From Athlete To Entrepreneur: Vadim Fedotov Of Bioniq On The 5 Work Ethic Lessons We Can Learn From Athletes
An Interview With Maria Angelova
As an athlete, you’ve been through that already. You’ve been the youngest in the room or the worst player on the team, and you grew through that to become a better player and a bigger part of something. Eventually, you achieve greatness in the area that you become professional in. Those work ethics and sports approaches are very translatable to entrepreneurship.
As a part of our series about the work ethic lessons we can learn from professional athletes, I had the pleasure of interviewing Vadim Fedotov.
Vadim Fedotov has charted a diverse path from his early days as a professional basketball player with the German national team as well as American teams to his foray into the corporate sphere, where he was the CEO of various multinational and public companies. With a solid background in leadership roles, Vadim embarked on a new venture in 2019 with the launch of Bioniq in London, UK. Bioniq has established its niche in the health tech industry, offering personalized supplements based on a comprehensive analysis of blood test data.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! It is a great honor. Our readers would love to learn more about your personal background. Can you tell us the story of how you grew up?
I was born in a family where you either become a professional athlete, or a poet or a writer. Inspired by my dad, a former tennis player, I chose the path of sports. Basketball became my obsession, starting in my childhood and continuing with the German national team and later the Buffalo Bulls during my time at the University at Buffalo.
But, life had a few surprises in store for me. Despite my love for sports, I eventually found myself drawn to the world of health tech. Little did I know that my passion for sports and wellness would intersect with my desire to make a difference in people’s lives through personalized health solutions. That’s how Bioniq came to be — a company dedicated to tackling nutritional deficiencies and optimizing individual well-being. Today, we offer the world’s most personalized supplements based on blood markers.
What or who inspired you to pursue your career as a high-level professional athlete?
I was always inspired by my dad, who was a professional tennis player. He was quite young when I was born, only 19. Growing up, I saw his dedication to sports and success, so I wanted to emulate my father and follow in his footsteps.
From early childhood onward, I would try every single sport I could: soccer, tennis, volleyball, baseball, and, of course, basketball. In the end, I fell in love with basketball. It was the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona with the Dream Team featuring stars like Michael Jordan that made this sport very big and growing globally. Because of my background and of my dad’s success, I always knew that if I did something in the sports environment, it would be all or nothing.
So, I went all in and pursued a career as a basketball player, representing the German national team and playing Division I basketball in the United States at a professional level. It was something that certainly put me in a position to better understand my dad, his sacrifices, developments, successes, and especially his setbacks. It was a great bonding experience for both of us because we now have a journey we can both relate to.
None of us can achieve success without some help along the way. Was there a particular person who you feel gave you the most help or encouragement to be who you are today? Can you share a story about that?
I think from an athletic career standpoint, there are always going to be some coaches who are able to give you so much more than just knowledge of the game. I’m grateful to my German coach, Klaus Perwas, who is still one of the coaches of the German national team today. Klaus was instrumental in my development, both personally and athletically.
He would do certain things that you don’t understand fully until you get older. One of the things that I remember, we had a road trip. And on some of those days, he would just walk over to me around lunchtime, hand me his wallet with all the documents and cash in it and walk away without a word. A couple of days later he would come back to me and hold out his hand for the wallet. At that moment, I didn’t fully understand what was happening, but I later realized that was his way of saying, “Hey, I trust you to take care of this.” So, this coach played a significant role in my life, not only in terms of responsibility and building relationships but also in shaping my core values.
Another coach who played a pivotal role in my development was based in Buffalo, New York. It was Jim Kwitchoff. I loved two things he used to say again and again. When you’re a professional basketball player in U.S. Division I, it means you were quite good in high school or wherever you played prior. So, you come in with a very high opinion of yourself. It’s very common for players in the first year to behave arrogantly. So, the thing that stuck with me till this day is, “Don’t speak until spoken to,” meaning nobody cares about your opinion unless you are being asked. You have to perform first before you get the right to speak up.
The second thing he said is, “The less you ask for, the more you receive.” That second one is one of the guidelines to my life. I also keep it with me professionally and am trying to instill this belief into those with high potential at Bioniq.
The company, the management, and your surroundings will take care of you as long as you keep performing. Because nobody will be able to ignore your effort, input and your success. You don’t have to ask for appreciation — it will come. If people do not see or appreciate what you’re doing, then you need to change your surroundings. Asking for it will not help.
As an athlete, you often face high-stakes situations that involve a lot of pressure. Most of us tend to wither in the face of such pressure and stress. Can you share 3 or 4 strategies that you use to optimize your mind for peak performance before high-pressure, high-stress situations?
