Nico Torteli

Nico Torteli, a former Olympic swimmer and successful fintech entrepreneur, shares his inspiring journey from the competitive swimming world to the realm of startups. After a notable athletic career, which included breaking records and competing in the 1988 Seoul Olympics, Nico transitioned into finance, co-founding multiple fintech companies in Brazil. His passion for sports and technology culminated in the creation of Sportidia, a social media platform designed to foster community and encourage physical activity among athletes and fitness enthusiasts. Throughout the conversation, Nico emphasizes the resilience and grit required both in sports and entrepreneurship, illustrating how the lessons learned in the pool translate to navigating the challenges of startup life. With insights into the importance of community and support in achieving fitness goals, this episode is a valuable resource for anyone interested in the intersections of athletics and entrepreneurship.

Story

Nico Torteli's journey from the competitive swimming world to the entrepreneurial realm is a testament to resilience and adaptability. As a former Olympic swimmer representing Brazil, Nico shares insights into his early life in Rio and the pivotal moments that shaped his athletic career. His transition from the pool to the boardroom began with a degree in Industrial Systems Engineering from the University of Florida, where he not only honed his academic prowess but also navigated the pressures of collegiate athletics. Nico's unique perspective as an athlete informs his approach to business, particularly in the high-stakes world of fintech, where he co-founded multiple companies in Brazil before returning to the US. His experience as an athlete prepared him for the challenges of entrepreneurship, where the stress of competition mirrors the pressures of startup life. Throughout this conversation, Nico emphasizes the importance of community and social connections in sports and business, ultimately leading him to create Sportidia, a social media platform designed to foster physical activity and connect athletes globally. The discussion draws parallels between the discipline required in sports and the grit needed in the startup landscape, showcasing how Nico leverages his athletic background to inspire others and drive innovation.

Takeaways:

• Nico Torteli's journey from Olympic swimmer to fintech entrepreneur showcases resilience and adaptability in diverse fields.
• His experience as an Olympic athlete deeply influenced his approach to handling stress and competition in business.
• The pandemic inspired Nico to create Sportidia, a social media platform focused on connecting athletes and fitness enthusiasts.
• Nico emphasizes the importance of community in sports, helping individuals feel supported and motivated to participate.
• The transition from athlete to entrepreneur mirrors the challenges faced in high-level competition and requires similar grit.
• Nico's perspective on aging in sports highlights the importance of continuous growth and embracing new challenges.

Chapters

• 00:10 - Nico Torteli's Olympic Journey
• 04:48 - The Road to the Olympics: A Journey Begins
• 13:48 - Transitioning from Athlete to Entrepreneur
• 21:09 - The Birth of Sportidia

Links

Sportidia: https://sportidia.com/

Please leave us a review: https://podchaser.com/DesigningSuccessfulStartups

Tech Startup Toolkit (book): https://www.amazon.com/Tech-Startup-Toolkit-launch-strong/dp/1633438422/

Site with all podcasts: https://jothyrosenberg.com/podcast

Jothy’s non-profit: https://whosaysicant.org

Jothy’s TEDx talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNtOawXAx5A

Hello, I'm Jafi Rosenberg, the host of Designing Successful Startups, where today's guest is Nico Tortelli.

I was living in Brazil and then I was invited to roam with the Olympic torch.

So I was part of the really.

They invited athletes that went to the Olympics, any Olympics, you know, to participate.

Nico Tortelle is a former Olympic swimmer and a graduate of the University of Florida.

Following his athletic career, he began his professional journey at an investment bank in Brazil.

After returning to the United States, he leveraged his expertise in sports and technology to co found Sportidia, a social media platform dedicated to inspiring physical activity and fostering a global community of athletes and fitness enthusiasts.

And here is Nico.

Well, hello, Nico.

Hello.

It actually comes from Antonio.

That's my middle name in Portuguese.

Little Antonio is Antonico.

It's like, you know, the little in Portuguese, it's got the Miko.

So I became Miko forever.

Well, that actually is a nice segue to my very first question, which is, where are you originally from and where do you live now?

Okay, so I was born and raised, raised in Rio, Brazil.

When I was 17 to 18, I came to swim at Mission Diego in California.

