadding stress uh on the exercise
part, but it was releasingbecause imagine that there's a
hundred percent of stress Icould apply in a day, and maybe
this is a crazy analogy, but andthen I was just adding more
stress into the training andless stress into work.

(18:39):
But what that started to showin perhaps a funky way was that
the company was not going to dieor anyone if I wasn't there for
100 or 120 hours.
And I started noticing becauseI was committing more time to
training and traveling to racesand having to abstain myself

(19:01):
from work as I was entering ahundred-mile race.
My wife was there, my childrenwere there, and I started having
these different interactions inthe races with them as well.
It was just a completelydifferent environment.
Here we are in the mountain.
I just came from the city, Idropped my suit and eye, and I'm
here dressed as a trail runner,which I'm not entirely sure.

(19:21):
Am I a trail runner?
I was thinking in my mind, evenI was questioning pretty much
everything, but I guess it was abalance of stress.
So it took stress away fromwork, but overall the stress was
was the same.
Perhaps more, perhaps less dayswith less stress, or more days,
more stress, because I wasadding now two things.
And that's I think the first 18months of the journey.

Charlie Reading (19:44):
And and and so then beyond that 18 months, what
was it that really uh triggeredyou to kind of rebalance and
kind of check, you know, sortout this balance better?
And was there what were thesigns that your body or your
brain were were giving you totell you that it was time that
you know that was it was needed?

Joao Andrade (20:05):
To be perfectly honest, and I like to be a
straight shooter, say thingsexactly as they are.
I was ignoring all my bodysignals and mind signals, and
that's just what it was.
I was consciously uh ignoringthem in the pursuit of trying to
do something extremely hardbecause I thought there was
something positive at the end ofit.
I I truly thought there wassomething positive.

(20:25):
But then the hostile beat camealong, and I saw that there was
a hand few of people literally,and we all know this, we know
this from hearing from otherpeople.
I knew this from reading booksand from my what my dad used to
tell me when I was younger, andyou know, my brother and so on.
But when it actually happens atthat level on a public quoted

(20:49):
company, and I'm the CEO, thefounder, and I'm seeing myself
with people around me andthinking, I'm kind of a lone
wolf in here since the day onethat I came from Portugal.
I'm the only Portuguese thatdid an IPO in London still to
today.
I went into the city, I didn'tknow anyone.
I really felt like a lone wolf,but only looking backwards, not

(21:12):
as I was doing it.
I thought I was I was crushingit.
I thought, oh my God, I'm doingsomething unbelievable.
But looking back, I was Ididn't pay attention, and I
thought I was, and this is, youknow, maybe this doesn't sound
humble, but it doesn't matter.
It's maybe someone is goingthrough the same, and maybe this
can help them.
I just thought I was crushingit.
And actually there were peoplethat were smarter than me, and I

(21:34):
wasn't noticing.
And they were like, I also do abit of jujitsu.
They were squeezing me to thepoint where they would submit
me, and I I wasn't payingattention to the techniques
being used.
I I knew maybe four or fivepeople, other people maybe knew
10 about how to do a null-stylebeat.
I've never been through theprocess, so I guess that was a

(21:55):
turning point.
I I said I need to, you know,look after myself first, my
family first of all, and peoplethat truly, truly supports and
do something that I can measurethe impact of things more
realistically, and less of thefrivolous world of the financial
markets and so on that I wasliving in.
Or at least if I need to livein that world, I will take it

(22:17):
for what it is and not pretendthat it isn't what it is.
And so I guess that's that's ina way what happened.

Claire Fudge (22:24):
And I mean, you have uh raced hundreds and
hundreds of miles now, haven'tyou?
Like what do you think standsout across those races as like
the best experience that you'vehad?
And also on the flip side, whatdo you think some of those
toughest races have reallytaught you?

Joao Andrade (22:40):
Uh all the things that are coming to my mind are
the negative ones that turn intopositives.

Claire Fudge (22:45):
Well, start there.
I mean, that's a yeah.

Joao Andrade (22:48):
So, for example, I had this big goal of running
Badwater, and I had to do quitea bit of races and a lot of
training to do that.
And by the time I get there, Ihad had some good results.
So they they the race has threewaves.
They put me on the last one,which is probably where the
fastest runners are.
So I was in the in very fit, Iwas feeling great.

(23:08):
I thought I can do maybe a topfive, a top ten, something like
that, which will be unbelievablein four or five years.
Um, but then I crossed thefinish line and felt absolutely
nothing.
And I even my wife trained alot, and she's not an ultra
runner, to be in the racecrewing for me and pace for me
and so on, which is was abeautiful thing.
And she crossed the line, shewas she was very happy, and I I

(23:31):
wasn't feeling good because Iwas looking at her extremely
happy and smiling and everybodybecause I had accomplished what
I've tried for many years withall the other challenges uh in
between.
But I felt an unbelievablesense of emptiness, and I didn't
know where it uh came from.
It took quite quite a while tounderstand.

(23:52):
But perhaps it was because ofthat moment of emptiness that I
truly started changing thedirection of my life, and and
perhaps that led to truly theway that we are doing things in
100 nowadays.
It all has a lot to do withthat bad water moment.

Charlie Reading (24:12):
You asked Well, I was just gonna say, can I
just dig a little bit deeper onthat and say what you know what
what did you put it down to?
What was that that sort ofnumbness and that lack of
excitement?
What did you really concludethat was?

Joao Andrade (24:24):
Because that that that was not actually what what
I was chasing.
And in a way, in my mind, I hadvisualized it so strong that I
already knew that I could do it.
And I again, this might notsound humble, but it was what I
was feeling.
So I have to tell it exactly asI was.
I don't want to appear as, youknow, oh, this guy's super
humble.
And it's not what it is.