In sports, there are a lot of high-pressure situations. In basketball, there’s the end of the game — called crunch time — where every single position can decide whether you win or lose. If you play at somebody else’s arena, you have to deal with the crowd doing anything possible to get you out of your rhythm, including screaming obscenities about you, your private life, your parents and your family. There’s no filter to what you hear in a sports stadium, and you have to know how to handle that without it affecting your game.
The thing that I started doing quite early in my career is called “visualization of success.” I started working with sport psychologists who help you envision yourself in a difficult situation, like the end of the game. You have to try to create a muscle memory through thoughts by closing your eyes, being present in the situation, hearing the sound of the success, feeling how you let the ball go, how it goes through the net and the crowd’s reaction. Because you already envisioned it so many times prior, when you get in the situation, your mind and your body takes over. So I believe, by training, both physically and mentally, you can prepare yourself to be much more stable in high-stress situations.
Then afterwards in the real world, you have to make this your routine. Firstly, you have to envision an ideal outcome of an important event or a meeting. Secondly, envision how you behave and feel afterwards, because then the energy will take over and guide you to receive the outcome that you’re striving towards.
Can you tell us the story of your transition from a professional athlete to a successful business person?
So, I played basketball professionally for the German national team and for the Buffalo Bulls university team from 2005 to 2009.
But, after going through four ACL tears, I finally accepted the fact that my dreams of a professional sports career would be limited. I decided to complete my degree in international business and marketing, and subsequently ventured into the field of supply chain management. I later joined Groupon, the fastest growing company in the world at that time. At 26 years old, I was the youngest CEO in 48 countries.
After living a fast-paced corporate life, I reached a point where I was completely burnt out. At just 30 years old, I felt like I wasn’t performing at my best, mentally or physically. I desperately wanted something that could help me optimize my physical, mental, and cognitive abilities.
That’s when it hit me: There was no company out there providing personalized solutions for people like me. In search of answers, I decided to see a doctor who recommended a bunch of expensive blood tests. To my surprise, the results came back showing nothing abnormal. Despite the doctor’s reassurance that I was healthy, I couldn’t shake off the constant feeling of being unwell. That’s when I realized that wellness goes beyond just the absence of illness.
I wanted to dive deeper into the effectiveness of micronutrients and gather more health data. So, in 2019, I took the plunge and launched Bioniq in London.
What are some of the most interesting or exciting new projects you are working on now?
The most exciting project I’ve been involved in is definitely Bioniq, the world’s most personalized supplements.
The idea behind the company is that the needs and goals of your body are constantly evolving. What your body requires during the winter months may differ from what it needs in the summer or during times of work-related stress. Furthermore, factors such as pregnancy, postpartum recovery, menopause, or fluctuations in testosterone levels also influence your body’s unique needs. This is precisely why Bioniq is designed to adapt to your body’s ever-changing requirements, providing exactly what it needs at any given time. Once you subscribe, your personalized Bioniq formula is continuously updated to ensure that you never receive the same formula with identical ingredients twice. So, you will always receive precisely what your body needs in the present moment.
Today, we offer two products. Bioniq PRO starts with blood test data to fully quantify the client’s nutrient imbalances and use this data as the basis to create their personalized supplement formula. Alternatively, clients can upload blood test results from any lab in the world. Afterwards, our patented algorithm analyzes results to create a custom formula in our London laboratory.
The Bioniq algorithm already leverages data from more than 40,000 people with over 4 million biochemical data points. We screen blood test results for a wide range of parameters like cholesterol, hormone levels, insulin count and the presence of microelements like ferritin and copper. Based on our technologies, we are able to track people’s blood values and overall health changes while creating tailor-made micronutrients.
Bioniq GO only requires an individual to complete a health quiz. Bioniq’s patented algorithm cross-references an individual’s answers with 4 million data points from our database of blood test laboratory results. We compare these answers to those of people who took both the quiz and a blood test, thus identifying deficiencies and the supplements needed to fix them. Using data we predict nutrient deficiencies and create a personalized supplement formula to address them.
Bioniq’s members may choose to receive supplements on subscription. We automatically restock personalized supplements every three months on a rolling subscription, and granules made in Switzerland are shipped right to their doors.
We also offer consultations with our certified nutritionists. They will walk you through your test results and custom supplement formula step by step, and provide specific diet and lifestyle advice for addressing your nutrient deficiencies.
Do you think your experience as a professional athlete gave you skills that make you a better entrepreneur? Can you give a story or example about what you mean?
There’s no doubt that professional sports set me up to give me certain skill sets that are incredibly important. When you’re an entrepreneur, there are always the same entrepreneurial jumps out of an airplane with a parachute that you have to construct on the way down.
First of all, you have to have faith in yourself. There has to be a certain confidence in your skill sets, knowing you can perform and do so in the public eye. Secondly, discipline. Any athlete has to go through 10,000 hours of routine movements to fully perfect them, so everybody understands that nothing in sports happens overnight. It takes a lot of repetition and hard work to be put into something before we become good at it.
