Business Athletes: Alina Verbenchuk

Hello and welcome to Business Athletes everyone 👋 

Each week, we’ll explore the athlete-like habits behind a different business leader and provide you with practical tactics that you can quickly apply in your day-to-day.⚡️

This week in Business Athletes, I sat down with Alina, co-founder of Korda, a platform providing all the tools music creators need to run their music career independently.

Alina’s background is one full of colour and growth. She trained for years as a competitive ballroom dancer before entering the platform world at Google and YouTube, later consulting for Spotify, and eventually co-founding Korda. 

What stood out most was her authenticity. She isn’t the artist (her co-founder brings that side), but she is the architect of the platform, the one who translates creativity into structure.

Crucially, she doesn’t position Korda as a crusade against a “broken” industry. Instead, her edge lies in empathy and focus: building for people, solving the real, unglamorous problems artists face every day, and trusting that consistency will compound into change.

Below, she shares how she structures her days, protects flow, and applies lessons from both dance and platform strategy to the daily execution of a startup.

Let’s get into it. ⚡️

Pre-Game Preparation

Routine as the Foundation

My routine is everything. Without it, I don’t think I could have survived the early months of building. Startups are volatile. You never know if tomorrow will bring a huge win or something that throws you off balance. The only constant is how you structure your own day. 

I wake up around 6:30, I’m in the gym by 7 with my online personal trainer, and back at my desk by 9.30. That hour in the morning is when I burn off all the excess energy and cortisol so that I can think clearly. 

Mid-week I’ll swim, sometimes I take a dance class, and in summer I’ll play tennis. It keeps me grounded.

Guarding Flow

We keep mornings sacred. One short stand-up and then everyone goes deep. 

I push most of my calls to the afternoon, usually after 3pm. That’s when my energy dips anyway, and it lines up better with the US. The mornings are for real work.

When I’m in the office, I head straight there with a coffee on the go. When I’m at home, I just need a clean desk and clarity on what the priorities are. I don’t have elaborate rituals, but I do need that focus time.

During the day, I also need a proper lunch break. It sounds small, but it resets me for the afternoon push. Then it’s back into deep work or calls until the evening, which is unpredictable. Some days I finish on time, some days it runs late.

Decompressing To Drive Intensity

I don’t have elaborate rituals before pitches. By the time I’m presenting, I’ve rehearsed enough that I can do it half-asleep. 

What I do need is to decompress after. If a call was emotionally charged, or if I got tough feedback, I’ll go for a walk in Hyde Park or grab a coffee. It’s important to leave the space where you worked, get outside, and reset.

That way, I can come back with a fresh mind and not carry the weight of one conversation into the next.

Gameplay & Championships

It’s About People Before The Industry

So many companies try to ‘fix’ the music industry. We don’t. We build for people.

We build for the independent artist who doesn’t want to deal with boring admin and wants to focus on creativity. For the career musician who wants to grow.

Our job is to make their day-to-day lives easier. That’s the philosophy. It’s not about fighting majors, but serving users.

Leading Music Business Infrastructure

Right now, we’re working toward concrete numbers like user growth, engagement, and revenue. But the long-term vision is bigger.

We want to be the Stripe for music: the infrastructure layer that everyone, from independents to majors, runs on.

Lessons From Sports

Lessons From Ballroom Dance

I was a professional ballroom dancer from the age of five. It’s a unique discipline because it combines art and sport.

You train physically like an athlete – hours of choreography, stamina work, conditioning. But you also have to perform –  to listen to the music, express emotion, and captivate a crowd.

And you do it as a pair. It’s not just about you. It’s about moving in sync with someone else, feeling their rhythm, and adjusting in real-time.

That shaped me deeply. It taught me stamina, presence, and partnership. It taught me to prepare, to perform, and to adapt in the moment. And it’s exactly how I think about co-founding. If you move out of step with your partner, you stumble.

Recharging

Movement & Recovery

My version of meditation isn’t sitting still; it’s swimming or walking. When I’m in the pool or in the park, there are no distractions. Half an hour moving like that clears my head more than anything else.

I’m lucky to live near Hyde Park, so I walk there often. It’s my micro-rest. And in the evenings, I try to fully switch off,  but of course, some days run long and you just keep going.

Business Athletes Ethos

Quick Fire

• Business athlete means… → Perseverance, stamina, 1% better every day.

• “Winning the day” means… → Winning the day means moving my body in the morning, making tangible progress on priorities, and finding joy in small human moments like music or a smile from a barista.

• Mind or body first? → Think first, act thoughtfully.

• Process or results? → Process. I can control inputs, never outputs.

• What moves the needle most? → Consistent action. Action creates data. Data creates direction.

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