Traction Podcast

Traction Podcast

The Traction Podcast provides founders with the tools to optimize their mind, body, and business for peak performance.

  1. 2D AGO

    He Studied $6.4 Trillion Worth of Founders. Here's What They Shared | Mark Macleod | Traction

    Mark MacLeod has sat with some of the most consequential founders in tech. As Ex-CFO of Shopify and FreshBooks, GP at Real Ventures, Canada's largest seed fund, and founder of a leading SaaS investment bank, he has personally overseen over $1 billion in exits. He has seen exactly what ends a founder's run, and it is rarely the market. After studying 11 founders who built a combined $6.4 trillion in enterprise value, Mark rebuilt his entire philosophy around one idea: your personal health is the ceiling of your company. Today he runs Limitless, a program where CEOs train like elite athletes to scale their companies without sacrificing their health, their families, or their longevity. In this episode, we cover: Why the number one reason founders came to Mark looking to exit was not valuation How fit CEOs have outperformed the S&P 500 by 2.5x over four years and what that actually means for how you lead The biomarker dashboard Mark uses to predict his own performance quarters in advance What Zuckerberg, Chesky, and Tobi Lutke share that most founders overlook entirely The earliest warning signs that a high performer is headed toward a breakdown Why your nervous system is your company's operating system How to design your role around your zone of genius the way Tobi did at Shopify If you are building for decades and not just surviving the next funding round, this conversation will change how you think about the relationship between your body and your business.

    55 min

  2. APR 1

    Peter Danenberg: "I've Spent 13 Years at Google. Here's What AI Still Can't Replace."

    Peter Danenberg has spent his career at the edge of what humans and machines can do. As a senior software engineer at Google DeepMind, he leads development on Gemini.  Before tech, he co-founded CrossFit Crown City, scaling it to 450 members across two locations. He holds degrees from Harvard and USC spanning computer science, philosophy, classics and piano, and has spoken at Davos, the House of Lords, and MIT. His belief is simple: peak performance, human or artificial, is as much a philosophical project as it is a technical one. In this episode, we cover: Why he ran AI-driven workouts for a year and what went wrong What AI still cannot replicate in human performance and coaching The relationship between physical training and cognitive flow state How music and sport work together to maintain mental clarity What the next generation is telling us about AI dependency Why the human in the loop still matters more than we think Peter Danenberghttps://www.linkedin.com/in/peterdanenberg/ Ray Waliahttps://www.linkedin.com/in/raywalia/

    48 min

  3. MAR 18

    $100M Health CEO: “87% of People Who Do This Reverse Diabetes in 6 Months”

    Jim Donnelly knows how to build health empires. As the founder and former CEO of Restore Hyper Wellness, he scaled a cryotherapy and wellness franchise to hundreds of locations before stepping away. Then life forced him to start over. A near-fatal car accident, the loss of his father, and his own regenerative medicine journey completely changed how he thought about health. Today, he leads Humanaut Health, a network of advanced preventive clinics combining deep diagnostics, regenerative therapies, and personalized coaching to add 10 to 20 vibrant years to people’s lives. His mission goes far beyond biohackers and executives. He believes cutting-edge longevity care should be accessible to everyday high performers, not just the wealthy. In this episode, we cover: What a near-death experience taught him about purpose How Humanaut uses more than 150 data points to identify root causes and reverse metabolic dysfunction The difference between regenerative medicine and traditional wellness The key protocols that drive the majority of the performance results Lessons on building mission-driven teams and performance-driven communities How to scale your company nationals and globally without losing quality Whether you are a founder battling burnout or someone thinking about your long-term health, this conversation is a blueprint for combining entrepreneurship, healing, and performance.

    1h 5m

  4. MAR 4

    He Managed $100M at DARPA. Here’s What It Did to Him

    Jason Syversen has spent more than 25 years operating at the highest levels of cybersecurity, venture capital, and applied technology. As a Program Manager at DARPA, he managed a $100M cybersecurity portfolio focused on advanced national security systems. He later founded and exited Siege Technologies, building a profitable cyber company in a highly competitive market. Since then, he has invested in more than 45 early-stage companies across AI and cybersecurity. After his exit, Jason donated the majority of his proceeds to combat human trafficking and poverty. Today, he helps fund initiatives that free individuals from modern-day slavery, often for as little as $100 per person. He is now the Founder and CEO of SportsVisio, an AI-driven sports analytics company using computer vision to automate statistics and highlights for athletes and teams. In this episode, we discuss: Managing a $100M DARPA portfolio Building and exiting a cybersecurity company Investing across 45 technology startups Decision-making under risk at scale Sustaining physical and cognitive performance long term Deploying capital for measurable impact The future of AI in sports analytics Jason Syversen LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jsyversen/