(24:45):
What I was feeling is I will doit.
And so when I got to the finishline in my mind, I had already
visualized that finish line ahundred thousand times.
I had it in front of mytreadmill, I had it on the back
of my phone, I had it in my itwas the screen of my computer.
I had it everywhere, and I hadit imprinted in my mind, now
imprinted in my brain.
That opened the door for me tostart thinking what was actually

(25:09):
happening with me, that I wasalways putting myself into
situations of extreme, whetherit was in business or in sports,
always putting myself intoextreme situations, even though
these are very tough challenges,they they don't need to be
faced from an extreme position.
But I was facing them from anextreme position as well.

(25:30):
And maybe overhyping it alittle bit, even perhaps to look
better in the eyes of others.
And that's what started to getme thinking, why am I actually
doing this?

Claire Fudge (25:40):
And and what what do you think when you think to
the kind of those real highs?
Because it's reallyinteresting, and then that's not
the first time we've heardwhere people have crossed a you
know finish line and gone,actually, there's this doesn't
quite feel like I was expecting.
But thinking back to some ofthose amazing race experiences,
what what are kind of some ofthe highs that you experienced?
Like thinking of those amazingmoments, like what tell us about

(26:02):
some of those.

Joao Andrade (26:03):
I think my amazing moments are always come from
something that happened in therace, almost always happen
afterwards.
But definitely this year at100, we organized a race called
the Costa Rica 200.
I find it hard to believe that,and of course it's subjective,
but I find it hard to believethat there is any 200-mile race

(26:23):
harder than this one that weorganize this year.
And we organize it in a pioneerformat only with invited
athletes, not open to thepublic.
So this was 209 miles.
I wouldn't be able to convertnow in feet, but it's 33,000
meter accumulated elevation gainand loss, so 16,500 elevation

(26:44):
gain, 16,500 meters, so twiceMount Everest.
Wow, three jungle sections, themost humid place we can
imagine.
We went just next to theCorcovado National Park, which
is the most biodiverse place onearth, more than deep Amazon.
And it was extremely technical,muddy, it rained, we had the

(27:05):
Senate with unbelievabletemperatures, and 10-8 stations
along the course, which isn't alot for segments where we would
have 45k with 4,500 meter climband 4,700 descent.
This doesn't even exist in asingle race, and this is only

(27:27):
one of the segments in CostaRica 200.
And I guess all the race prettymuch was it was very different
because it involves a lot of thejungle sections.
We had some indigenous guidesin a few parts as well.
There's three jungle sections,but the last one, which I
covered during the night, andthen only three runners finished

(27:48):
the race.
I was one of them.
And we did between 94 and 102hours between the three of us.
So that puts you in perspectivethe level of difficulty of this
200-mile race, and everybody,they're all very, very, very
good athletes, especially injungle or very extreme races.
But I guess the the lastsegment, which we now call the

(28:12):
monster segment, this 45k with4,500 ascents, and then the 4700
descent into the deep junglethrough the night with a
headlamp, all eyes reflectingeverywhere, incredible insect
noises, other animals, I didn'tknow what they were, and just
very, very technical.

(28:32):
Like if I was playing SuperMario and I was young and edge
level, it becomes harder, Icannot save it.
You know, I won't be able tosave it.
I have to go and do the 14levels in a row, in one go.
I guess it was really positivebecause for the first time in
all the races I've done in mylife, I wasn't looking at it as
much as a struggle, maybe in away to avoid the adrenaline

(28:56):
rush, fight or flight mode aswell.
I was just trying to appreciatethe fact that I was able to be
there, that I was healthy, thatwe had designed this
unbelievable course, that's youknow, three days had gone by,
maybe there's only one to go.
And that I was able to do it.
I was after halfway through themonster segment, I was I was

(29:19):
happy.
And it's very hard for me toremember moments of happiness.
Okay, I can do a race maybejoyful, but happy, happy, it's
very hard.
But I was actually feelingfeeling very happy.
And when I was arriving at theaid station, I was saying,
because the race ends at thebeach, I'll say, vamos a la
playa, let's go to the beach.

(29:39):
And so I was happy.
I was facing the race in a verydifferent way, and I was very
proud of myself, even at theend, because I didn't look at it
as this is the biggestsuffering of my life or any of
that.
It was by far the hardest raceI've done by a hundred miles.
But it was it was the one thatI faced with more joyful and

(29:59):
happy.
Happiness, so maybe more matureas well.
And even you know, just facingup and looking at things, not
just looking at the floor.
I was actually looking andseeing these huge leaves.
They were bigger than a car.
And I was paying attention toall these things out there and
not just, you know, focus on thesteps.

Claire Fudge (30:18):
I mean, I I think between Charlie and I, it's
probably another thing on our onour bucket list now, listening
to you speak.
And when I was when I waslooking at the 100, which I'm
going to come on to, I wasthinking, yep, this is this is
definitely on the bucket listnow.
So talk to us, you've mentioneda couple of times about the
100, and and I'd love to dive abit deeper into talk to us
about, you know, where did thishappen in the evolution of your

(30:40):
ultrarunning?
What's what's the concept?
So for those people who don'tknow what the 100 is, tell us a
little bit about it.

