What a 100-metre freedive teaches you about pressure on land

Wispr Flow filled the Ship26 space with tech geeks, storytellers, and curious characters. On paper, it was all about Wispr Flow - an AI startup building a tool that listens to your voice and translates raw thoughts into clean, structured text in any language. However, the host, Fabian Dittrich, took us on a journey into his world that is so much more. He is currently touring across Europe in an old van, introducing Wispr Flow from country to country, town to town, living a full life packed with everything you can imagine. Back to Wispr Flow for a second. Fabian had people in the audience speak in Mandarin, Portuguese, Schweizerdeutsch, French, and English, each with heavy accents and distinct dialects. The AI didn't just transcribe; it made sense of how humans actually talk, organizing our dialogue and removing all unnecessary words.

But as the night wore on, it was Fabian himself who stole the show. His path to Wispr Flow tells you everything about how he lives. Years ago, Fabian printed a batch of simple QR code stickers and stuck them everywhere, on restroom doors, nightclub walls, and street corners in cities across the world. One day, a total stranger scanned one of his stickers, which led to a link saying: Try Wispr Flow. Fabian tried it, fell in love with the product, and reached out to the CEO just to express his enthusiasm. The CEO, Tanmay Kothari, took one look at Fabian and invited him to join the team. That was meant to be. And it fits a life built on stepping into the unknown and never taking the easy path.

Fabian isn't your average tech presenter. He is an adventurer to his core. He held the German national record for freediving, descending 100 meters on a single breath of air. But he is not just a crazy guy; there is method to the madness. "Lying on the surface of the ocean before a 100-meter dive, your heart races, sometimes up to 125 beats per minute," Fabian shares. "Your mind wants to panic, demand control, or abort the dive. But down there, fighting your thoughts with more thoughts doesn't work." Fabian told us that to survive the deep, you have to shift out of your head and into your body. You breathe deep into your belly to activate the parasympathetic nervous system. You extend your exhale longer than your inhale, inhaling for 4 seconds, exhaling for 7, signaling to your nervous system that you are safe. Heart rate drops. The mind settles. You surrender to the water. Fabian realized something vital: you don't need to dive 100 meters underwater to feel under pressure. Modern life does that on land. Entrepreneurs, creators, and high performers constantly battle overthinking, anxiety, and a feeling of being disconnected or numb. They try to solve it with more control, more discipline, and more optimizing. I can completely relate to this.

So Fabian created "4/7", a breathwork framework designed to bring those deep-sea tools into our everyday lives as entrepreneurs. The same physiological mechanism that keeps you calm 100 meters underwater can reset your nervous system in minutes before a startup pitch, a hard presentation, or a big life decision.

During the event, Fabian took us through these breathwork exercises right here at Ship. He showed us how simple techniques can expand breath-hold capability and how mental framing changes everything. He had us focus on positive anchors, even the simple sound of a tram passing by outside the window, to ground ourselves and quiet the noise.

At Ship26, we build everything around adventure, storytelling, and taking our crew on a journey. Sure, we all have to work, and we all have to find our way through life. But if we can do it through story and shared experience, everything changes. Fabian reminded us that whether you are 100 meters under the ocean, driving across a continent, or standing in front of a crowded room, the real skill isn't eliminating pressure. It's finding calm right in the middle of it.

Author: Xaver Walser