Ep217 - Dr Steven Lu (Co-founder & CMO - Everlab) on building the future of preventative health

The Startup Playbook PodcastInsights and lessons from the world's best entrepreneurs and investors Twitter Facebook YouTube Instagram Ep217 – Dr Steven Lu (Co-founder & CMO – Everlab) on building the future of preventative health July 24, 2025 rohitbhargava Podcast 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 Vanta Vanta helps businesses get — and stay — compliant by automating up to 90% of the work for the most in-demand compliance frameworks. And with over 300 integrations, you can easily monitor and secure the tools your business relies on. Join over six thousand fast-growing companies that use Vanta to manage risk and prove security in real time. The Startup Playbook Podcast listeners get access to an exclusive offer of USD$1000 off their plans. Head over to vanta.com/podcast to get access to this exclusive discount. Links mentioned: The Komo Club: The world’s first human accelerator Steven’s links: Steven on LinkedIn Everlab People mentioned: Sam Kothari Chai Ng Bryan Johnson Alexandra Zatarain Companies mentioned: Playbook Ventures Eight Sleep Whoop Oura Fitbit Ramsay Health Care Feedback/connect/say hello: Rohit@startupplaybook.co @RohitBhargava7 (Twitter) /rohbhargava (LinkedIn) @rohit_bhargava (Instagram) My Youtube Channel Credits: Music: Paycheck Other channels: Find all of the links for the podcast on Linktree here https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/startupplaybook/Ep217_-_Dr_Steven_Lu.mp3 Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed Subscribe: RSS admin January 1, 2014 Reply Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat admin January 1, 2014 Reply Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat admin January 1, 2014 Reply Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. 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