Joao Andrade (30:47):
Well, I think the genesis of 100 comes because,
and let's combine a little bitof the entrepreneurship side
with with ultrarunning.
I guess at the point was whereI was about to exit and sell my
position in my previous company,I was doing ultrarunning for
three years at that point.
And as a new athlete in thesports, I was trying to look

(31:09):
for, you know, what are the mostinteresting long-distance races
in the world between 100 milesand 200 miles.
More 200 miles were starting topop up between 2017 and 2019.
And then I was thinking, okay,who are the best athletists in
these distances, particularlythe 100 mile, 200 mile?
Okay, there is a few circuitsout there, and things were

(31:31):
evolving during that time.
But I it's not like, you know,people from Asia, Australia,
Africa, South America, US, andEurope are actually competing in
the same race at the same time,the big, big athletes.
Some of them maybe cannot evenafford travel to come and run
these races.
And I thought this is a littlebit strange because here we are,

(31:54):
and at the time, and I'm anumbers person, at the time, you
know, we were witnessingalready more trailrunners than
thri athletes, and then you have600 million runners worldwide,
huge exodus of people cominginto trail running.
So there will be more people inthe sport in the future, a huge
market for trailrunning shoes,which was the only place I could

(32:16):
actually find, you know, goodresourceful information to build
a business plan on the back ofsome proper research because
there's almost nothing out therein terms of good research into
the events side of thetrailrunning market,
particularly at that time.
Now there's a little bit more,but I wouldn't say it's even
bronze standard.
It's there's some studies thatpeople do autonomously, but not

(32:39):
something extremely deep.
And I was just seeing thesemovements and thinking, okay,
there's a concentration of racesin Central Europe and the US,
but the world is huge.
There's so many mountains to beexplored around the world.
And if people want to do thesechallenges, they end up like me
having to travel to the US to doa bad water or go to this or

(33:01):
that country to be able to runthese races.
And so a few ideas startedcoming to my mind, but I think
the three biggest questions wereyou know, who are the best
athletes actually in the very,very long distances?
The second one is why isn'tthere a global stage focus on
100 mile, 200 mile,particularly?

(33:21):
That's where the first imagecame to my mind.
The third point is there's ahigh concentration in certain
places, but we have theHimalayas, we have mountains in
Brazil.
There's so many mountains inthe Middle East and other places
in Asia, in Africa.
And perhaps there's anopportunity here to build a true
global competition, more onoff-world championship format

(33:43):
with a final and get pro-eliteathletes competing and going to
a final and having big priceparts and good live broadcasting
and bringing the big brands andperhaps creating or enabling a
platform for teams to appear aswell.
Not just the ones coming fromthe running shoe brands, but
actually teams as we see intriathlon and other sports that

(34:06):
could start having multiplesponsors to really in the big
athletes and invest in them andhave a professional field, more
of a professional emphasis, andat the same time open up short
distances, but not worldchampionship competitions to
have mass participation, moreeconomical impact in the
regions, and have more people,you know, having the opportunity

(34:27):
to try out these uh greatsports and jump out the sofa, of
course.
So that that was the initialconcept.
From there, the evolution wasinto okay, building the first
endurance trail worldchampionship, and that means
races around the world for 200miles, 100 miles, and 100K.

(34:47):
And not a broad definition oftrail running, but actually
something more specific, whichwe are we're calling endurance
mountain trail running, and wehave the definition on our
website, and it is actuallyrunning trails in the mountain,
not like you have a race on thebeach with 200 kilometers, and
that's a trail running race, andthere you go, you have a

(35:09):
certification.
Nothing like that.
When you go to a 100 race, youknow it's a mountain trail race.
It's not a different type ofevents.
And then we started lookinginto what are where are these
places where they're an exploremountain ranges and locations
where we can bring the races,but that at the same time we can
have resources to put togetherthe initial events and make them

(35:32):
grow into eventually creating avery positive economic impact
and having more athletes beingable to professionalize, but
also being able to provide more,which is perhaps the
fundamental of what everybodydoes in ultra running, is
provide a transformationalexperience for athletes that
come and run these races as Ihave experienced myself as well.

(35:54):
So I think that's brilliant,that's 100.

Charlie Reading (35:57):
Okay, fantastic.
I mean, it's it soundsfantastic.
And and listening to you speakabout it, obviously the person
that introduced us was ChrisMcCormack, Maca, as the World of
Trathlon knows him as.
Um, I'm seeing somesimilarities between Super Try
and what you guys are doing.
So so how has how has Chrissort of come in and started

(36:18):
partnering or working with youon this?
What have you learned fromSuper Try?
And also when's Maca doing oneof the hundred-mile races?

Joao Andrade (36:26):
That's a very, very good question, especially
the second one.
The first one is well, I think Iguess one of the biggest goals
we had in our team was to tryand find someone that would
combine an almost impossible CV,which would be a great
international athlete with manyaccolades, but at the same time,

(36:49):
someone that has founded aninternational league of sorts or
a championship, a series.
I've actually gone through theprocess for a few years, and I'm
in international expansion.
And when you start looking inendurance sports or these types
of sports, more athletics, it'snot very easy to find.
There ain't many people.
And so I actually I wasintroduced to Chris by one of

(37:12):
our shareholders at 100, one ofour investors, very, very bright
guy, that in a conversation heremembered about Maca, Chris
McCormick, and introduced.
To be very honest, he was veryprecise in his due diligence,
and I mean due diligence overallto be involved, to see if he
could contribute, to put hisface to it as well, to push his

(37:35):
cash into it as well.
And so he did a very, verydetailed due diligence and
perhaps more on the personalside as well, in how the people
that are developing thechampionship.
So during many months, we hadmany meetings, many
conversations, which culminatedin a week together, and then we
shook hands and took picturesand off we went.

(37:56):
But I guess the opportunitythat Chris has seen is the
opportunity from a businessstandpoint, which in turn is, I
think, the greatest leveragepossible for the sport.
So if we can combine both, Ithink it's win-win for the
sport, the athletes, for all thestakeholders, but also for
anyone coming into the 100ecosystem.

(38:18):
Which is at the moment, it'snot the most expensive sport to
come in if we compare it toothers, because there are very
little benchmarks.
And the people that havebenchmarks have it very well
hidden because there aren't manytransactions, and there are
public transactions with values,how much this race was acquired

(38:39):
for, sold for.
Everybody's trying to guess, orhere is from here or there,
someone there know, and they'lltalk.
But it's not an open market inthat in that respect.
And at the same time, on theathlete side, there's a huge
opportunity to create a trueglobal stage for them.
And perhaps when we look intothe older gear, Aperel running

(39:03):
shoe, it's in the billions ofdollars now, this market.
So I guess there's much moremoney to be made by the
athletes, and it will happen.
It's like trying to stop thewind with their hands.
It will happen.
It's just a matter of time.
It's like two or three years,and it will be, in my view, in
our view, in a completelydifferent position.
But the timing to come in isnow when the window will get,

(39:23):
you know, it's like Triathlon,it's very expensive to build a
super tri when you come against,you know, PD, PTO, RMN,
although it's very specific, thetype of the format, but you are
an established sport.
You expect to have certainthings done at a certain level
that do not even exist in theintro running at the moment.
It's coming towards that, butit's still not there.

