Welcome to the A16Z podcast. I'm Michael Copeland.

During his leap from the stratosphere, Felix Baumgartner fell faster than the speed of sound,

reaching an estimated speed of 833.9 miles per hour, plummeting from the edge of space.

Baumgartner's return trip to Earth lasted just over nine minutes, but there was seven years of

preparation that came before that. Equipment had to be tested and pushed beyond its limit, and so did

Baumgartner. It was the task of Red Bulls director of high-performance Andy Walsh to help train

Baumgartner physically and psychologically to do what had never been done before.

That's Walsh's job, to work with Red Bulls, athletes, and artists to get them to places they've

never been before. Walsh joins the pod, along with A16Z's Jordan Stankowski to discuss the methods,

technologies, and tools he uses to help get people past seemingly unbreakable barriers.

It's not all hitting the gym.

Spirituality and mindfulness are part of Walsh's approach.

And the really good news is it isn't just world-class athletes or your favorite pop star that can benefit from Walsh's research and work.

It's all of us. Andy, so when you say high

performance, you direct the high performance program, I think of immediately, I think of some

secret lab on an island someplace or, you know, within the Austrian. Underground layer. I mean,

is that what we're talking about? You do have a sort of, you know, mad scientist look about you.

Yeah, I kind of get that now and again, but we do have a lot. We do have a place where we can actually sort of prototype new technologies, new components of performance. And that encompasses everything from the specific fitness all the way through to the psychology, to the cognitive social development, even up to the spiritual development. So we have a space we call that sort of workshop around a lab.

And, you know, essentially for us, it's a playground because the goal of the program is to

enable that individual, whoever they may be, from whatever field, to come in and have a vision,

have a dream about what that next step it is they want to take and for us to provide

the supporting infrastructural mechanisms to make that happen.

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