    37 min

  5. FEB 18

    Whoop's CPO on What Ironman Training Revealed About Building Companies

    Silicon Valley legend Ed Baker, CPO at WHOOP and ex growth chief at FB and Uber, is our guest on this episode of Traction. Ed helped Facebook cross one billion monthly active users, joining after scaling and selling his 25-million-user startup, Friendly, to the company. He then became VP of Product and Growth at Uber, where he set weekly trips as the north-star metric and helped take the company's valuation from $17 billion to about $70 billion during his tenure. In 2017, Ed left Uber to rebuild his health. Within six months, he transformed himself into an elite triathlete and went on to win his first Ironman. Along the way, he became deeply focused on recovery, sleep, and performance data. In this episode, Ed shares how he applies the same systems thinking to business, athletics, and life. You will learn: What does elite performance look likeHow to scale without burning outWhy recovery is a leadership advantageChoosing a north star metric for your business and your bodyUsing wearable data and AI to stay in the game longerBuilding teams that execute without destroying your healthWhether you are scaling a startup or pushing your personal limits, this conversation offers a blueprint for achieving extraordinary growth without sacrificing well-being.

    49 min

  6. FEB 5

    Dr. Wayne Diesel: What World-Class Athletes Teach Entrepreneurs About Performance

    What if the reason most high-performance careers end early isn’t effort, but how performance is managed over time? In this episode, Dr. Wayne Diesel, elite sports physiologist and long-time performance leader across the NBA, NFL, Premier League, and international rugby, and Ray Walia explore how founders can apply elite athlete principles to build sustainable, long-term performance. After decades inside the world’s most demanding sports organizations, Wayne has seen firsthand why even the most talented athletes break down, and why a small minority build careers that last. His work focuses on load management, recovery, mental resilience, and decision-making under pressure. Wayne has worked with championship teams and elite athletes across three continents, helping design performance systems where longevity is a requirement, not a bonus. He breaks down the exact frameworks used in elite sport to prevent burnout, manage stress, and sustain peak performance, and why founders who ignore these principles pay the price over time. Dr. Wayne Diesel - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wayne-diesel-3012122a/

    48 min

  7. JAN 22

    The Peak Performance Code: How to Use Your DNA to Work Smarter, Age Slower, and Recover Faster with Dr Matt Dawson

    What if you could extend your healthspan, sharpen your focus, and increase your stress resilience by decoding your DNA? In this powerhouse episode, Dr. Matt Dawson, ER physician and early longevity pioneer turned health tech founder, and Lloyed Lobo discuss how startup founders can optimize their health span while scaling high-impact companies. After years of watching patients suffer from avoidable conditions, Matt left traditional medicine to build companies that keep people healthy before things break. He co-founded and exited Wild Health, a genomics-based performance medicine clinic, and now leads TruDiagnostic, an epigenetics company that helps people measure how fast they are aging and how to reverse it. Matt breaks down the exact systems he uses with elite athletes, founders, and high performers to engineer long-term energy, recovery, and focus. TIMESTAMPS 00:00   From ER doctor to healthtech entrepreneur 03:12   Why emergency medicine can't fix chronic disease 04:49   Treating health as a data problem 09:24   Genetics vs epigenetics 13:11   Why entrepreneurs age faster than everyone else 19:42   Measuring biological aging 36:36   Health trends that matter vs ones that don't 44:16   Top health hacks you didn't know Dr. Matt Dawson, CEO, TrueDiagnostic TrueDiagnostic: https://www.trudiagnostic.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthew-dawson-75196040/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/trudiagnosticofficial

    47 min

  8. JAN 7

    The Founder Lifestyle Is Killing You - Part 2

    Building a startup rewards intensity, not longevity. In this episode of Traction, Alex Bruyn joins Lloyed Lobo to challenge the founder playbook. Drawing from repeated burnout and serious health failures, Lloyed argues that hustle is not a badge of honor, it’s a structural flaw in how entrepreneurship is practiced. They examine how stress compounds over time, why founders are treated nothing like elite athletes, and how chasing momentum degrades performance. The conversation reframes success around endurance, relationships, and the shift from achievement to purpose. TIMESTAMPS: 01:05 Why environment determines founder outcomes 03:13 Early health signals founders miss 05:34 Momentum vs gravity 09:32 How hustle culture compounds damage 28:47 The role of AI and community 30:07 The first mountain and the second 44:32 Relationships as the strongest predictor Lloyed Lobo - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lloyedlobo/ - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lloyedlobo/

    1h 28m
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5
out of 5
26 Ratings

About

The Traction Podcast provides founders with the tools to optimize their mind, body, and business for peak performance.

Information

  • Creator
    Traction Podcast
  • Years Active
    2021 - 2026
  • Episodes
    170
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Traction Podcast
  • Show Website
    Traction Podcast

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