(39:44):
So I guess the dilution toprofitability ratio, intro
running, my view, is the mostinvestable sport in the world in
this year and next year.
And then perhaps we will stopbeing.
And this is the most importantratio of them all.
And perhaps that's where I havemy eyes on, and Chris has had
his eyes on.

(40:05):
So acquiring assets, gettingathletes in, the impact we can
have with actual cash in thesports is tremendous.
And these resources can, youknow, affect very in a very
positive fashion the lives ofathletes, enable teams to
appear, have new mountain rangeswith more races, and people not

(40:28):
having to travel so much toreach a 200 mile or 100 mile.
And if they want, they willhave a bigger offering as well.
Like we're having the firstnon-stop 100 mile ultra trail in
three weeks in the Himalayas,in the Ladakh.
And that never happened before.
So we are opening up theseamazing races around the world.

Charlie Reading (40:45):
Brilliant.
Oh, it's it's it sounds reallycool, it's and it's really
exciting.
Uh, you didn't answer thesecond question.
When's Maca doing his ultra?

Joao Andrade (40:53):
I think we need to try and get him on the on the
on the podcast to do that.
But that's the question that Ihave as well.
So as I guess as soon as Iknow, the world will know.
I think it will happen.
So it's just a matter of whenand which one.

Charlie Reading (41:08):
Brilliant.
Well, I'm sure he'll besledging all of the other
athletes and and kind of yeah,but but I'm sure he will be
excel at it.
Um so one of the things that isamazing, I I thought, was the
fact that you took trail runningto Dragon's Den and you know,
pitched to the Dragons thisconcept of the 100.
What brought you to Dragon'sDen and how was the experience?

(41:31):
And you know, to tell us whatwas the outcome of what happened
on the day and what of theevent?

Joao Andrade (41:37):
I I I guess we've done a few things which have
been a little bit different fromI guess from what I know, and
I've done quite a bit ofresearch on it.
Um, and if there's otherpeople, I'll I'll actually love
to meet them and shareexperiences, maybe do something
together.
But we went to the investorcommunity to raise funds for 100

(41:58):
to apply and designing thefirst events.
And so, I mean, the decision togo to Dragons Den, and we we
also did a crowdfunding campaignwith CrowdCube, which is one of
the largest equity crowdfundingplatforms in the world.
We have a private equity onboard already, which is not
normal for a company of oursize, but they are seeing the

(42:19):
future.
So I guess going to Dragons Denwas in a way a big marketing
opportunity because here wewould have trailrunning in the
eyes of people that have nevercome across trailrunning, never
heard of it before, never knewthat someone can run 100 miles
or anything like that and getthem intrigued to look into the

(42:41):
sport.
Secondly, by appearing onDragon's Den, a lot of the
investors in this world willnotice Trailrunning as an
investable product and startperhaps to take trailrunning
more seriously from a resourcestandpoint, something more
investable.
And thirdly, just having theopportunity to tell the 100

(43:04):
story in a condensed format thatcould then be shipped with
credibility and reputation topeople around the world, like a
very nice piece of content onBBC, on that special show that
has so many views.
And if it went well, we couldsend it everywhere.
However, if it goes wrong, itmight actually be one of the
worst things possible.

(43:25):
Thankfully, it went reallywell.
It's one of the most differentepisodes, episodes.
I uh I wouldn't want to saycontroversial.
And whoever is listening, ifthey haven't watched it, I
highly recommend that you do forto hear more about 100.
But particularly the ending waswas unexpected, I guess a
little bit different.

(43:45):
And then Stephen Bartlett saidyes at the end.
It was kind of very quickdecision between the two of us
on shaking hands.
And the other dragons werehesitating too much on making an
offer.
I like people that you know goahead and make offers and don't
stand around, you know, losingan opportunity.
And at the back of my mind isStephen had asked the question

(44:08):
three times and he was gettingimpatient.
If I wouldn't say yes, maybe hewill drop out, and I didn't
have any other offer.
And so, you know, maybe I have80 or 90 percent of the comments
on the internet, whatever thatmeans, supporting me because of
that, uh, maybe 10% or sosaying, oh, you should have

(44:29):
listened to the others.
But in that precise day, thatseemed to be the best thing to
do.
And and Steven was actually theperson we were looking at at
the time because of hiscommunication platform that
perhaps could help us have animpact and reach the four corner
corners of the world.

Charlie Reading (44:43):
And how has having Stephen Butler as an
investor panned out so far?
What's what's happened?

Joao Andrade (44:50):
Well, things after the show not always turn out as
they are portrayed in the show.
So it was followed by a fewmonths of renegotiations of what
was agreed on the screen.
We ended up not finding acommon ground.
I I guess he was asking for toomuch.
And maybe now already or in thefuture, he will perhaps regret
not having invested.

(45:10):
I don't know.
Maybe we'll talk about it inhis podcast one day, looking
back, or he has an opportunityto come back again in the
future.
Let's see.

Claire Fudge (45:18):
Yeah, I mean, I think let's watch this space in
terms of you know where it's allgoing with the with the 100 as
well.
Just amazing, and what anamazing experience to be on
Dragon's Den as well.
So yeah.