It was, it was right when I got accepted into college in Brazil and my swimming career wasn't going so good.

So I kind of convinced my parents, you know, let me take a year off and I'll just swim, which is awesome, although really hard, and see if I change my status.

So I left Brazil.

I was probably the fifth, sixth swimmer in the country, stayed about 10 months in Mission Viejo and went back and then broke the Brazilian record.

So that when my career jumped and then I qualified for the World Championship, uh, and then my parents said, no, you gotta go back and work out, you know, six more months through the World Championship.

So, you know, you don't ruin, you know, like the very end.

So I got an extra six months.

Six months.

And then a friend of mine came with me and we swam.

You know, it was like a life of a swimmer.

So you just like practice, you eat right, you rest and then competitions like every weekend.

That's why, you know, it does change a lot.

It was the best ever qualification.

I was 14th of the world that year.

Two years later, I swam the Olympics in 88 in Seoul.

And then while in Seoul, I was already attending college in Rio in Brazil.

And Then I realized that my swimming career was going to go, you know, ah, you're trying to study, get a degree, blah, blah, blah.

I said, maybe I should have stayed in US and get a degree while swimming because, you know, college and sports here run much better than anywhere else in the world.

Then talking to people at the Olympics, I was recruited by the University of Florida.

So I came here in 89 and started my degree or my schooling in US so I have a degree of industrial Systems Engineering at the University of Florida while swimming.

So then I got the whole second part, which is like going to NCAA and SCCS and all the college experience, which I didn't have in Brazil.

I had all the club experience.

That's, you know, more likely.

And then after I graduated, I was at University of Florida as an engineer and like, kind of switching, you know, from swimmer to engineer and realized I could get scholarship to get a master's.

So I decided to stay and then got my master's at the University of Florida.

Helped with the, you know, schools like that, which I didn't know, but they had big athletic departments where if you kind of get the degree that normally an athlete doesn't get, you get to go back and tutor, like math and physics and things like that for football players.

So, you know, I tutor people like Emmett Smith and other UF football players and basketball players, which was pretty cool.

Then I went back home and that's how my professional career started.

I was back in Brazil, but then got a job to move to Sao Paulo, not Rio anymore.

But then when the Rio Olympics happened, you were already living in Brazil, right?

Yes, I was living in Brazil.

And then I was invited to run with the Olympic torch.

So I was part of the.

Really?

They invited athletes that went to the Olympics, any Olympics, you know, to participate.

Of course, you know, there's the.

The ones that actually lit up the fire.

But I was in before that, running.

Funny coincidences.

I was invited by Coca Cola to.

To run this.

It was actually my wife knew somebody in Coca Cola.

They were looking for athletes.

My husband went to the Olympics, and that's how I got in.

But it's funny how you become famous again, you know, for a little while you just run 300 meters, so it's pretty short.

But, you know, once you get the torch, you're in the middle of the streets and there's a ton of people getting selfies and things.

And then somebody in a truck with the organization, they start announcing, oh, this is Nico, he went to the Olympics.

And blah, blah, blah, and People didn't know, but you know, this guy's holding the torch, he must be famous.

So I have a, you know, I had a lot of people surrounding me.

Let me get a selfie.

Let me get a selfie.

It was pretty, pretty cool.

Yeah, but see they don't, they didn't know you could run because you're a swimmer.

Who's this?

I tell you, they only gave me 300 meters.

One more swimming question.

All that time when you were, you know, first getting excited about swimming as a, as a kid and swimming competitively all the way through the, the Olympics, was it always breaststroke or was that the only thing you competed in or.

Yeah, this is also a funny story.

When I started I was a good backstroker and, but that was way, way when I was a kid, like 8 year old, 9 year old kid.

I don't know what happened exactly, but I started to get better breaststroke.

And if I am to tell you the one stroke I can't swim is backstroke.

So I have very old, you know, like programs in my bum cap that show that I won a backstroke event then never again.

So my IM was really bad because of my backstroke, but I was a sprinter, so.

And, and it's funny, you know, when I look at a swimmer I can tell if they're long distance swimmer, if they're freestylers, backstrokers, they all have different kind of bodies.

