TL;DR: Turning Stress Into Resilience with WONE
Stress isn’t just an obstacle, it’s a signal that, when managed effectively, can boost performance. WONE, a wellness-tech startup, has developed the WONE Index and an AI Resilience Coach, transforming stress management into measurable, scalable insights. This system empowers entrepreneurs and teams to identify burnout risks, improve wellbeing, and foster resilience proactively.
If you're navigating high-pressure environments, tools like these can redefine stress as an advantage. For more insights tailored to founders, explore Startup News for Female Entrepreneurs in Europe to uncover resources for fostering team engagement and productivity.
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Stress, it’s more than just a problem to erase; it’s the overlooked engine that can fuel productivity and adaptation when understood correctly. As a serial entrepreneur navigating multiple high-pressure ventures, I’ve seen countless founders and teams buckle under unmanaged stress, but I’ve also seen them turn it into a surprisingly potent tool. This is exactly what WONE, a rising wellness-tech company out of the UK, is doing. By reframing stress intelligence as a performance asset, WONE is building what’s arguably one of the most forward-thinking frameworks for human resilience in 2026.
What makes this relevant isn’t just that 83% of global workers report experiencing burnout. It’s that, in a world of overloaded wellness solutions and cookie-cutter advice, WONE has developed a research-backed, actionable system, the WONE Index and an AI Resilience Coach, to make stress management a measurable, scalable advantage. What’s more, they’re redefining stress itself, not as a weakness but as a performance signal. Let’s break down how this works for individuals, teams, and even entire organizations, and why I believe it’s a blueprint every entrepreneur and business owner should take seriously.
What is WONE, and how is it changing the game?
WONE, short for “Walking on Earth,” is unlocking a fundamental piece of the human performance puzzle: stress intelligence. The concept pivots on a simple yet transformative idea, stress is not inherently bad. It’s a biological signal indicating a mismatch between demand and capacity. Ignoring it leads to burnout, while understanding and managing it creates resilience. This is what WONE has operationalized.
At its core is the WONE Index, a proprietary, scientifically validated measure that evaluates stress not as a binary state but as an ongoing dynamic. Unlike generic wellness tools that focus solely on symptoms (like tracking sleep or steps), the WONE Index looks at the interplay between stress load (demand) and available capacity (resources). Complementing it, the AI Resilience Coach translates these insights into personalized recommendations, making it possible for users to course-correct in real-time. This isn’t just about meditation tips, it’s about actionable interventions designed to preserve and amplify performance.
Companies using WONE’s platform can spot burnout risks early, track trends across teams, and adjust their strategies with empirical data at their fingertips. As someone who builds systems for founders to optimize decision-making, I can already see the transformative potential this level of insight could bring, not just to individuals but to organizational culture.
How big is the stress problem, really?
The need for tools like WONE’s becomes glaringly obvious when you look at today’s data. According to research in 2026, 83% of workers globally report experiencing burnout. Among US employees alone, over 51% face moderate to high levels of workplace stress. Stress doesn’t just hit morale, it directly impacts absenteeism, turnover, and performance.
Managers are particularly hard hit. Studies indicate that 70% of team engagement variance can be traced back to management behaviors, meaning burned-out leaders inevitably create burned-out teams. Without actionable interventions to manage stress proactively, these systemic patterns are hard to break.
- Stress is universal: While unique stressors vary, global trends consistently show high levels of workplace stress in nearly all industries.
- Burnout is costly: World Economic Forum research estimates that workplace stress costs $300 billion annually in lost productivity globally.
- Resilient employees outperform: Resilient individuals show a 66% greater reduction in burnout symptoms, translating directly into better engagement and retention.
If stress is so common and so damaging, then why has it remained so poorly understood and managed? This is precisely where WONE steps in with its science-backed, scalable solution.
How does WONE turn stress into an advantage?
- Stress Capacity Index: The WONE Index gives individuals and organizations a monthly snapshot of stress load versus available resources, allowing for early course correction.
- AI-Powered Coaching: The AI Resilience Coach transforms data into personalized strategies tailored to the user’s unique needs, whether it’s cognitive overload, sleep imbalance, or social strain.
- Group Analytics: Organizations receive anonymized reports highlighting systemic stressors, burnout patterns, and actionable recommendations to improve team-level resilience.
One example Dr. Lydia Roos, WONE’s Chief Science Officer, often cites involves teams with high fatigue but seemingly “normal” sleep habits. The Resilience Coach dives deeper, identifying hidden cognitive or emotional stresses that standard wellness programs miss. Insights like these are critical for employers looking to improve not just employee well-being but also overall productivity and innovation.
As a serial entrepreneur, I can’t help but appreciate how this ties into my own principle that “protection and performance should be invisible to the user.” WONE integrates these tools into natural workflows, so users don’t need to become scientists to take action.
What can we learn from WONE’s approach?
WONE’s approach highlights several key lessons for anyone building businesses or leading teams:
- Measurement drives action: Without clear, validated metrics, it’s impossible to improve stress resilience. WONE’s Index demonstrates the power of systematic measurement.
- Personalization is critical: Generalized wellness tips don’t work. Tailored insights, like those provided by WONE’s AI, are far more effective.
- Leadership remains central: Managers are the linchpins of resilience. WONE underscores the importance of equipping leaders with better tools rather than band-aid solutions for employees.