Joao Andrade (45:29):
It was very good as a platform, but also this
experience of not having to, youknow, ended up coming through
with Steven on board also mademe rethink who we wanted on
board.
And I guess everything we'rediscussing, or almost all of it
in this podcast, is how to takesomething that happens that goes
a little bit sideways, and thenhow that helps you shift the

(45:50):
right decision.
And then I started, who is theright person?
Eventually, you know, a yearand a bit after that, we got uh
Chris McCormick on board, whichis precisely the type of person
that we actually needed to havehere.
So it ended up being a betterperson to come on board and
occupy that that position, andis already having a drastic

(46:12):
positive effect in the company.
But the door is open to Stephenone day, we don't know.

Claire Fudge (46:18):
Keep the door open.
You but you were talking justthere, and I'm just gonna bounce
back a little bit now, but youwere talking just there about
you know things sometimes happenfor a reason.
And you know, doing doing someresearch, you know, about you
before this episode, youexperienced some arrhythmia of
heart heart problems on a race.
I mean, that could have turnedout as a complete, you know,

(46:40):
disaster.
So tell us a little bit aboutyou know what happened, but also
you know, after thatexperience, how did it shape
you?
How did it change you?

Joao Andrade (46:50):
I actually this podcast is in is we are
recording this in in perhaps oneof the best moments, if not the
best moment I could talk aboutmy life, actually, because most
of this crazies, I don't knowwhat's going to come next, but a
lot of the things that uh putme on a much more confident,
mature position of how thingsshould be done and what I want
for my life, I I'm standing nowbeing able to talk about them

(47:13):
with less questions.
I had much more questionsbefore, particularly this
incident.
So one of the things I've beendoing with 100 is whenever
there's a new race, I try and goand run the race myself.
So I said, just Costa Rica.
So in three weeks, we're doingthe 100 mile in Ladakh because
high altitude racing, alwaysabove 3,500 meters, up to 5,400.

(47:36):
I'm going to run.
So this race, Crotrail, is theoldest three-digit showrunning
race in Europe.
It had started in the 2000s.
Next year is the 20th edition.
So I wanted to try out the raceand see how we could revive it
to make it to make it, you know,the big race that it was before
when Marco Almo was winning therace and Michele Gragle went

(47:57):
and win, and so on and so forth.
And so I wanted to try therace, see the course, how it
could be improved andpotentially not only 100k, but
do a hundred-mile race there.
But that year there was asegment of the tunnel that
collapsed.
So the race had to be shortenedto 40k.
So this was last year.

(48:18):
So, but we never announced the100K.
The tunnel was already shut, sowe we launched the 40K.
So I'm going to run the race toknow a section of the course,
just try it out.
And I guess that day is anaccumulation of all the years,
of all my life, of everything.
All these stories that I'mtelling push me towards a day
where I'm organizing a race andat the same time I'm running it.

(48:41):
I come from a lot of travels, alot of things accumulated over
time, not enough rest andrecover.
And also something I have nottalked about because the truth
is by 2022, I was in a major,major depression.
And so I was taking specificmedication for that as well.

(49:01):
And I guess there's a potentialinteraction there with what
happened that day.
So here I am pushing myself ona stressful moment on event day,
running the race myself, whichmakes it a bit more stressful,
and running the race that I amorganizing.
And it was just threekilometers in the race.
I started feeling chest pain,my left arm going a bit numb.

(49:23):
I was feeling my heart goingall over the place.
Of course, we know ourselveswhen things are not right.
It wasn't feeling right.
So I called my crew teammateand told him, I'm not feeling
very well.
Something is strange.
I'm feeling my heartbeat veryunusual, and told him just to
pay attention to my GPS trackerin case something happened.

(49:43):
Just overall pay attention.
Um he said, maybe it's bestthat you stop there and just
stop.
Just end the race.
And I said, Well, you know,these races sometimes are like
that.
You're feeling a little bitstrange, and then you continue.
I'll go slowly, and then you,you know, just bounce back.
But I found it strange becauseit was really at the beginning.
Yeah, of course, it was a verysteep ascent, maybe at 3K with

(50:07):
400 meters or something.
But still, it was the beginningof the race.
But then I only rememberturning left, and I don't have
any other memory.
I know maybe some 700 metersafter the point I have my last
memory of turning left, is wherethe two runners that were
following me just behind me,they I was woken up by them.

(50:30):
And they, of course, I wasseeing two people dressed as
athletes with their backpacksand pole poles and so on, and
they were speaking in Italian,which I understand, and they
were saying, Don't worry, we aredoctors.
But I was seeing people in youknow, troll running gear, so I
was a bit confused.
But the truth is I was helpedin maybe under two minutes after

(50:56):
I fatened by the two runnersthat were following me, which is
perhaps the biggest divineintervention possible.
They were both doctors, fatherand daughter.
And they assisted me in undertwo minutes, and God knows if
they weren't there what wouldhave happened.
Maybe nothing, maybe somethingreally bad, but they helped me.

(51:19):
I was helixed out of the race.
Safety and rescue was upabsolutely incredible.
Also, an experience to have,which, you know, to be carried
on the stretcher a mile goingdown was extremely hard to find
an open area so that thehelicopter could take me out.
So the the military team of theCuneo area in the Italian Alps

(51:43):
did an unbelievable job carryingme.
They were very strong men forsure.
And I was heliqued out, spentthree days there, then
hospitalized in Portugal, andtook about I took all the tests
possible for about three months.
Um and uh yeah, what I had wasan arrhythmia developed by

(52:04):
stress, which led intotachycardia and eventually loss
of consciousness at that daybecause of big stress.
So that is the biggest, youknow, uh wake-up call possible
to see how we can stress ourbody so much into uh into
non-existence if we push itbeyond, I don't want to say

(52:28):
beyond the limits, but beyondwhat we should do, perhaps.
Yeah, that's when then I tookuh three months off and and
doctor recommendation and all ofthat, and did everything that
they said, and changed diet,changed my schedule, changed the
team at 100, changed my the wayI was, you know, my lifestyle,

(52:51):
how I was organizing my time, alot of things.
I thought about everything indetail and how my life should
be, and then startedimplementing in November, and
I'm having the best results inall fronts in my life since
then.
Brilliant.