So I'm, I am short, bulky and so I was typical sprint breaststroker, even the 200 for me it was like, ah, it's too long.

I would love if they had the 50 breaststroke at my time, but they didn't.

That was the first time ever the 50 freestyle was in the Olympics.

And they never made it that they added the 50 butterfly, breaststroke, backstroke, they say it's because it's going to add, you know, too many metals to one sport.

So they never did.

But it was my dream to have the 50 breasts.

I probably would have swum like 10 more years, you know, if they had the 50 breasts.

So.

But you, you do train, you know, more freestyle than everything.

So you know, when you're, when you're working out like everything from your distance, your endurance or your, there's a lot of freestyle in it.

So yeah, I did get to swim 53 because I was a sprinter and I did swim the im, you know, but it was, I was dead last on the backstroke and then picked up everybody on the breaststroke and then it was like no more air to come back for the freestyle.

So normally I would be like top three going from last to first.

So all the wheel class freestyle swimmers are very tall with very long arms.

So.

So you're telling me you're not tall?

You know, you can't tell on a, on a video call.

How tall are you?

I'm five nine.

I'm, I'm a short breast joker.

But when I go to big events up to today, they've got stronger than what we used to be.

And they said nowadays they do a lot more weight training than what we used to.

So you see them like very bodybuilding style, but most of the times the breast strokers are short and you're right, the freestylers are long and tall.

Seven feet tall is like, you know, your top eight.

Probably everybody's over seven feet tall.

They say that Michael Phelps, like the normal measurement is that fingertip to fingertip is like within a half an inch of your height in most people.

In his case, he's like 4 inches longer.

This width.

Yeah.

It started with a guy, a German guy, I don't know if you remember, but he saw him in my Olympics name was Michael Gross, from, from Germany.

He was the albatrix.

And it was sad because he, when he swung the butterfly, it seemed like he was going to touch both lanes, you know, because his arms wouldn't fit.

So some of the swimmers, especially the butterflyers are, you know, they have a long wingspan.

The other thing about Michael Phelps is that his legs are short compared to his torso, which again, there is a, there is a proportionality where, you know, they're normally 20% higher, but he's the other way around.

And I've had friends that swam, I am, that are like that.

And I think it's because once your legs get shorter, you spend less oxygen with your kick.

It's all, you know, swimming to me is fun or funny because even the ones, their body are not made for anything else.

There will be good in one of the strokes that we swing.

So if it's everybody.

Well, let me ask you a.

It's a, it still involves the Olympics in your background, but, but not, not directly about, you know, the competition.

But how did the experience of being an Olympic athlete shape your perspective on the rest of your life, both personally and professionally?

For everything when, when you're an athlete and sometimes you work just as hard, but you don't make it all the way or you're there and you know, it changes from discipline to go seeking.

So, you know, normally when athletes say you know, I'm going to do this.

And they will die trying.

They will keep doing it.

And that sort of permeated into when I graduated, went back home.

I didn't know.

I had no idea what I was going to do.

I was an engineer.

And then a friend of mine working in investment bank, a very aggressive investment bank, and he said, you know, you should give me your resume and let's see if they interview you.

And it was funny because, you know, all these people making a ton of money in the, in the financial market, and, you know, they sat with me.

He's like, oh, yeah, you didn't go to the top 10 schools in U.S.

i said, yeah, I did.

No, you didn't.

You didn't go to an Ivy League.

I said, no, I went to a top 10 school in swimming.

That's who would give me a scholarship.

And not, you know, Harvard would not give me a scholarship, but UF would, because, you know, we were second at ncaa, and all of a sudden the whole room starts to go, you know, we're way better than you professionally.

But, you know, you're just not losing your cool because you're.

You're discussing.

And then the other question that came right after is like, yeah, yeah.

Were you ever at a situation of stress?

And I said, what do you mean?

It's like, yeah, I imagine the whole market is going down.

Everybody's yelling on the trade desk, and, you know, we got the wrong position and clients are calling and blah, blah, blah.

I said, have you ever walked into a room with eight people in the finals and they're all going to swim and they have a minute to prove who is best?

You can smell the adrenaline.

You can see that even the world record holder is nervous.

