The Sleep-Health Connection

This chapter explores the vital link between sleep quality and overall health, focusing on the benefits of nasal breathing and the detrimental effects of insufficient sleep. It shares insights from the Everlab program, emphasizing practical lifestyle changes and personalized strategies for managing health and improving sleep quality.

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Episode notes

My guest for Ep217 of The Startup Playbook Podcast was Dr. Steven Lu.

Dr. Steven Lu is the Co-founder and Chief Medical Officer of Everlab, Australia’s leading preventative health and longevity startups.

With over 15 years of clinical experience, Steven specialised in the prevention and management of complex medical conditions including heart attacks and strokes. After years of treating late-stage illness, he shifted focus to building a proactive model of healthcare, one that empowers people to catch risks early and take control of their long-term health.

That idea became Everlab.

Since launching, Everlab has scaled rapidly across Australia, combining full-body diagnostics, personalised blood testing, and AI-driven insights to make preventative healthcare more accessible and actionable.

The company recently closed a $15M AUD Seed round led by New York based Left Lane Capital. I was proud to continue backing Steven and the Everlab team through Playbook Ventures in this latest round.

In addition to our investment, I’ve had the pleasure of working with Steven through The Komo Club, where he’s a featured speaker in both Cohort 1 and 2. The Komo Club has also partnered with Everlab who support our members directly with DEXA scans, blood testing, and 1:1 medical consultations as part of their cohort experience.

In this episode, we discuss:

Steven’s transition from private practice to founding Everlab
The shortcomings of traditional healthcare and Everlab’s approach to solving them
The key health pillars every founder should build into their routine
How Steven manages his own health and family life while scaling a startup
Lessons from building a high-performance team in a highly regulated industry
& much more

Timestamps:

00:02:13 Steven explains his transition from ICU and private practice to preventative medicine
00:04:31 Migrant childhood between China and Australia builds empathy and listening skills
00:14:00 Night‑shift epiphany in ICU: “we could save more lives by intervening earlier”
00:29:45 Meeting Sam Kothari and transitioning from a boutique practice into a scalable startup 
00:51:22 The three pillars: nutrition, movement, rest. Which is the highest‑ROI starting point
00:58:54 Chronic sleep debt in startup life, how to measure sleep quality with objective, subjective and behavioural data
01:09:48 Dangers of visceral fat and how to reduce it
01:30:00 Seed round validation: 40,000+ biomarker data points show significant member gains
01:34:25 Balancing a high‑growth mission with fatherhood: savoring scarce moments with kids

Our partners:

Thank you to Sam Kothari, Chai Ng and Kelly Huang for their help with research for this interview!

A big shout out to our long-term partners for the show:

Scendar

Scendar is the OG startup accounting firm in Australia catering to all stages of your business’ life. If you’re busy running your startup, you don’t have time to do your own books and forecast. Instead, fully outsource your finance function, giving you time and resources back to focus on what you do best in growing your business. Find out more at Scendar.com

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