Eric Wu

Eric is the co-founder of Gainful, a personalized sports nutrition system transforming the way every body can lead an active lifestyle. Gainful's flagship products are Personalized Protein, Hydration, and Pre-Workout.

On his morning routine.

I’m up at 7 am most days. 

Unfortunately, I’ve gotten into the bad habit of scrolling on my phone the moment I wake up. I’ll quickly go through my emails and check if any fires need to be put out. 

Next, I’ll queue up NPR on my phone and have it on in the background as I go about my morning routine of brushing my teeth, freshening up, and whipping up some breakfast.

On his content diet.

I used to consume a lot of start-up content in my free time, listening to podcasts and books by and for entrepreneurs and venture folks.

However, that all went out the window when I started Gainful. 

Now that my day-to-day is building a business, meeting other founders, and thinking about startups, I prefer to learn about completely different things in my leisure time– mostly current events, soccer, music, and food sustainability. 

For me, podcasts and books are now for enjoyment and less for helping me excel at my job. In fact, if I didn’t protect my time to daydream and explore other worlds, I think my work would probably suffer.

On triaging workflows.

I’ve recently started going back to the office pretty much full-time.

I’m most productive when I have a physical separation between home and work.

On the way to work, I’ll usually triage through emails on the train while listening to NPR in the background. I get into work most days between 8 and 9 am.

Then, I’ll continue to go through my inbox and answer any pertinent emails that need my attention while drinking some green tea. 

One of our goals for the next 18 months is to launch new personalized products. I’ve started blocking off time in the afternoons to work with our Science Advisory Board to improve existing products and formulate new ones.

On working harder.

I’ve always loved the feeling of constantly working.

It’s something I learned from my immigrant parents. If I had to work for 20 hours straight to complete a task, I’d take that as a challenge and enjoy that experience. 

The first 6 months of Gainful were really fun for me, in a masochistic way. I tasked myself with not letting a single customer down, so I worked really, really hard – and loved it. 

I set ridiculous hours for myself in the early days: I would develop, pitch, and market our product during the day, then go to our manufacturing facility at night to create new formulations and pack up orders for customers.

I genuinely loved the early-stage grind.

On time management.

When we first started the company and were participating in YC, we were super keen on showing growth every single day, so it was almost a no-brainer that every weekend was going to be spent working. We felt we had one shot at making a good impression at Demo Day, and the sacrifice was so worth it. 

However, this mentality is definitely not sustainable long-term. Even the most motivated people shouldn’t do that for more than a few years, it’s no way to live. 

We have extremely talented people at Gainful – operators who have scaled DTC businesses to hundreds of millions of dollars and scientists who create nutrition plans for NBA champions – which means I have a support system to help me unplug every now and again, and I’m very thankful for that. 

Nowadays, I have been doing a much better job of setting work-life boundaries so that when I’m with family or friends, I can fully focus on what it is that we’re doing – whether it’s sharing a long, leisurely meal or just a laugh.

On distractions from work.

Whenever I take time off, I try to immerse myself in a place or activity so I’m not constantly thinking about work. 

Most often, this takes the form of playing soccer, tennis, or going to the gym, all of which allow me to switch work mode off.

I make sure to implement this in some form within my weekly routine. 

On his nutrition.

I’m obviously a big protein shake guy. Enjoying Gainful’s products as part of my real life – both current and unreleased – gives me great pleasure.

I have a shake after every workout – my go-to is a single scoop of lactose-free whey with one of our Cinnamon Toast or Caffe Mocha Flavor Boosts, soymilk, and a single ice cube.

I tend to have an untraditional breakfast – I’ll sometimes just replace it with some strong green tea, and then have a proper lunch later in the afternoon.

At work, I have a particular fondness for a grain bowl with stir-fried greens and normally some sort of plant-based protein. An obscene attachment to hot sauce, normally sriracha, is my weakness. One thing I really focus on is keeping myself hydrated, be it by drinking water or using our Lemon-Lime Hydration product, which tastes amazing and gets the job done, and leaves me feeling sharp.

On his evening ritual.

My sleep schedule is a little suboptimal because I find myself to be most productive at night. As a result, I always stay up later than I should. 

When I get home from work, I have a quick snack like a banana, then I’m either playing soccer, tennis, or going to the gym in my building. 

After that, I eat dinner (absolutely no pattern, but I typically have carbs, protein, and vegetables represented in equal amounts) and then hop on the laptop at around 9 or 10 pm to get some more independent work done.

I like reading before bed, and I make it a goal to read at least twice a week.

I’ve been re-reading a lot of Anthony Bourdain’s writing recently. Even if I only get through two to three pages, it's comforting and it allows me to fully unwind before going to sleep. 

I'm usually in bed with lights out by midnight.