Business Athletes: Siddhi Mittal

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 9th edition of Business Athletes, we had a conversation with Siddhi Mittal, co-founder of yhangry, a unique marketplace that helps customers book private chefs to come and cook for any occasion such as birthdays, hen parties or weekly meal prep.

Siddhi’s journey from Mumbai to Manhattan to Mayfair has transformed her into a real multi-disciplinary business athlete. She studied computer science in NYC, worked as a bond trader at Barclays in London, and is now a global entrepreneur disrupting the food space.

Here’s a few of the lessons you’ll be able to take from this edition:

• How Siddhi approached high-level pitches at Dragons’ Den and at Y Combinator’s Demo Day

• What dance taught her about being a top-performer, as well as a top coach for her team.

• How to get into a flow state in 3 steps.

• And much more!

We hope you enjoy the read. 😄 

Read time: 4 minutes 52 seconds

Routines That Shape Performance

Body First

I wake up at around 7:30-8:00 am. But I optimize for making sure I  get my 8 hours of sleep. That means I’m not hard on myself if I wake up slightly later.

As I wake up, the first thing I want to do is get some sunshine on my face. I try to either go somewhere where there's sun, or just pop outside of my house for a quick walk around the block. It wakes me up and resets my whole body.

Followed By Mind & Spirit

Next, when I’m sitting back at my desk, I practice some visualization for about 5 minutes, followed by a bit of journaling or mindfulness meditation. I keep it a little bit fluid because I'm currently experimenting with different things. 

I also like to read for about 30 minutes in the morning. Currently, I'm reading Rocket Scientist by Osan Barrow. Reading in the morning really helps me feel like I’m actively growing even before beginning my work day. 

Physical & Mental Gym

In terms of some physical activity or the gym, that actually comes in the afternoon for me. When I get a dip in energy, I'll do yoga or strength training. I never schedule it first thing in the morning because I usually wake up wired, ready to go and use my mind.

Pre-Game Preparation

Pitching yhangry - Dragons’ Den and Y Combinator Demo Day

Looking into a big gameday like our Dragons’ Den or YC Demo Day pitches - you just try to be calm and relax. I noticed I perform my best when I manage to relax. I just try to focus on the fact that we’ve done all the prep we could. 

For example, Dragons’ Den, the whole prep was in the meetup of two months. We prepped everything - the numbers, the story, the logistics of getting to the venue and timing before pitching, and even how we were going to feel, based on the outfits we were going to wear,

Same with YC. There’s always so much intensity leading up to these events. But then, the night before, we try to relax. I try not to think about it and just do my thing. I have a nice dinner, chill, go to be early. Then I’m calm.

Deep Into The Game

The 3 Keys To Flow 

In the morning, when I have no one texting me and no external noise, I get into a pretty deep flow state. The same happens if I’m working very late at night, like 2-3am.

The second part of the flow puzzle is gaining clarity. I begin my work day by setting the 1-2 most important things I need to get done for business that day. I then use the Pomodoro technique to get these done. At times, in 25 minutes I can knock off tasks that can take me 2 hours to complete.

What also happens is that I get enthralled in a problem I care about. That’s the third part. If I need to do this one thing like figuring something out about how our chefs on the yhangry platform do something or behave some way - I have a clear outcome to go after and figure out - I get into a great flow state. 

Team - Player & Coach

Always On Review-Mode

I'm constantly in review mode. At yhangry, I’ll usually do a retro on a rolling basis with my team, focusing on our decision-making process rather than only looking at the outcome.

I’m asking myself and our team what went well, what didn’t, what factors influenced the decision, and what we had control over. In these retros, we’re trying to study decisions in order to truly understand what led to an outcome. The goal is always to increase understanding so we can improve next time.

Leadership Lessons From Dance

Dance to me is a sport, and actually, it was also my first startup.

I used to actually be a competitive Bollywood dancer in the US, and now, running a startup, I see that dance taught me the best lessons on teamwork I’ve learned so far. The coordination, the team spirit, what you need to deliver, how incredibly you need to deliver. 

It also gave me the sense of belonging, which I think is the key element for every leader to think about when building or strengthening their team. 

Dance taught me true grit and that I had to work hard to win and do the things I told myself I would. I don't care what's going to happen, I'm going to keep going. Even if you fall down seven times, you get back up on the eighth. I now view my life as a series of things that didn't work until the stuff that worked happened because I just kept going. 

Post-Game Rituals

Intrapersonal Rest

I have been typically really bad with rest and I love to compare this with sports. I think now I'm very hyper aware that even though I'm a perceived extrovert,  I have a lot of introvert, me-time energy. 

To me, me-time is spending time with myself, usually in nature, with a book, or when I’m really feeling exhausted during the day, doing some acupuncture or yoga, which I think of as both a physical and mental meditation at the same time.

Interpersonal Rest

Then there’s spending time with my husband or my best friends.

Or even someone that I truly just want to meet and I'm curious about, but where there's no business agenda. These are very relaxing to me.

I also love going back to our parents' home in London. They'll always have some home cooked food ready. There is nature. We just hang out and play games with my family. That also re-energizes me. 

The Business Athlete Mindset

What Makes A High Performer

High-performance means I show up every day and do what I told myself I would.

If that’s posting on LinkedIn, for example, it means following the cadence I set for myself of posting 5x per week. Obviously there are days where I don't want to do it. But high performance for me means showing up and doing that, especially when I don’t feel like it. 

Then, there’s also reviewing my stats. I try to make sure that I’m getting a little bit better every time. That compounds like crazy.

Two Inspirations

From an entrepreneurial inspiration point of view, I really admire Payal Kadakia, the founder of ClassPass. She was an outsider to the corporate world and a dancer at heart, like me. I’m really inspired by how she went on to build this amazing tech company.

Then, when things get hard, I think about David Goggins. I started 2023 on a super low note and didn’t know how I was going to grow yhangry. So, I read his book and was thinking - if someone can get through all this adversity, the Navy Seals and transform himself both physically and mentally, the least I can do is calm my mind and just get on with what it is that I need to do.

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🏆 Business Athletes is a newsletter and community focused on studying and celebrating high-performance in business and in life.