📺 Watch now on Substack or YouTube | 🎧 Listen on Spotify or Apple Podcasts

— Millennial Masters is sponsored by Jolt ⚡️ Reliable hosting for modern builders

Andrew Steele is the founder who went from Olympic medal sprints to building startups with nothing but a risk appetite, relentless honesty, and a knack for ignoring the “safe” option.

After a decade chasing medals, he fell into tech with zero business experience, helped turn DNAfit into a global health brand, stuck it out through an IPO, and is now back at it with Stride: a membership for people who want to know what’s really happening inside their bodies before the problems start.

In this episode, Andrew lays out the realities of going from athlete to first-time founder, scaling up on bootstrapped budgets, and learning to handle rejection like a sport.

🔗 Find Andrew on LinkedIn

Takeaways from Andrew’s episode

1️⃣ The real founder traits aren’t on your CV

Andrew credits his Olympic background for his startup resilience, but it’s not just discipline. Traits like a high appetite for risk, comfort with failing in public, and a pinch of “cheekiness” (bending the rules to get results) are what early-stage investors actually look for.

2️⃣ Your next move is rarely by design

Andrew’s whole founder journey started with a single cold email. Forget perfect plans; most breakthroughs happen because you give yourself permission to try and improvise, even when you’re unqualified.

3️⃣ Bootstrapping teaches hard lessons fast

He scaled his first business, DNAfit, to acquisition without raising a penny, learning that bootstrapping means living in survival mode, saying yes to anything that pays, and improvising on a shoestring. Only later, with Stride, did he blend this grit with external funding (but only after hitting millions in revenue).

4️⃣ IPO is a milestone, not the finish line

Going public with Prenetics was surreal, but Andrew admits it’s not some magical exit: operational headaches just get bigger and you’re forced to trade speed for structure. The hustle doesn’t stop when you ring the bell.

5️⃣ You never really “arrive”

Even after an exit and a public listing, Andrew found himself restless. Real fulfilment came from building again — proof that for founders, progress (not arrival) is the real drug.

📚 Andrew’s book recommendation

East of Eden by John Steinbeck — Andrew credits East of Eden for shaping his mindset as both an Olympian and entrepreneur. There’s a powerful idea buried in its pages: don’t wait for someone else to grant you permission. Give yourself the “permission to try,” whether you’re staring down the Olympic track or launching a startup with zero experience. It’s a reminder that progress comes from putting yourself out there, even when you don’t feel fully qualified.

In this episode we cover:

00:00 Introduction to Andrew Steele

02:15 The Intersection of Sports and Entrepreneurship

08:28 The Journey from Athlete to Entrepreneur

14:18 Scaling a Startup: Challenges and Triumphs

18:21 Navigating Corporate Culture Post-Acquisition

24:19 Hiring and Firing: Building a Strong Team

28:55 The IPO Experience and Its Aftermath

33:14 Building Stride: A New Venture in Health

39:16 The Role of Health Systems in Preventative Care

46:01 Navigating the Fundraising Landscape

53:14 Habits & Routines to Stay Grounded & Productive

01:01:08 Reflections on Sacrifice and Success

Get full access to Millennial Masters at millennialmasters.net/subscribe