Thirdly, entrepreneurship is a team sport. There’s nothing you can do by yourself that you couldn’t do better in a stronger team setting.
Confidence, discipline and teamwork are critical aspects of success in sports, and, in my mind, they translate perfectly to entrepreneurship, too.
Entrepreneurs and professional athletes share a common “hustle culture”. Can you share your “5 Work Ethic Lessons That Entrepreneurs Can Learn From Athletes”?
When I transitioned into the corporate world, one thing that stood out to me was the importance of adopting the training regimen mindset of an athlete. A standard week for me as a basketball player would be three workouts per day with one day off. A working day started at 5:30 with the morning workout, the next one was at 11:30 and then the 6:00 p.m. was the third workout per day.
If I had any sort of pains or minor injuries, those would never stop me from the working out part. If I felt ill or simply out of it, mentally or physically, this was never an excuse not to perform that day. And the thing that you learn is, once you’re in the training session or in the game, your hormones take over. So, however, you felt prior to the exercise or game, once you’re in it, you will perform. This is how we, as humans, are.
From a work ethic perspective, when you start a corporate job, you have a certain sense of, “How hard can it be to be in the office by 9:00?” I’ve been in the gym by 5:30 in the morning. I played with sprained ankles, broken noses, ligament tears, arthritis in my wrists, went through four major knee surgeries, and I’ve come to realize that there is hardly anything that could happen in the office that would make me feel physically incapable of sitting in a chair for hours. Eventually, you reach a point where the physical aspect becomes irrelevant to your performance.
Then the mental aspect is that you are capable of concentrating. You’re capable of going through difficult situations. You’ve been through losses and wins, and you always know that a loss hurts more than a win feels good. So, as an entrepreneur, especially in the beginning, you will face a lot of losses because most of the time you’re doing something that has never been done before. You try to disrupt a hard market or build something that is brand new, so failures and losses are inevitable.
And, as an athlete, you’ve been through that already. You’ve been the youngest in the room or the worst player on the team, and you grew through that to become a better player and a bigger part of something. Eventually, you achieve greatness in the area that you become professional in. Those work ethics and sports approaches are very translatable to entrepreneurship.
What would you advise a young person who aspires to follow in your footsteps and emulate your career? What advice would you give?
Seek answers and never stop midway. Searching for answers takes us to unexpected places. Sometimes it is a rocky path, but the answers are definitely worth it.
You are by all accounts a very successful person. How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?
I believe that a person can live much longer and more qualitatively. To achieve this, it is necessary to carefully monitor one’s health, engage in sports, train the brain, regularly undergo tests to track nutrient deficiencies and fight them with the help of individual supplements. All my work is aimed at giving people such an opportunity — to make health more accessible and actionable. If we live longer and fuller lives, we will be able to bring much more good and benefit to this world.
You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)
I think it’s high time we included mandatory lessons on healthy living and well-being in schools. Just having gym class isn’t cutting it anymore. The pressure to constantly achieve is starting to wear people down, even at a young age. So, we need to teach our kids the basics of finding balance within themselves, taking care of their well-being, and navigating the world around them.
Can you share your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Why does that resonate with you so much?
My favorite one is a quote from Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse: “If a man has nothing to eat, fasting is the most intelligent thing he can do. If, for instance, Siddhartha had not learned to fast, he would have had to seek some kind of work today, either with you, or elsewhere, for hunger would have driven him. But as it is, Siddhartha can wait calmly”.
Being disciplined and focused allows you to achieve heights that others can’t as they will take the next best or available thing.
We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we both tag them :-)
Tim Ferris. He himself, his book “The 4-hour body” and his podcast had a huge impact on my transition.
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for the time you spent on this. We wish you only continued success.
About The Interviewer: Maria Angelova, MBA is a disruptor, author, motivational speaker, body-mind expert, Pilates teacher and founder and CEO of Rebellious Intl. As a disruptor, Maria is on a mission to change the face of the wellness industry by shifting the self-care mindset for consumers and providers alike. As a mind-body coach, Maria’s superpower is alignment which helps clients create a strong body and a calm mind so they can live a life of freedom, happiness and fulfillment. Prior to founding Rebellious Intl, Maria was a Finance Director and a professional with 17+ years of progressive corporate experience in the Telecommunications, Finance, and Insurance industries. Born in Bulgaria, Maria moved to the United States in 1992. She graduated summa cum laude from both Georgia State University (MBA, Finance) and the University of Georgia (BBA, Finance). Maria’s favorite job is being a mom. Maria enjoys learning, coaching, creating authentic connections, working out, Latin dancing, traveling, and spending time with her tribe. To contact Maria, email her at angelova@rebellious-intl.com. To schedule a free consultation, click here.
