Full-time entrepreneurs, full-time parents

As we enter the flat on the top floor in a suburb of the capital, Mickael Da Silva is quickly finishing off his meal. He and his partner, Nausicaa Rouge, have just come back from a CrossFit session. We have an hour; then the little one has to be picked up from the nursery. If you want to achieve everything they do, you have to be organised. Their daily routine is tightly scheduled.

They met ten years ago whilst out partying in a Luxembourg nightclub. Nausicaa, who was born in Belgium, had already been living in Luxembourg for two years at the time and was working in IT whilst studying for her Master's in Political Science. "A field that wasn't my thing at all, " as she puts it herself. "I didn't identify with it and it wasn't in harmony with my life." Mickael, who grew up in Luxembourg, worked for five years as a corporate banking advisor at a bank after completing his degree in economics, and later as an estate agent – a job he continued to do for several years alongside setting up Heroismo, until he finally dedicated himself fully to his own company.

"He was already into sport back then; I was already doing CrossFit and persuaded him to give it a go too. He became very, very good at it. We've never given it up since." The sport that brought them together also led them to their business idea. "We realised there was a problem with CrossFit clothing: we couldn't find anything that really fit." It's an extremely intense sport where you throw yourself onto the floor and climb ropes – "it was very difficult to find leggings that could cope with all that without slipping down or stretching out of shape". What's more, many CrossFitters train up to six times a week and have to wash their clothes just as often. "There was nothing on the market that looked good and held up at the same time, " recalls Nausicaa.