How Keith Rabois Trains His Body Like a Billion-Dollar Startup
Venture capitalist Keith Rabois joins Louisa Nicola to explain how he trains his body like an elite athlete to stay sharp as an investor. He argues VO2 max is the single best predictor of lifespan, that most of his supplement stack is surprisingly 'vanilla,' and that embracing stress — not avoiding it — is the real key to health, wealth and performance.
Overview
In this hour-long conversation on TNE with Louisa Nicola, venture capitalist Keith Rabois explains why he approaches his own body and brain the way an elite athlete does. He makes the case that VO2 max is the single most powerful signal for projecting how long someone will live, and recommends a proper treadmill test once a year to set a baseline. He reads his own blood work through trends built over 20+ years and warns that standard reference ranges are the wrong target for anyone optimizing for performance.
His supplement routine is deliberately unexotic — creatine at 10-15 grams for cognition, plus omega-3, vitamin D, whey, green tea and turmeric — alongside daily red light therapy and cryotherapy. Rabois links physical training to staying intellectually young and relevant as an investor, and shares how years of nagging a friend about sleep led him to invest early in Eight Sleep. He returns often to reading as the trait that predicts success, and to fast, high-stakes judgment of people learned through trial and error.
The heart of the episode is his belief, drawn from Kelly McGonigal's 'The Upside of Stress,' that people who embrace stress live longer and perform better — with the caveat that uncontrollable chronic stress is different. Throughout, he frames discipline as compounding habits, 'no days off,' and closes on luck as preparation multiplied by opportunity. As always, this is educational wellness content, not medical advice.
Key quotes
5If you only have one signal about a human and you want to project how long they're going to live, it's your VO2 max that you want to know and improve every day.
As soon as I started reading the cognitive research, every day infallibly I have at least 10 grams of creatine.
I treat my workouts as brushing my teeth. You don't skip brushing your teeth — and if you do it every day, you just keep doing it every day.
People who had the most stress in their life live the longest. The more stress you embrace, the better you perform.
Luck equals preparation times opportunity — and the preparation part people skip over.
Key ideas
9VO2 max as the master longevity signal
Rabois argues that if you could know just one number about a person's future lifespan, it would be their VO2 max. He recommends a canonical treadmill test once a year to set a real baseline, then using a watch for relative tracking in between.
Read labs by trends and ratios, not single results
Good interpretation rests on trends built over years and on ratios judged by age, sex and goals. He has worked with a concierge doctor since 2003, giving him two decades of trends to isolate what is truly unusual for him.
Reference ranges are the wrong target for performance
For someone optimizing performance, a 'normal' result is usually the wrong answer. He points to twice catching hidden health issues in fit young friends whose VO2 max or resting heart rate looked off.
A deliberately vanilla supplement stack
Most of what he takes is unremarkable — omega-3, multivitamin, vitamin D, whey, green tea and NAD — with creatine at 10-15 grams a day driven by cognitive research rather than aesthetics. He avoids peptides and anything exotic.
Turmeric and the anti-inflammatory angle
After a back injury, a specialist convinced him to lean on turmeric instead of aggressive interventions. He credits curcumin with blocking the inflammatory marker NF-κB and has taken it daily since.
Sleep is 80% of the game
He echoes the view that consistent, high-quality sleep and avoiding alcohol are the fundamentals that outweigh advanced tweaks. That conviction led him to seed-invest in Eight Sleep in 2013 after a friend flagged the company.
Voracious reading predicts success
From reading the encyclopedia at age four to an unlimited childhood books budget, he sees voracious reading in nearly every high achiever he has known. He forces an hour of reading a day, inspired by a passage on Richard Nixon.
Assessing people fast is a trainable muscle
Inspired by Margaret Thatcher's claim to size up a minister in seconds, he learned through trial and error to sort LinkedIn profiles into yes/no/maybe. He reads trajectory, talent pools and interviews only for what a resume can't reveal.
The upside of stress
Drawing on Kelly McGonigal's 'The Upside of Stress,' he argues that embracing stress improves performance and even longevity, while noting that uncontrollable chronic stress is a real exception. Believing stress is helpful, studies show, measurably improves outcomes.
Practical takeaways
7- 1
Get a VO2 max baseline once a year 5:00
Consider a proper annual treadmill test to establish a real number, then use a wearable for relative, day-to-day tracking of progress.
- 2
Judge your labs over time, not by one snapshot 12:00
Look at trends across years and at ratios, and seek a specialist when optimizing for performance rather than only screening for illness.
- 3
Favor evidence-backed basics over exotic stacks 22:00
The fundamentals — creatine, omega-3, vitamin D, whey, sleep — tend to carry most of the benefit; keep 'advanced' additions modest and well-researched.
- 4
Make healthy habits frictionless 28:00
Put the red light panel at home and choose a cryo spot within walking distance — convenience removes the excuses that break a routine.
- 5
Protect sleep before chasing biohacks 38:00
Consistent, deep sleep and less alcohol deliver most of the upside; dial in the fundamentals before layering on advanced tactics.
- 6
Reframe stress as a challenge to embrace 1:00:00
Treat pressure as fuel for growth rather than something to avoid, while managing the chronic, uncontrollable kind through routine and a sense of agency.
- 7
Double-count your time 1:04:00
Combine goals — like training alongside friends — so a single hour delivers both connection and fitness.
Topics & chapters
13Treating the body like an athlete
Louisa frames the episode: some of the most successful people in tech and investing treat themselves like elite athletes. Rabois describes intellectual curiosity applied to his own body and brain.
VO2 max: the master longevity signal
Why VO2 max is, for high performers, the single best predictor of lifespan — and why he asks founders and friends for their numbers.
Performance vs illness, and reading blood work
The spectrum from performance optimization to illness, and why interpreting labs takes a specialist reading trends and ratios by age, sex and goals.
Why reference ranges are wrong
For performance, a 'normal' result is usually the wrong answer; his own VO2 max sits near 60, and he shares stories of hidden issues caught in fit young friends.
Wearables and tracking every workout
Rabois wears a watch and heart-rate monitor daily to track year-over-year progress, and admits a workout 'doesn't count' if he isn't wearing it.
A deliberately vanilla supplement stack
Creatine at 10-15 grams for cognition, plus omega-3, multivitamin, vitamin D, whey, green tea and NAD — nothing exotic, no peptides.
Turmeric, curcumin and the NAD debate
Why he became devoted to turmeric for his back, how curcumin blocks the inflammatory marker NF-κB, and his measured take on NAD supplementation.
Red light, cryo and VO2 vs smoking
Daily red light therapy and cryotherapy made convenient at home, and Galpin's striking claim that raising VO2 max can rival quitting smoking.
How fitness makes a better investor
Staying physically and mentally young to remain relevant across generations of founders, and what he learns from athletes and DJs performing past 40.
Sleep first — and the Eight Sleep story
Sleep and avoiding alcohol are 80% of the game; how years of nagging a friend led him to seed-invest in Eight Sleep in 2013.
Reading as the predictor of success
From reading the encyclopedia at four to an unlimited books budget, why voracious reading recurs among the most successful people he's known.
Assessing people fast
Learning to judge talent like Margaret Thatcher, reading LinkedIn trajectories and talent pools, and the DoorDash founder as an easy call.
No days off, and the upside of stress
Habits as identity and 'no days off,' then the core thesis from 'The Upside of Stress' — embrace stress to perform — plus criticizing in public and double-counting time.