Charlie Reading (53:11):
Uh issue.
I mean, it's it's it's I mean,it's amazing luck that those two
runners knew what to do whenthey found you and they found
you in such time, but it alsoreally highlights so now that
you've got this kind of reasonto so I often say that
entrepreneurs have this greatopportunity to live their life
by their design, but you oftenneed that reason to actually do

(53:33):
that as opposed to kind ofletting it become all consuming,
which sort of leads me on to afinal question before we do the
the ones that we'll alwaysfinish with, and that is you
obviously really battled throughthe entrepreneurship side of
your life, but you've battledthrough some of the toughest
runs on the planet.
Which is tougher, ultra runningor being an entrepreneur?

Joao Andrade (53:55):
Oh, I'm sorry, athletes everywhere around the
world.
For me, entrepreneurship, atleast at least in the way that I
do it and that I know, andmaybe someone does it in a
different fashion, and I'mtrying to learn that as well.
But in my experience, and I canonly talk about my experience,
it has been way harder.
Because here you are in a fewyears ultra marathon.

(54:19):
That's what building a companyis.
It's not something I look at anultra marathon and I think it's
short if it's a 200-miletwo-day race.
It ends, and then you go andrest, recover, and prepare the
next one.
In ultra running, inentrepreneurship, it's it's it's
a daily, it's not a not justbattle.

(54:40):
I don't want to put a negativetone to it, but there's problems
every day that you need tosolve.
And problems don't need don'tmean that they're negative.
You also create problems foryourself to resolve.
They're just problems, theyneed resolving.
And there are a bunch ofdifferent problems, particularly
on a startup, when you'retrying to do some innovation,

(55:00):
but particularly when you'retrying to grow something
internationally, speakingdifferent uh languages and
understand technical aspects andspecifically in trail running,
finding the right localorganizing committees in the
different mountain ranges andget some more of the amateurish
mountain associations that areorganized with their hearts, but

(55:21):
perhaps trying to be a littlebit more not professional, but
more structured into somethingwhich is global, to try and
create something of that is morestructured, not just built with
the heart, but something thatworks, that people know if they
go to India or to South Africaor to Brazil, that they will
have a safe event.
They know this is a 100 eventwhen they get there, they know

(55:43):
what the experience will be.
And this is not an easy thing.
So there's loads of problems.

Charlie Readin (55:48):
Entrepreneurship is harder, at least for me.
I I I figured you might saythat based on the conversation,
but I think it there's also alot of a lot of lessons that
both can teach you, you know,one to the other, isn't there?
So yeah, fascinating.
But yes, uh it's but it is alsoabsolutely possible to to have

(56:08):
this life by design and it notto be that way, because you
know, I mean, ultimately that'swhat I I'm all about preaching
the whole work-life balancething, and sometimes you've got
to go slower to go faster andall that sort of stuff.
So so it is absolutelypossible.
We like to wrap this podcast upwith two particular questions.
Um, the first is, and we'veyou've mentioned sort of books

(56:30):
sort of briefly earlier on, butwhat's specifically what books
have you found that have helpedyou the most and do you find
yourself recommending to othersor kind of that you go back to
or you think they were a turningpoint?

Joao Andrade (56:42):
Can I answer that in my true own way of looking
into where where you getknowledge from?
Yeah, please do.
I I believe the biggest lessonsfor me haven't come from from
or knowledge, from booksactually.
It have come from, let's say,and I'll put names to it

(57:03):
quickly.
We are talking about balance,ultrarunning.
Some of the best things I'velearned have been from the
Italian ultrarunner FrancescaCaneppa.
And Francesca, she wonTordajan, UTMB, etc.
A lot of these things, andshe's coaching me nowadays, on
how to look at my body, youknow, body battery and stress,

(57:23):
my sensei in jiu-jitsu, how tokeep my mind cool when I'm being
submitted, or and try to findan escape and hold on.
And if there's no escape, justtap and go again.
Don't be afraid to tap.
And and I guess most of my lifehas been designed by not
tapping.

(57:44):
So either I faint or or I comeout of it.
And I guess with him I learn totap when there's you know,
there's no other way now.
I need to tap.
Perhaps with my father, whichis actually from uh Chris Vox in
a book, Chris Voss also saysthat.
My father says it a little bitdifferently, but it's like in

(58:07):
life overall, ultra-running orentrepreneurship, you don't rise
to the occasion, you fall toyour highest level of
preparation.
And that's something thatalways my father instilled on
me, and he was veryheavy-handed, and I'm sure that
had a huge impact in the waythat I am today.
So I guess it's more on youknow, that friend, that person

(58:28):
that you look up to, the personyou had the opportunity like
Chris Maca.
Hey, mate, hope is not astrategy.
You know, more of actuallylistening to people that are
close to us instead of justsearching the big examples from
people outside or in books.
I I trying to pay, if there'sanything, is trying to pay more
attention to people thatsometimes are close to us.

(58:49):
They're saying things that arevery important, but because we
know them, sometimes we we don'tthink, don't value them as much
as they are in a nice book witha nice cover.
Of course, I'm favored to beput in positions where I've
known these unbelievable peopleand getting advice from Keith
McCormick or Francesca Canepaand so on, or even in
entrepreneurship, but actuallyless in entrepreneurship.

