Business Athletes: Kelsey Bishop

Hello and welcome to Business Athletes everyone 👋 

Each week, we’ll explore the athlete-like habits behind a different business leader. In less than 5-minutes, we aim to provide you with practical tactics that you can quickly apply in your day-to-day.⚡️

In the 13th edition of Business Athletes, we spoke to Kelsey Bishop, founder of Candor, the go-to culture platform for remote teams. Candor offers fun and lightweight tools for user manuals, shoutouts, check-ins, and feedback, aiming to create the future of work and help people find belonging at work.

By focusing on team culture, Candor helps people find workplaces they love and stay engaged as their team continually invests in and supports their values.

Kelsey's journey began in early-stage startups, where she experienced varying team dynamics. Frustrated with platforms like LinkedIn and Glassdoor, she founded Candor in May 2021. Since then, Candor has raised $5M from investors, including Contrary Capital and Village Global.

Here are some of my favourite practical takeaways:

• Establishing a transparent, supportive culture with clear expectations fosters a human workplace where team members are motivated to stay. This is the foundation of all great business success.

• Culture is about the implicit contract you make with your people. Setting the right culture for your unique team will not only help drive performance, but will also make this volatile journey of building a business far more enjoyable!

• We’re all different, but one truth we can all trust is that motion creates emotion. Starting our days well-hydrated, with quality time alone or with a partner, and engaging in some form of movement, is an easy way to boost our energy levels.

Read time: 3 minutes

Pre-Game Preparation

Setting The Right Tone

I wake up and spend the first part of my morning with my husband over coffee. It's our quality time. Then, I make sure to get some natural electrolytes into my system—water with lemon and a pinch of salt to keep me hydrated and energized for the day ahead.

Next, it's time for my first commitment to the day: a workout. I'm a big fan of high-intensity interval training, barre classes, or anything that gets my heart rate up and muscles engaged. This is non-negotiable for me. By breaking a sweat early, I set a physical tone that reminds me to stay connected to my body throughout my workday.

Mental Fitness For Presence & Clarity

Once I'm back from my workout—showered and refreshed—my next step is to get mentally prepared. This often involves attending a yoga session or engaging in some form of meditation or breath work.

For me, being in my body and being present in my day are not just routines; they help me maintain my mental toughness and resilience, which are invaluable when you're constantly solving new and more complex problems as a business grows.

Deep Into The Game

Lessons from Competitive Cheerleading

My background as a competitive cheerleader has heavily influenced by how I approach business challenges. In cheerleading, you're performing a high-intensity, high-stakes routine that lasts just two and a half minutes. You need to be perfect in that short timeframe. It’s just like when making key business decisions. In both domains, every move counts, and the synergy of the team is crucial for success. 

I initially thought building a company would require similar short bursts of extreme effort and then settle into a more manageable pace. But the pressure is constant, and the need for endurance is unending. However, just like in sports, the more you repeat these high-stress, high-stakes tasks, the better you become at handling them with grace and competence.

Culture As Proactive Problem-Solving

As our company, Candor, has grown, the problems we face have become increasingly complex. The higher you climb, the tougher the decisions. And the key to managing this growth is by setting the right agreements and culture from the beginning. 

By establishing clear expectations and fostering a transparent environment, we create a more human workplace where people feel valued and understood.

Team Lessons: From Managing to Coaching

From Motivation to Self-Management

Starting Candor was all about creating a team culture that works.

Having worked at various startups, I experienced both motivating and demotivating cultures. I realized there’s no such thing as a bad culture—just ones that work for you and ones that don’t. This insight comes from self-reflection and asking the right questions.

Culture is essentially how we do the things we do: how we give feedback, how we communicate, how we organise and manage projects, etc. For instance, I disliked a previous culture where everyone was polite but never gave feedback. When starting Candor, we focused on creating a culture that valued honesty and direct communication.

Beyond Management, Towards Coaching

One of the key lessons from both sports and business is the importance of culture and coaching. In the startup world, I realized that traditional management structures don't foster the kind of team culture I wanted. I didn’t want to be a manager in the conventional sense; instead, I favored the role of a coach. Good teams don’t need managers—they need leaders who build trust and allow each member to thrive autonomously.

Inspired by Frederic Laloux’s model of self-management, we adopted a structure where our team members are self-managing. This autonomy boosts motivation and impact, though it means we mostly hire senior people who thrive in this environment. Our culture is asynchronous and emphasizes self-management, which might not suit everyone but works for us.

The Mutual Assessment Approach To Picking Talent

I don’t believe in relying solely on traditional interviews. Instead, we start with a vibe check call to see if there’s mutual interest. If that goes well, we move to a mutual assessment, essentially a two-week work trial.

During this period, the candidate completes tasks and interacts with the team to see if there’s a good fit on both sides. At the end of the two weeks, it’s usually clear whether someone fits our culture. If they need constant guidance, we ask, "How do you think you should handle this task?"

This helps us identify people who can thrive in our environment. For us, self-management is key — our team members need to be proactive, take ownership of their tasks, and manage their own workflows.

The Business Athlete Mindset

Winning The Day

To feel I've "won" each day, I need to see impact—whether that means helping someone on the team overcome a hurdle, seeing our customer numbers grow, or launching a new feature.

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