Ultramarathons & Entrepreneurship: Why the Mountain Knows More Than the Boardroom

This summer, I had two of the hardest and most humbling experiences of my life: Lavaredo 120K and UTMB.

Both races exposed me in ways I didn’t fully expect. They stripped away the noise, the ego, and the illusions of control. They left me face-to-face with my limits, and then asked two simple questions: are you willing to keep moving forward, and can you give more?

It’s the same question I ask myself every day as we build Checkfront, Regiondo, and Rezdy.

Running ultras and leading companies are different games, but they rhyme. The lessons from the trail map perfectly onto the boardroom. Here are the three I keep coming back to:

1. Keep It Simple

In an ultra, you can bury yourself under complexity. You watch splits, think about gear tweaks endlessly, and strategize all the time. But when you’re 10 hours in and your legs feel like stone, none of that matters. The only thing that matters is: one step forward, then another.

Business is no different. There are endless dashboards, competing priorities, and noisy opinions. But when things get tough, simplicity is power. Define what matters most, strip away the rest, and keep moving.

2. Fuel, Flexibility & Hitting the Wall

At some point, everyone cracks.

At Lavaredo, around 67 km, I missed gels, didn't drink enough water, skipped salt, and my body revolted—cramps, dizziness, the wheels coming off in the heat. At UTMB, just after Champex-Lac, my breathing collapsed—I couldn’t get air into my lungs. Both moments nearly ended the race for me.

Ultras guarantee suffering. So does entrepreneurship. The wall always comes. The question isn’t if, it’s how you respond when it does.

Fuel matters—you have to take care of the fundamentals. But flexibility matters even more. When your body rejects food, when the market shifts, when the playbook stops working, you adapt. You make adjustments, reset, and keep your head down.

The winners aren’t the ones who avoid pain. They’re the ones who find a way to keep moving through it.

3. The Next Aid Station

In the middle of the night on the UTMB course, you don’t think about the finish line. It’s too far away. You think about the next aid station. The next friend. The next familiar face waiting to cheer.

That’s how you keep going segment by segment, aid station to aid station.

Business is built the same way. You don’t grow global brands overnight. You make the next hire. Launch the next product. Win the next customer. Those milestones are the aid stations that keep you moving.

Why It Matters

Both ultra training and entrepreneurship are long games of resilience. They test patience, clarity, and adaptability. You don’t win by avoiding struggle, you win by embracing it.

Keep it simple. Fuel smart. Adapt when the plan breaks. Push through the lows. And never underestimate the power of focusing on just the next aid station.

You don’t have to be the fastest. You just have to keep going.