Everyone needs company. It is one of the strongest predictors of a long and healthy life. The quality of your relationships, the people around you, the feeling of being genuinely seen by someone. We are all built for connection. That is in our biology.

Growing up, people often asked what I wanted to be. When they asked that question, they meant a career. The older I got the more that question bothered me. I do not want my whole identity to be my job. I want to be myself when I grow up and somehow make that enough.

The company you keep says a lot about who you are. It can make or break you. The people closest to you shape how you think, what you tolerate, what you believe is possible.

Two types of companies the world needs

There is a version of a company that runs on pure efficiency. No feeling, no friction, optimised for output. That is useful. AI accelerates it. A lot of what used to require human judgment can now be automated.

And then there is a version of a company that keeps people company. That takes seriously how people think and feel and creates spaces where people feel safe enough to actually grow. That does not happen by telling them what to do. It happens by making people figure it out, and sometimes the most useful thing is to just be honest and let them go through some friction.

The strange thing is that the traits that make someone effective in business are the exact traits that make someone difficult to actually bond with. In business they get called leadership. In relationships they get called something else.

The strategic mode tends to show up when something feels threatened. When you feel secure enough, you can just be.

Where GAINS fits

I built GAINS because building it alone meant not being slowed down by consensus or approval. But there is no point in being right alone all the time if it means not having good company.

Building it alone taught me something I did not expect. That you can be in good company by yourself. That the relationship you have with your own thinking, your own direction, your own reasons for doing things, can be enough to not feel alone in it.

I want people to feel that. That even when you are taking something on alone, you are in good company. And when you are ready, GAINS wants to be part of creating spaces where people are genuinely good company for each other too.

GAINS started as something bigger than me. Something I had to grow into. That has not changed.

— Axel Sylvian, Founder of GAINS, 2017