That, to me, is stress.

What you say has got enough time to fix it.

And I got the job.

So it was like, you know, you've been trying to create things that athletes have lived, not because, you know, they're trying to be badass or anything, but you just, you know, you see tennis player, they're 18 years old, they're going through more stress to play a final in Wimbledon than anybody else in the professional world would ever go through their lives.

So it did help me a lot to get, you know, a job.

And then when I decided to become an entrepreneur, I tend to say that startups is just like athletic career.

You, you have an idea, you think you're going to get there.

Nobody has a recipe, and it's all on your.

Plus, whoever you put on the team just you know, keep shooting.

Well, the one thing that for sure brings the athlete, the world's best athlete down and brings everyone down is aging.

And so there was a point somewhere along the way when you realized, okay, I'm getting older and I'm not going to be able to, you know, keep this up and compete with these guys.

And then how did you, how did this transition from being top, you know, top small percent of athletes in swimming in the world and go into this new, you know, career in finance?

This is actually a cool, funny question because I went through that a lot.

Not only in the career, but also you get old, but you don't want to be enacted, so you keep trying other sports.

So, you know, I went there to learn snowboarding.

And the third day I was like, why am I not in a pool?

You know, I know everything there and I'm falling on my butt for three days here, and everybody's laughing at me.

My kids are making fun of me because they're doing it already.

So also, when you try something else, you're, you're.

And, and the better you are, the worse it is.

I, we had a guy that was maybe two, four years older than me.

He was a world record holder from Brazil on the 400 IM.

He came to Texas for school.

I was in the team with him.

And I remember he started a little bit before me in the financial market.

And, you know, he would be harassed like, oh, yeah, you think you're not the world record holder.

You're just a trainee at the firm.

And it's right at.

For 10 more years, 15 more years, that every pool he walked in, he was still somebody that, you know, people would go, oh my God, it's you.

But in the financial market, he was a nobody.

Well, he didn't continue.

So some, it's really hard to switch, but it, you're right.

It starts with age.

And I, I have a thing that I say, and people get mad at me because I say all the good athletes are dumb.

And I, they say, oh, you think, but you smart.

It's.

No, no, no.

When you start questioning, why am I doing this?

You know, should I get a career?

That's when your career in swimming gets sort of derailed because you don't believe everything anymore.

And while you're believing everything, like you believe your coach, you believe your, you believe your program.

That's when you succeed.

So there's a, I say it, you know, kind of, in a funny way, they're not stupid, but it's like they're, they're believers.

And there's a point in life where you start questioning, I can't live off that, you know, my whole life, I gotta do something else.

And, and that's when you start balancing, balancing four sports.

It doesn't fit.

If you start balancing, that means your career is not 100% of your focus.

So things kind of start.

Somebody else is focusing a hundred percent at the same event that you swear and they're going to come stronger than you because, you know, I went like my last year in college, it had been like three years, it was 92.

So it was four years after the Olympics.

So I was an older side, but I remember going to some, I think it was SEC conference and the professor here in school, you know, if you have an exam, the professor would give it to the coach and the coach would apply the exam to you in the, in the hotel room.

So I remember I was like me and another two taking exams and the other swimmers were just like sleeping because all they cared about was swimming.

You know, their grades could, you know, suffer.

So that's when you realize, oh my God, you know, they're racing at the afternoon, we're going to swim against each other.

I've been three hours, you know, thinking on an exam and they've been sleeping.

So something changed.

Hi.

The podcast you are listening to is a companion to my recent book, Tech Startup Toolkit, how to Launch Strong and Exit Big.

This is the book I wish I'd had as I was founding and running eight startups over 35 years.

It's like a memoir of my entrepreneurial journey.

I tell the unvarnished truth about what went right and especially about what went wrong.

Wrong.

It's for the founder, the CEO and wannabe founders of tech and non tech startups.

You could get it from all the usual booksellers and also from the publisher@banning.com.

i hope you like it.

It's a true labor of love.

Now back to the show.

And now we get to talk about your shirt.

And yep, yep.

Make sure everybody can see it.

Just flex that breaststroker chest for a second.

Where's my whole life shirt?

Yeah, yeah.

