Ben Parker on sacrifice, endurance and the startup marathon

You are statistically more likely to win an Olympic medal in Europe than build a tech unicorn. 

In this new interview series, we speak to athletes and founders about what it really takes to perform at the highest level in sport and tech. 

These are stories of sacrifice, ambition, resilience and the determination to be the very best at what you do. 

Ben Parker, Co-Founder of Runna

Ben is the co-founder of Runna, the British running coaching app that was backed by JamJar Ventures, Eka Ventures and a range of Olympians before being acquired by Strava in April 2025. Ben started his career as a personal trainer, running and Ironman coach and founded Runna in 2021.

‍Q&A

What inspires and motivates you? 

When I was growing up the biggest role model in my life was my tennis coach. He was happy, healthy and financially stable and I really looked up to him. That’s why after university I decided to become a personal trainer and running coach. 

I was 24 doing in-person running coaching in Richmond Park in London and earning £5k/month. I was doing marathons and Iron Mans. I was happy, healthy and the fastest runner I’ve ever been. 

Then I threw all of that away to start Runna for exactly the same reason I keep doing Iron Mans - because I want to prove I can do hard things and I always want to improve and do better. 

if you keep pushing and work harder than everyone else you will build something great. 

Do you think there are parallels between sports and being a founder? 

I am a member of a cycling club that meets at 5am every Wednesday in London. This club includes the fastest riders in the city and everyone rides as hard as they can before going back to their jobs at 7am. The members include some of the most successful CEOs, lawyers and bankers in London. 

I thought that to be the best sportsman you had to sacrifice everything else. But the things that make you a great cyclist are exactly the same things that make you great in your career. 

In sports and in tech, long-term consistent hard work is the key. If you can keep cycling at 5am every day, you will end up being the best. Apply the same logic to your startup - if you keep pushing and work harder than everyone else you will build something great. 

At Runna we do a podcast where we speak to incredible athletes and Olympians, and they all say the same thing. It is simply about working harder than everyone and staying in the game. If you want to be the best you have to outlast and outperform the competition. Winning a gold medal in a startup requires the same as the Olympics - relentless hard work. 

The best athletes and founders are also super receptive to feedback and learning. The best way to learn is to listen to rejections, analyse your failures and understand why it didn’t work. Athletes are very good at this as they are surrounded by coaches and trainers. 

Can everyone perform at the very highest level?

I think a lot about whether doing hard things makes you tough, or whether only tough people can do hard things. I think it’s a bit of both, but I would argue that every Olympian I’ve spoken to has a very strong sense of grit and drive. 

Training for the Olympics, or running Ironmans, or building a startup makes you grittier, but it is also innate. You need some raw fight in you, and often that comes from some kind of trauma or insecurity. Having something that makes you want to win helps you get through the fight. 

What challenges have you faced? What sacrifices have you made? 

I look at my life in terms of three buckets - work, family & friends, health & fitness. I’m obsessed with making sure they are all in balance and making progress. But it’s not always easy. 

For the good of my customers I need to be a role model, out exercising. But if I do that in the working day I’m not there for my co-founder and team. 

And of course prioritising these three buckets means other things get sacrificed. My relationship ended because dedicating everything to work and exercise meant there wasn’t space for anything else. 

I have resigned myself to the fact I’ll never make everything perfect. Those three buckets are constantly in flux. But the lack of perfection is a necessary evil and living an imperfect existence is an essential way to keep striving. Dedication and grit is existing with a little bit of sadness and always wanting to be better. 

Understand what makes you happy... If you are an unhappy founder you are a bad founder. 

What advice would you give to founders at the start of their growth journey now? 

Understand what makes you happy and don’t let them slip. If you are an unhappy founder you are a bad founder. 

I’ve built a team of 130 people. If I’m unhappy it’s not fair on them. This is a long-term, hard path and if you’re sad you won’t be able to do it for a long time. 

I haven’t smiled every single day at Runna, but on the whole it’s fun, it’s worth it and we’re all in it together. I work hard, but then I relax and take time for myself, otherwise I wouldn’t be able to come back and do it for years on end. Founders have to build a company that makes them happy, not miserable.