The Profile: The serial entrepreneur building billion-dollar brands & the luxury postnatal retreats

This edition of The Profile features Marc Lore, Coco Gauff, and others.

Good morning, friends!

I recently watched the Arnold Schwarzenegger documentary on Netflix, which details the colorful life and career of the bodybuilder-turned-actor-turned-politician.

One of the things that stood out across all three episodes was his relentless focus on action. And movement. And staying busy. He says, “When I wake up in the morning, I don’t ask myself, ‘How am I today,’ [or] ‘Do I feel sad today’?”

In other words, he doesn’t ruminate on how he feels on a daily basis. In a 1970s interview, Schwarzenneger reflected on his father and brother’s deaths and said that he tried to “eliminate” the feelings of sadness and despair. He added, “I’ve been training to do that — not to be affected by anything else from the outside.”

As the documentary cuts to today, Schwarzenneger stands by his words. “If you’re busy all the time, you don’t have time to think about this stuff. Let’s just move forward. Move. Move. Move. Move.”

I watched this and thought this was radical. Two weeks ago, I lost someone really dear to me, and it feels impossible to “not think about it.” But there’s a kernel of truth in what Schwarzenneger is saying: If you keep your mind busy, it’s harder for the intrusive thoughts to debilitate you.

At the same time that I saw this documentary, I started reading Bad Therapy by Abigail Shrier. It’s about the dangerous side effects of unnecessary or poorly executed mental health care. This part stood out:

“Psychologists have studied the states of mind that tend to make us more successful, whatever the challenge. There are at least two we can adopt: “action orientation” and “state orientation.”

Adopting an action orientation means focusing on the task ahead with no thought to your current emotional or physical state. A state orientation means you’re thinking principally about yourself: how prepared you feel in that moment, the worry you feel over a text left unanswered, the light prickling at the back of your throat, that crick blossoming in your neck.

Adopting an action orientation, it turns out, makes it much more likely that you accomplish the task.”

Schwarzenneger is the extreme on the “action orientation” spectrum. He does not do any deep thinking in the morning, and he likes to begin his day with, well, action.

He makes coffee, feeds his dogs, checks his email, and reads the news. “As soon as my coffee is finished, I ride my bike to the gym and exercise, and then I eat breakfast,” he writes in a newsletter edition titled, Win Every Morning. “That’s the first time of the day that I let myself start thinking.”

Truthfully, I often find myself closer to the “state orientation” end of the spectrum, but this gave me something to think about. I’ve said before that I do my best writing when there’s something difficult or dark going on in my life. I think that’s because the action (writing) is the thing that pushes me away from wallowing in my feelings for too long.

I’d love your thoughts on this one. Just hit reply and let me know what you think.

— Polina

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PROFILES.

— The serial entrepreneur building billion-dollar brands [**HIGHLY RECOMMEND**]
— The entrepreneurs trying to solve loneliness
— The tennis superstar chasing perfection
— America’s luxury postnatal retreats
— The tech company that pivoted to crypto

PEOPLE TO KNOW.

The serial entrepreneur building billion-dollar brands: Marc Lore, the entrepreneur behind Diapers.com and Jet.com, would like to disrupt food delivery. But he really wants to build a brand that actually lasts — one focused on dinner. His latest venture, a start-up called Wonder, exists to tackle food delivery, which Lore believes too often disappoints customers by arriving too slowly. (NYT; if you can’t access the article, try this link … For more, check out The Profile Dossier on Marc Lore here.)

The entrepreneurs trying to solve loneliness: Last year, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy declared loneliness an epidemic, ringing the alarm that social isolation was causing mental and physical harm. Teenagers were reporting record levels of sadness. Suicide rates were at a record high. While COVID kept people from their friends, families and peers, there were other factors at play — namely the advent of smartphone technology and the rise of social media. Now, investors and entrepreneurs focused on social connection are popping up around the country amid to alleviate our nation’s loneliness epidemic. (The Wall Street Journal; if you can’t access the article, try this link.)

The tennis superstar chasing perfection: Coco Gauff is as famous for her poise as she is for her tennis. Although she was the youngest American to win the Grand Slam title at the US Open since Serena Williams in 1999, it felt like a long time coming. Her kryptonite? Her perfectionism. (Vogue)

“Coco definitely shares a big-time trait with Andre in that she’s a perfectionist. Crazy perfectionist.”

COMPANIES TO WATCH.

America’s luxury postnatal retreats: There is a new high-end business popping up targeting affluent postnatal moms. Modeled after recovery centers in Taiwan and South Korea, luxury postnatal retreat centers are opening across the U.S. Operators are finding customers among wealthy new parents looking for an alternative to at-home recovery. The nascent businesses are capitalizing on the relative dearth of postnatal support services in the US—while also highlighting a gap in access. What do you get for $1,050 a night? Three meals a day delivered to their room, round-the-clock breastfeeding support, and hands-on training in baby-care skills such as swaddling and bathing. (Bloomberg; if you can’t access the article, try this link.)

The tech company that pivoted to crypto: A dozen years after its launch, Kickstarter had lost its cachet of cool and churned through CEOs. The Kickstarter of 2021 had little to offer would-be investors but headaches. Growth had flatlined at the startup, which made its money by taking a small cut when a project on its platform met a funding threshold, and its onetime feel-good culture had become toxic in the wake of a bitter unionization drive. Here’s the story of how a crypto Hail Mary and a secret $100 million a16z-led investment hoped to save the fading brand. (FORTUNE; if you can’t access the article, try this link.)

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