That's why you became a swimmer.

So the shirts look good, right?

So, so it's a, it's a startup that, that you created called Sportidia.

Yes.

And so, so what, what was it about or what was happening in, in life that led you to start this?

And while you're at it.

Tell us what it is.

Okay.

So very quickly the investment bank got sold to a big bank and then the whole entrepreneurship that you normally have in a smaller investment bank went away.

And I realized that's what I liked, you know, But I was in the financial market so I was invited to be a co founder in a fintech.

From that I opened another fintech, another fintech.

So I had three fintechs in Brazil.

The last one I did well on the first two, very badly on the third one.

Just like a normal athletic career, not all the swim meets you do well.

I went to California.

Both of my kids wanted to go to school there, so they attended ucsd.

We moved as a family.

I still worked with fintechs.

And then came the pandemic.

In the pandemic, what I realized was most of my friends that were some in some way shape or form physical activity participants, people that would like from running, triathlon or just like, you know, going to the gym.

Everybody was locked up.

So you're locked in, you can't do anything.

Everybody was going to social media.

And then it came like the idea, you know, why don't do I use my technology expertise and build an app where I get the social aspect of the sports into the app.

So it's like a social media for sports.

It's something that when you're there, there's nothing about war, politics, religion, it's all about, you know, we became friends because you swim and I swim.

I met you in a call but then it just clicked because you talk about a workout.

Then I went to the pool here and did the workout.

You told me.

So you know, people start to get connected because of the app.

I have had the idea before, but then I said maybe I should take it serious.

And that's what Sportidia is all about.

It's a mix of the word sports in English with social media in Portuguese.

And I became Sportidia.

And the idea is what if your feed has activities that instead of just saying that you like, maybe you can just click and say I'm going to that one.

So yeah, you know, let's go swimming on Saturday.

I post on the feed and you just say I'm going.

And somebody else says go, go, go.

And somebody that's out of town is visiting and they see, oh, this guy's a whole crazy, they're swimming at the ocean, you know, Saturday morning, maybe I should join.

And then what, what I did in Scorchedia is like one of the basics idea of startups.

Don't create anything, just copy what's out there.

So we just picked up a bunch of features and ideas from different social medias and platforms.

So once you see that I posted something about swimming in the ocean, then you go into my profile and it's a little bit like a LinkedIn of sports.

You will see that, you know, in swimming, I'm pretty good, but, you know, in, in CrossFit, I'm about average.

In snowboarding, I'm still, you know, suffering.

But, and I make a joke like that we're the only social platform that you can actually say in your profile that you are a beginner because you're not afraid of saying, you know, I'd love to learn fencing, but I'm, I'm a zero.

You know, I.

In any other platforms, you got to create something that your profile becomes attractive.

So even if it's not real, you can't go to LinkedIn and say, you know, I am an accountant, but I know nothing.

I just want to learn.

So sports allows you to do that.

It just.

Other people will come.

And this is the interesting part about sports is if you say you don't know and you come to a workout with me or you, and they don't know as much or they will help.

You know, it's, it's in most of the places I went, it's in their nature, the community aspect of it.

Every time you register for any of these sports or physical activities, you will see that somebody's out there as crazy as you trying to do the same thing.

But, you know, they may be better or, or in a different level and they all stop to help.

It's, it's really harder to go somewhere that nobody will even talk to you.

From, from young to masters, there's always coming.

And then most of my friends, you know, from life, from professional life or from early ages or college, there were athletes somehow, I mean, they've done something.

So that's when things clicked.

So in 21, we raised the first round and then 22, we launched the app and now we are kind of like on a third version.

So we've learned a lot, made a few mistakes here and there, and now we're just going through a full launch of what we think it's going to become the biggest hub of sports.

Not really in my.

There's, there's, there's users that do that.

They, they talk about sports, their fans, but it's more about, you know, doing sweat.

Yeah.

And then come here and I, I tell this to every time I pitch to investors or I'm telling a story.

Nowadays, every time you're going to do something like if you have a swimming workout or a bunch of buddies want to go hiking, it starts on a messaging app, iMessage or WhatsApp, then you do it and it ends in Instagram.

Somebody posts pictures or videos about it.

