Klen-Kristofer Kaljulaid is in the unique position of being the only man in gaming who is also an Olympic athlete.

The Portfolio Manager at Yolo Investments recently competed for his home nation of Estonia in Judo at Paris 2024 – making it to the round of 16.

Before heading to the games, Kaljulaid joined Dmitry Belianin on the latest episode of the 15 Minute Mastery Podcast to explain how loving the process is key to success in business and sport. 

He said: “A big switch happened to me when I realised that the only reason to keep doing what I do is when I love it. The first thing I noticed was that everything became much easier. If you love the process it isn’t like work, it’s enjoyable. 

“I’ve told Tim [Heath] many times that I would do this work for free and I feel the same about judo. The first thing is you need to love the process and after that, it’s quite easy to structure everything around it. It’s a lot of sacrifices I’ve made but I don’t think of them as sacrifices because that’s my decision to do them.”

He added that when he first started competing in judo not many people would have expected him to be able to reach the Olympics however a “compound of effort” over time has allowed him to reach an elite level.

Yolo invests in a range of brands across the gaming and fintech sector and Kaljulaid offered his advice to start-ups trying to break into the sector. 

“[My advice] is two-fold,” he explained. “It’s love what you do and don’t get stuck to what you do. 

“The saying is have strong beliefs, loosely held. To bring a parallel here from training, I see a lot of guys do the same things over and over again. It’s very important to go where it’s uncomfortable, where you don’t know what’s going to happen. That’s the only way to push this forward.

During the 18-minute discussion, Kaljulaid also touched on his style of leadership and he emphasised the importance of ensuring people enjoy what they do rather than it being “like an obligation”.

He said: “I think you can make anybody happy doing what they do if you find the right game for them. All you need to find after that is guidance and mentoring and everything else just flows naturally. 

“The second point is that I’ve never looked up to people who talk a lot but don’t do much. I think leadership should also be leading by example and here at Yolo I think it’s very evident. When you look at Tim for example, he’s the epitome of what a leader should be. He’s actually here in the trenches with us when he doesn’t have to be.”