How One Founder’s Lowest Point Launched a Wellness Brand
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Chris Mirabile used to wear burnout like a badge of honor. He drank hard, worked crazy hours, and sometimes slept under his desk.
“I’d sleep at the office, wake up, and work all day. It was a very unhealthy lifestyle,” he says.
But Mirabile got a harsh wake-up call when his startup failed. That same year, Hurricane Sandy destroyed his apartment, and thieves robbed him blind.
The sudden stroke of bad fortune hit him hard. “I was depressed for about a year,” he says.
But instead of checking out, Mirabile checked in to his health. He began meditating, reevaluating his lifestyle, and researching how the body ages. What he learned became the foundation for NOVOS, a longevity-focused supplement startup that’s now backed by researchers from Harvard, MIT, and beyond.
You can hear the whole story in the latest episode of One Day with Jon Bier. Mirabile breaks down his journey from burnout to bio-age breakthrough and offers tips on what people can do to live longer.
Sleep changes everything
Forget cryo, red light, and nootropics—if your sleep is garbage, none of it matters. According to Mirabile, better sleep improves nearly every marker of health: blood sugar regulation, stress response, willpower, mood, and recovery.
Mirabile aims for nine hours of sleep a night and treats it like a non-negotiable. “Everything else starts to fall in line when you fix your sleep,” he says.
Related: You Might Be Sabotaging Your Sleep (And Your Work) Without Realizing It
Simplicity beats the biohacks
Mirabile is skeptical of the more Instagramable side of the longevity movement. He’s not interested in tracking every metric or micromanaging every breath. Instead, he swears by a few simple habits, including:
- Mediterranean-style eating
- Short fasting windows to mimic feast/famine cycles
- Staying hydrated—with electrolytes, not just water
“About 90% of longevity is free,” he says. “You just need the discipline to do it.”
Joy is the metric that most matters
Mirabile isn’t interested in mimicking the rigidity of people like Bryan Johnson. In fact, he says that approach misses the point entirely.
“What’s the point of extending lifespan if you’re eliminating everything that brings joy?” he says. “Sleeping alone, skipping meals with friends, chasing a metric at the cost of your relationships — that’s not living longer, that’s living less.”
He’ll still have wine on a family trip or party until sunrise with friends, just without alcohol. He says he’s learned to “let loose without needing a chemical to do it.”
Related: I Turned My Passion Into a Multi-Million Dollar Business — These 4 Hacks Helped Keep My Joy Alive
Movement is medicine
You don’t need a personal trainer or a fancy fitness tracker. Just 21 minutes of moderate cardio a day can make a big difference, says Mirabile — especially if it gets you into “zone 2,” the heart rate range where fat burning and endurance improvements happen.
“Walking briskly on an incline or rucking with a backpack is enough,” he says. “You should be able to talk, but barely.”
According to Mirabile, consistent daily movement improves metabolic health, mental clarity, and cardiovascular resilience.
A supplement designed to slow down aging
Mirabile set out to slow the pace of biological aging by targeting its 12 root causes. But he also knew people wouldn’t stay on it unless they felt a difference.
The NOVOS core formula was designed to offer short-term benefits, such as better sleep, improved energy, and healthier skin, alongside the longer-term goal of extending lifespan.
“Most supplements, people try for a month and forget,” he says. “This one’s built to show you it’s working.”
Mirabile isn’t trying to cheat death. He’s aiming for more good years. His biological age, measured through epigenetic testing, clocks in more than a decade younger than his actual age. “I’m 40, but biologically I’m in my late twenties,” he says. “That means a lower risk for things like heart disease or Alzheimer’s — and more years doing what I love.”
Related: This Former Tech Executive Was Ready to Retire. Then an Obscure Molecule Gave Him a New Mission.
Chris Mirabile used to wear burnout like a badge of honor. He drank hard, worked crazy hours, and sometimes slept under his desk.
“I’d sleep at the office, wake up, and work all day. It was a very unhealthy lifestyle,” he says.
But Mirabile got a harsh wake-up call when his startup failed. That same year, Hurricane Sandy destroyed his apartment, and thieves robbed him blind.
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