So normally it's got those connections.

We just add it all up into Sportiga and trying to, you know, make it a one stop shop for you to find people do it and then create content.

I would think that a closer comparison, although not the same but closer, would be something like Strava.

Maybe we consider Strava is a good comparison.

Their DNA or the reason they were created was actually to help you while, you know, performing your activity.

So they, they do track a bunch of metrics and now they're trying to move into, become a social app where you know, you kind of will go for a bike ride and you know, it gets your distance, your attitude and all the things that happen while you're biking and that might become a content that somebody is interested.

We were, we come from a different angle.

We bring the social aspect and maybe we'll improve that into getting metrics.

But if you look at, we have currently 110 sports that actually have some kind of poster content.

So if you get like, you know, base jumping or beach volleyball or we have, we have pillow fight that's in our app.

And none of those have metrics that would fit an app like Strava.

None of those have an app.

Some of them may have an app to rent a place.

So like you get tennis paddle those, those have an app for you to rent a court.

Some like basketball, football, you might find an app for a pickup game that you might find people organizing it.

The idea of Sportida is kind of bringing features from all of those and in our mind we're like the slack of all those other apps.

So my view is that one day maybe you do something in Strava and that creates a content in Sportidia, you know, because they're integrated and then you have a whole community of friends that would be interested that you biked a hundred miles, although none of them are bikers or cyclists and none of them are in Strava.

But they are, they met you because they swim with you or you know, they do yoga with you or something.

And, and that's what Sportida is trying.

To catch I, I'm a very narrow user of, of Strava, so I don't even know all the other things it can do.

The only thing I care about is other people recommending a specific bike route for a workout.

That's the only thing I, and so it's, it seems like it's pretty limited.

And I, and I, and I like your comparison to messaging to create an event that's social.

You know, here's my friends and then Instagram to sort of show the fun aspects maybe of what it was, you know, or what it was like because.

I recruit more friends to come next time.

You know, I don't know if I told you this in our first discussion, but I have this foundation for kids who've become disabled and we get them whatever equipment they need to get into a sport.

So there's a, there's, there's a sport.

You know, at the root of it is a sport that is going to help them rebuild their self esteem.

I'm thinking about trying to bring them in.

And then, you know, there would be this other category.

It would be like, you know, I don't know, running, amputee running, you know.

Yeah, I'd love that.

And, and, and this is how we differentiate from everybody else.

It becomes a community.

And now, you know, let's say, you know, we run ads for free for your foundation and sporty.

Then other people that didn't know about this, this work might get interested because they know somebody that's going through the same thing or they just want to help because they, they are into the sport or some sport, you know, just as, as, as much.

So, you know, why not provide this to kids?

And yes, those are, I normally say, people say, oh, you should talk to a very famous, you know, athlete to become your ambassador.

I know the ambassador in Sportilla might be a person that's an amputee and run or a single mom that just had a baby and now she wants to get back in shape and you know, she thinks she's not fit to go to a gym or studios or she wants to try something at home.

Those are the people that will say, you know, Sportivia changed my life.

I became more physically active.

Some of them might go all the way in the career of sports and you know, turn into something.

And of course I'm not saying, you know, the best athletes are not welcome, but normally it's when I say, when I see other more people participating, that's what kind of drives my, my energy to keep building Sportiga.

And we'll put it in the show notes, but just say what the, where they go to find the app and to sign up, just if you have.

An Android, Google Play or app store for the iPhones and download Sportidia and that's it, you register and then you start posting.

The one trait about the whole thing is that every post you have to say you know, the location and the sport that you're participating.

You can post things that we call content posts.

It's just like a tip or something that you know.

Or you can actually post a workout that you did or will do.

And then when you post an activity, the future is coming and what we're going to have is like, you know, charts and then telling you, oh, look how good you did.

You know, last month you did five activities, this month you did six.

So it's like trying to get people better.

We are also launching a medals program, which is not a medal because you won or you broke a record or you're just a better.

It's just medals for what you've done in the app.

So maybe you create an activity in five people confirmed and went play with you or train with you, that gives you a medal, or you brought three friends to become a sportiti that gives you a medal.

