Rahul Vohra was 27 when the pressure of running his first startup pushed his health to a breaking point. At the time, his company Rapportive was on its way to being acquired by LinkedIn, a deal that would make its founders millionaires. But behind the success was a founder struggling with stress, poor eating habits and a lack of exercise. More than a decade later, Vohra has built another successful company and says his approach to work and life is very different. His second company, Superhuman, reached an $825 million valuation in 2021 and was acquired by Grammarly in 2025 for an undisclosed amount.
The health crisis that changed his approach to work
Vohra co-founded Rapportive in 2009, creating a browser plug-in and email service. The startup went through Y Combinator and eventually attracted LinkedIn’s attention. In February 2012, LinkedIn acquired Rapportive in a deal reportedly valued at $15 million. But months before the acquisition, Vohra’s health deteriorated. He woke up one morning around 3 am with severe nausea and discomfort. Instead of immediately seeking medical help, he tried to continue with his routine. By lunchtime, the pain had become unbearable. While walking to a pharmacy near his San Francisco office, Vohra collapsed outside a McDonald’s. One of his co-founders came to help him and brought him painkillers. Vohra admits that he then returned to work.“Like an idiot,” he went straight back to the grind, he told Fortune. He eventually went to the hospital the following day and underwent several tests. According to Fortune, doctors diagnosed him with gastrointestinal reflux disease, with years of stress, poor diet and lack of exercise contributing to his health problems. A nurse reportedly told him that his insides appeared to belong to someone 10 to 20 years older and advised him to “re-examine” his life. Vohra later spent time recovering with his family and began thinking differently about what it meant to build a company.
From burnout to a different way of building
The experience made Vohra question the idea that extreme work hours are simply part of being a successful founder. “I personally find it sad and dismaying when founders in their 20s…[are] running themselves into the ground, often much worse than what I did,” he said. “They’re doing what I did plus stupid hours, and they’re wearing that as a badge of honour. I hope that when people read this, they see that there is another path.” One of the biggest changes in his life came through transcendental meditation. Vohra began learning the practice under the guidance of wellness coach Laurent Valosek. He also changed his diet, introduced exercise into his routine and became more deliberate about protecting time away from work.Vohra says meditation helped him return to work with a different mindset. Instead of allowing investor pressure and fundraising challenges to consume him, he felt better equipped to deal with them. “When I did finally get back into work, all of the games that the VCs were playing…that were really getting to me, just suddenly didn’t faze me at all,” he said. He added, “I had this new source of grit and resilience. I just straight-up called VCs who were BS-ing me out on their BS and refused to engage with them because I had this newfound source of strength, which was simply this gratitude for being alive.“
Building superhuman without repeating the past
In 2014, Vohra co-founded Superhuman, an email productivity company, alongside Conrad Irwin and Vivek Sodera. The company eventually grew significantly, raising more than $100 million from investors and reaching an $825 million valuation in 2021. Grammarly acquired Superhuman in 2025, although the financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. Vohra says the second journey was different because he had changed both his lifestyle and his perspective. He worked on his diet with professional guidance, maintained an exercise routine and made meditation part of his schedule.Reflecting on the sale of Superhuman, he said, “I think just being older and wiser, having more perspective, having an exercise practice, having a meditation practice, and eating way better.” He added that there was “no existential dread” this time. “We weren’t running out of money. We were growing faster than ever. I could have raised more money. Selling the company was really more about, “Are we going to achieve our mission faster together if we do this?” For Vohra, the lesson from his first startup was not to stop being ambitious, but to build that ambition around a healthier life. His journey shows that startup success does not necessarily have to come at the cost of physical and mental well-being.