(59:12):
I have better advice withinultra running by a hundredfold
than I have gotten fromentrepreneurs everywhere.
And it just this just came tomy to my mind now.
I I guess that's my and thenyou know uh this is what it is,
but for me, the biggest book,but this is from a religious
standpoint, is the Bible, and Ifollow it thoroughly the best

(59:35):
that I can.
For me, it's the biggest bestbook in the world.
Almost everything that I'mthinking is is right or wrong.
If I go back to it, I think Ifound an answer there.
But I wanted to answer more onperhaps paying attention to
people around us.
Sometimes they say, well, and Ihave to say, my wife, best
advice is always almost alwaysbecause she knows me very well,

(59:56):
and I'm listening more and moreover time.
To little things that she says,and she's almost almost always
right.

Charlie Reading (01:00:05):
Brilliant.
Brilliant.
And I'm hoping that she's goingto listen to this because
you're going to get some you'regoing to get some brownie points
for calling her out there.
You can have that one just foryou.
But no, I think it's absolutelybrilliant.
And you know, they say that youbecome the average of the five
people you hang out with most.
And so in Ultra Running, itsounds like you're hanging out
with some amazing people.

(01:00:26):
And perhaps, perhaps on theentrepreneur side, you maybe
need to find a few more of thosepeople that are gonna help you.
Um, so we'd like to finish offthis podcast very similar to
Stephen Barler, actually.
And we get the last guest toask the next guest a question
without without them knowing whothat is.
And our last guest was theamazing Stacy Sims.
And I think Claire's gotStacy's question lined up.

Claire Fudge (01:00:48):
It's a good one.
So if you could give youryounger self the knowledge that
you've got today, would you doit and why?

Joao Andrade (01:00:56):
Well, well, that that's the best question to end,
really, because it willencapsulate everything that I've
just said.
So when I was born, I was bornwith my umbilical cord around my
neck, and so I was born dead,and I was dead for two minutes,
and I was resuscitated, revivedby the medical team.
And that is the experience thatwas imprinted in my ANS to my

(01:01:19):
peripheral nervous systemforever.
And everything that I do isinto a kind of survival instinct
basis, and if why I'm anentrepreneur or why am I an
ultra-runner have a lot to dowith this thing that happened.
But I left it to much, muchlater on, and it's been the last

(01:01:40):
year, that I paid any attentionto it because two amazing
people told me about it, andpsychiatrists and psychology
psychologists that told me wherethis was all coming from after
trying to help me find the bestway to live, which is what I'm
doing now, I believe.
So I guess I wouldn't leaveputting myself.

(01:02:01):
The advice would be not toleave putting myself into very
dangerous situations to come outof it, but to feel more
confident that I'm in controland it's fine to leave things as
they are most of the time.

Charlie Reading (01:02:16):
Brilliant.
Fascinating.
Yeah, I think it's a reallychallenging question, isn't it?
Because uh, like you wouldn'thave the experiences of that
you've had if you had all ofthat knowledge, but equally you
wouldn't make some of themistakes, too.
So yeah, really, reallyinteresting.
Jao, it's been fascinatingchatting to you.
Love diving into your businessstory and the Dragon's Den

(01:02:40):
piece, but also absolutely lovediving into the running side and
what you are building with the100 with the help of Macca.
So huge congratulations on thatand bringing Trail Running to
the forefront.
And also, you know, justdefinitely those races are
getting added to my bucket listand looking forward to coming
and experiencing one at somepoint and when we can fit it

(01:03:02):
into our busy schedules.
But but that was absolutelybrilliant, really, really great
um to chat to you.
Thank you so much.
Thank you, Charlie.
Thank you so much, Claire.
This absolutely fantasticquestion.
Just loved it.
You made my day, actually.
Thank you.
So, what did you make of theinterview with Jao?

Claire Fudge (01:03:19):
I think it's a great story of where he's come
from, like the business that hehad built.
So that was really like from ascience perspective, that was
really interesting for me aroundstem cells, and then him
actually getting into theinsurance part of that and yeah,
and and selling that as an asan insurance to people.
So I could really kind of, Iguess at the beginning, see how

(01:03:41):
his entrepreneurship had kind ofstarted in that world.
And then, of course, he kind ofhas gone into another, let's
say, kind of health avenue,hasn't he, with his one, you
know, 100 format as well.
But it was really interestingto speak to him.
But I'll I'll let you fill inthe details a little bit because
we were going to ask, weren'twe, about what it was like to be
on Dragon's Den, which we didactually, but also the funding

(01:04:04):
that and working with StephenBartlett.
But that was a that was anotherstory, wasn't it?
So uh what what about you?
What did you take away from it?

Charlie Reading (01:04:11):
I thought I thought it was a a huge amount
to learn from.
I think certainly the lessonsthat he had in terms of building
up that initial business andselling it, but also it actually
being a hostile takeover andjust the the stress that he
would have been under from thatand how running was a seen as a
solution to that work-lifeimbalance.

(01:04:34):
But then actually in time, itjust added more stress because,
yes, from a fitness point ofview, it probably helped him,
but it added a whole you know,he didn't do it by halves, did
he?
He went straight off and youknow, like basically set a goal
to do the bad water, which isthe hardest one you could do.

Claire Fudge (01:04:50):
Yeah, exactly.

Charlie Reading (01:04:51):
The hardest race in in the world almost.
And I think what wasinteresting was when we came
full circle and you think aboutit, you like he obviously had
that heart failure on one of theraces.
And you think, was thatactually kind of the culmination
of all of that stress and thatlack of work-life balance?

(01:05:12):
And actually, something that wetouched on after we stopped
recording was the fact thatbecause of that work-life
imbalance, he hadn't beengetting as much sleep as he
should have done.
He's probably getting fivehours a night.
And I think that that also is acompound effect of yes, working
too hard and squeezing too muchin and burning the candle at
both ends, but also that's areflection on then what led, you

(01:05:35):
know, led to the heart failure,I suspect.
So it kind of felt like it hadcome full circle.
And I think that's probably whyhe got quite emotional at that
last question from Stacey Sims,because I think when I thought
about it afterwards, I thoughtactually, he's come pretty close
to dying as a result of all ofthe pressure he'd built up.