Most importantly, WONE reframes stress as something that can be not just managed, but leveraged. This is a game-changing perspective for entrepreneurs and business owners alike because thriving under pressure is the defining skill of leadership in 2026.
The takeaway: Turning resilience into a superpower
If you’re an entrepreneur or leader, understanding stress is no longer optional. The question is, how can you use it to your, and your team’s, advantage? WONE’s strategy provides invaluable inspiration: treat stress like data, build systems to manage it, and then convert it into performance gains.
Tools like the WONE Index don’t just reduce workplace burnout; they make individuals and teams more resilient, adaptive, and productive. Explore more about how WONE is transforming wellness at Walking on Earth’s official website.
FAQ on WONE and Turning Stress into a Performance Advantage
What is WONE, and how does it redefine stress?
WONE, short for “Walking on Earth,” transforms stress from a negative into an actionable performance tool. Through its scientifically validated WONE Index, stress is read as a biological signal, enabling proactive management. Explore WONE’s mission for redefining resilience.
How does the WONE Index help individuals and teams?
The WONE Index measures how stress load interacts with capacity, offering actionable insights into resilience. It’s used monthly to track trends, optimize performance, and prevent burnout. Learn how stress measurement revolutionizes workspaces on the WONE website.
What role does the AI Resilience Coach play?
WONE’s AI Resilience Coach provides personalized strategies based on WONE Index results. By identifying hidden stressors, such as cognitive or emotional strain, the AI coach gives tailored solutions for high-pressure scenarios. Learn about tailored stress management strategies.
What makes WONE different from other wellness tools?
Unlike general wellness tools, WONE offers systematic stress intelligence. It focuses on the stress-capacity dynamic instead of merely addressing symptoms like sleep or steps. Understand why personalized resilience management matters.
Why is stress a critical issue for businesses in 2026?
With 83% of workers globally reporting burnout and managers driving 70% of engagement variance, stress mismanagement costs companies billions annually. WONE addresses these systemic issues with data-driven solutions. Discover how workplaces can leverage resilience to combat burnout.
How does WONE benefit organizations?
WONE supplies anonymized, aggregated reports highlighting team stress trends and risk factors, allowing leaders to take informed steps to improve well-being and productivity. See how organizations can use WONE analytics for proactive strategies.
What lessons can leaders take from WONE’s approach?
WONE demonstrates that measuring stress and customization are keys to reducing burnout. Supporting managers and systems, not just employees, boosts resilience. Gain insights on implementing sustainable resilience within organizations.
Does WONE only focus on workplace stress?
No, WONE is designed for individuals in all scenarios. Its tools apply beyond work, targeting overall life resilience. By focusing on stress signals, WONE fosters holistic growth and adaptation. Read more about resilience-focused wellness trends.
How can stress be turned into a performance advantage?
When stress is treated as data rather than a weakness, it can highlight areas of improvement. Structured systems like WONE help leaders and individuals thrive under sustained pressure. Check how resilience redefines success in 2026 startup ecosystems.
What trends make resilience crucial in 2026?
As hybrid work expands and AI reshapes industries, rising workplace uncertainty makes resilience vital. Future leaders must emphasize mental agility and stress management. Stay ahead with female-led, resilience-building strategies.
About the Author
Violetta Bonenkamp, also known as MeanCEO, is an experienced startup founder with an impressive educational background including an MBA and four other higher education degrees. She has over 20 years of work experience across multiple countries, including 5 years as a solopreneur and serial entrepreneur. Throughout her startup experience she has applied for multiple startup grants at the EU level, in the Netherlands and Malta, and her startups received quite a few of those. She’s been living, studying and working in many countries around the globe and her extensive multicultural experience has influenced her immensely.
Violetta is a true multiple specialist who has built expertise in Linguistics, Education, Business Management, Blockchain, Entrepreneurship, Intellectual Property, Game Design, AI, SEO, Digital Marketing, cyber security and zero code automations. Her extensive educational journey includes a Master of Arts in Linguistics and Education, an Advanced Master in Linguistics from Belgium (2006-2007), an MBA from Blekinge Institute of Technology in Sweden (2006-2008), and an Erasmus Mundus joint program European Master of Higher Education from universities in Norway, Finland, and Portugal (2009).
She is the founder of Fe/male Switch, a startup game that encourages women to enter STEM fields, and also leads CADChain, and multiple other projects like the Directory of 1,000 Startup Cities with a proprietary MeanCEO Index that ranks cities for female entrepreneurs. Violetta created the “gamepreneurship” methodology, which forms the scientific basis of her startup game. She also builds a lot of SEO tools for startups. Her achievements include being named one of the top 100 women in Europe by EU Startups in 2022 and being nominated for Impact Person of the year at the Dutch Blockchain Week. She is an author with Sifted and a speaker at different Universities. Recently she published a book on Startup Idea Validation the right way: from zero to first customers and beyond, launched a Directory of 1,500+ websites for startups to list themselves in order to gain traction and build backlinks and is building MELA AI to help local restaurants in Malta get more visibility online.
For the past several years Violetta has been living between the Netherlands and Malta, while also regularly traveling to different destinations around the globe, usually due to her entrepreneurial activities. This has led her to start writing about different locations and amenities from the point of view of an entrepreneur. Here’s her recent article about the best hotels in Italy to work from.