And so the idea is, how do we motivate or use the same tools that social media has to keep you glued to the screen, but we use the tools to keep you out of your house, go somewhere and get fit.

I wouldn't say fit too much.

I've, I've seen a lot of people say it's too much suffering.

I like the social of it.

I go to the gym to talk more than to lift with.

That's fine.

You went, you know, it's good for the brain, it's good for the, for your health because you participating in something and you always get moving.

So, you know, even if you talk more at the gym than lift weights, you still lift something.

You could have been home, you know, just zapping the remote control and that, right?

Oh, I think it's, I think it's fun.

So hey, when you, when you think back, because this, you know, now we're just going to sort of link the Sportidia to all the other things that you've done.

But to do what you did and swim the way you did had to take a lot of grit.

And to do a startup after you were very successful in financial services and fintech, a lot of grit clearly exhibited.

But where do you think it came from?

Oh, that's a Very.

That's a very hard question.

I have a history at home.

My.

My father was a basketball player.

Now, wait, he can't have been five, nine.

No, no.

He married a very short mom that I have, and she's the one that I blame.

I said, because he tried to make me a basketball player.

And again, same thing about career decision.

But at 12 years old, you're like, I'm not growing like this.

I better do something else.

So I became a swimmer.

But I was.

A few years ago, I was talking to a friend, and he was like, you know, I gotta get my kid to do what you did.

I gotta get my kid to go to the Olympics.

And I've got him into playing tennis and running into one of these things.

And then it got me thinking.

It comes with a person.

It's not really something you enforce.

Most of the athletes, I've seen parents who say, I don't know why, but this kid would never let his ball go.

Or, you know, it'd be 10 at night and he would be shooting hoops at the garage at that, you know, bad basketball board that they had it.

And I really don't know if it's from example or genetic.

What I know is most of us, we're determined, but I think resilient would be a better description.

It's.

It's normally people that if they win or lose, and it's true, if they win or lose the second after, they're thinking about the next race.

So I.

I've seen many of us, many people, there's not much celebration when you win.

You're like, oh, shit, there's another race.

There's.

When is there other race?

So it's like, you can, you know, I've seen guys say, at the next Olympics, dude, that's four years down the road.

You're talking about this already?

Yes.

You're.

You're normally.

These people are.

And I think that, you know, if you want to make a link.

I seen that a lot in founders and startup.

They're, you know, it's like everything that you accomplish.

Yes, but you wanted to accomplish that.

So what's the next.

What's the next.

And not next startup, but next goal, the next, you know, the next hurdle, the next benchmark, the next KPI.

It's like, okay, I got to a thousand users.

How do I get to 3,000?

Go celebrate that.

You got a thousand users.

No, no, no.

You always said 3,000 mark.

Well, the same thing is true when, when a startup ends, whether it ends well or ends poorly.

The.

A lot of founders, myself included, because I'm on number nine, said, oh, okay, well, I want to do another one.

And here's the market I want to be in.

And I don't want to make these mistakes or, well, that was great.

We, you know, we had a good outcome, but, you know, now I want to use some of what I earned and, and do another one again.

It's kind of the same.

It's kind of the same as the.

That's me.

And not a whole lot of people around you gets it.

There's like, why other day I went to an event with where my kids worked and his boss's boss.

I don't understand you people.

Why do you keep creating startups?

And it's like, I don't understand why you become an executive when you grow up.

And the fun for us is, what's the next one?

What's the next one?

But that's why I normally compare, you know, and it's not only an athletic or a sports career.

You know, if you're a singer or an actor or anything that you're always trying to get better at what you do, that's the same thing as a founder, there's not much difference.

I agree.

Well, this is.

This was a wonderful conversation, Nico.

Thank you.

Great.

Thank you so much.

And I hope I see you in a pool or the ocean.

So I'm not going Alcatraz.

That's too cold for me.

And I know that's your preferred event, but if you ever hit South Florida, this one, a long event, you know, let me know and I'll go swim.

I'll break my sprinting habits and I will swim along this swim slower.

That's a wrap.

Thanks for tuning into this week's episode of the Designing Successful Startups podcast.

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This is Jothy Rosenberg saying ttfn ta ta for now.