(01:05:57):
And he's succeeded both inbusiness and like phenomenal
running achievements, but atwhat cost?
And now I think perhaps he'sjust found that balance better
so that he can take much moreand he's delegated way more
within within the bus thebusiness of the 100.
And and also, so I think thatthat was the biggest takeaway

(01:06:19):
for me was like he's come fullcircle and he's now seen the the
reason why that balance is soimportant.
Uh and then of course there wasthe Dragon's Den piece.
But what did you make of theDragon's Den story?

Claire Fudge (01:06:30):
Well, I actually, and I think both of us, before
we, before we got on the callwith him, we assumed that he was
working with Stephen Bartlett.
So that was going to be areally exciting part, I guess,
to kind of unfold.
But it was really interestingto hear like some I haven't met
actually somebody who's been onDragon's Den and actually then
come away with like thispartnership.
But it was also reallyinteresting to hear what happens
on like after Dragon's Den isfinished.

(01:06:52):
So obviously, gearing yourselfup for that, you have to have
your story straight, don't you?
So I wonder, I and when we whenI was listening to him, which I
didn't ask him actually, Iwonder if having this big goal
of going to present at Dragon'sDen, you have to have your
numbers right, you have to haveeverything, don't you, in the
right position.
So I'd imagine that's that wasreally great for him to be able

(01:07:13):
to do that.
But also to hear, you know,just a change in direction and
how he had to try and negotiateafter the kind of handshake in
Dragon's Den with Stephen Butlerand actually where he is now
and where he is now is workingwith Macca for the 100 as well.
So that comes around as a fullstory for us as well, doesn't

(01:07:33):
it?
Having spoken to Macca and Ican really see how that
relationship and what's whathe's trying to do with the
company, I can really see howthat will will just move forward
as well.
Having had our fantasticinterview with Macca and his
approach.

Charlie Reading (01:07:50):
I agree.
I think so.
If you think about it, like onDragon's Den, clearly Stephen
Bartlett is the person that youwould assume would be a good fit
for that because of businesseslike Huell and Zoe and all of
that kind of except actuallyit's not the wrong, I don't
think it would have been, Idon't know, it would be
interesting, but obviously itdidn't end up happening.
You know, they startedrenegotiating the terms after

(01:08:13):
the after the filming.
So that that to me wasfascinating.
But I think you know, thesethings happen for a reason,
don't they?
And you know, with Macca'sinvolvement with the with Super
Try, you know, and you can seethat how that is now influencing
the way that they're going withthe 100, and you can see well,
actually, I suspect Macca is away better investor than Stephen

(01:08:36):
Bartlett would have been, justfrom understanding the space and
how do you get people to investin it, like sponsors to invest
in it?

Claire Fudge (01:08:43):
How do you give people really good prize purses?
How do you make a series out ofit?
And how do you make itwatchable?
Like, how are we gonna view itand view it and consume it?
Um, and it's been reallyinteresting, actually, hasn't
it, over the last kind of numberof interviews where we've
really got down to thenitty-gritty of how people like
Macca are trying to make thatreally exciting to watch,
exciting space to be in,compete, need to do the whole

(01:09:06):
series if you're gonna win theserious prize money, get the
sponsorship.
So that's really interestingfor me, actually, to see that
develop.

Charlie Reading (01:09:13):
I think I I completely agree.
And I think if if you thinkabout, I mean, I know we've
talked about it before, but ifyou watch Unchained on Netflix,
so I've gone from I am never theperson that is gonna sit and
watch the Tour de France fromsort of you know mid-morning to
mid-afternoon for God knowshowever long.
I don't even know how long mostof those stages last.

(01:09:33):
I am now starting to watch thehighlights, but actually I'm
only really watching thehighlights every day because I
have watched Unchained, andUnchained told me the story of
what was going on, explained thekind of the why behind
everything, and then it's madeit really compelling to watch as
a sword.
And I think that's where, youknow, like whether it's the 100,

(01:09:54):
whether it's Super Try, whetherit's T100, whatever it is,
those that storytelling becomesso important, doesn't it?
Because otherwise, it's a youknow, a 24-hour race and
nobody's gonna sit and watch.
I mean, you know, as big a fanof Iron Man as I am, it like
even even I would struggle tosit and watch Kona for eight
hours on the challenge.

Claire Fudge (01:10:15):
I struggle to be a spectator if I'm really honest.

Charlie Reading (01:10:17):
So yeah, yeah, it it's exactly so I think
that's I think that's brilliant,and I think, yeah, I'm sure
full circle it that will thatwill end up being a better
suitor to and some awesomeraces, you know, in amazing
parts of the world.
So definitely more for thebucket list.

Claire Fudge (01:10:34):
It definitely, it definitely got me excited about,
and they're all they're alllike mountainous, aren't they?
In terms of yeah, so yeah, somesome proper hard ones.
Think I maybe need to do a do afew that are not quite as hard
to start off with, but then whoknows?
Just throw myself in, I guess.

Charlie Reading (01:10:50):
Back to the archivatrician, I would suggest.
Back to some practical get youget you ready for some some some
like mini mountains, just likethey come thick and fast.

Claire Fudge (01:10:59):
Yeah, yeah.
Not as much jungle or anythinglike that, though.

Charlie Reading (01:11:02):
No, no, no, no, no.
They're definitely, I'm notsure I like the idea of heat and
yeah, that humidity doing doingthat in the summer in the heat.
God, that would be hard.
But if you want to find outmore about the 100, then I would
suggest go check out the 100World Champ website or on
Instagram.
Um, and just yeah, yeah, have alook at the races.
Follow Jao.

(01:11:22):
I think he's you know, he he'smore prominent on LinkedIn, I
think, than on Instagram as anindividual.
But yeah, just go check it out.
These are I think these aregreat races, and I love what
he's doing.
So another amazing episode,another inspiring story, both
business and running.
And for everyone that'slistening at home, keep on
training.