Why Startup Founders Struggle with Mental Health

Being a startup founder is incredibly stressful. In fact, according to a study by Michael Freeman, entrepreneurs are 50% more likely to report having a mental health condition than people with traditional careers, and twice as likely to suffer from depression.

While there are certainly other stressful professions—like being a doctor or lawyer—being a startup founder comes with the extra ingredient of existential angst. Why? Because unlike other fields, there’s no specific structure or path to follow; you’re continuously paving your own way.

Additionally, you have investors, customers, and employees all relying on you; you're the captain of the ship, which can be a nightmarish and tumultuous experience, often leading to self-doubt, imposter syndrome, and loneliness.

My Mental Health Story

I have some personal experience with mental health issues. When I started working at JPMorgan, I was transitioning from having spent the previous six years as an aircraft mechanic to becoming an investment banker. Not only did this give me anxiety, but I was also experiencing imposter syndrome.

Thankfully, JPMorgan provided me with access to their in-house psychiatrist. He diagnosed me with anxiety and we did a lot of different types of therapy, including cognitive behavioral therapy. Over the years, I learned to manage my anxiety and keep it at bay.

Flash forward a few years later when I started Arcus, I was so enthralled with the idea that I threw myself into the work—but that level of commitment can mask a lot of mental health issues, in essence sweeping them under the rug; and while you may not see them, they’re still there.

As the years progressed, however, these issues started to come to the surface. 2020 was a tough year for a lot of people; personally, in addition to the pandemic, I lost my grandmother and had a pretty tough bout of COVID. I was in a very dark place physically, psychologically, and emotionally, and spiritually I felt depleted. I slept but didn’t rest, was never really present, and everything became very challenging for me.

I started working with a doctor and ultimately was diagnosed with acute depression and anxiety. One thing I've discovered is that you’re always going to have peaks and valleys, but it's never really going to go away—and the worst thing you can do is to pretend that it's not there.

As a founder, mental health is like physical health for an athlete. If an athlete gets injured, she can play at 50% or 60% capacity. The same holds true for a founder; a founder struggling with mental health issues isn’t going to be able to achieve peak performance—or even perform at all.

I really wish that Silicon Valley would start treating these issues as seriously as they do product market fit or growth hiring. Like these areas, mental health affects founding teams at their core. The existential angst founders deal with on a day-to-day, week-to-week, and month-to-month basis can negatively impact every aspect of the business.

Founders are always asking themselves existential questions like: Do we have enough money in the bank? Are we doing right by the team? What's going to happen if we can't make payroll? There are just so many bodies and groups of people depending on founders that it feels as if you have boulders on your shoulders; it’s a lot of weight to carry over the years.

Unless your growth is skyrocketing week after week, month after month—which most startups don’t experience—you're going to be facing secondary consequences. Additionally, whenever something unforeseen happens—like a pandemic, a market downturn, or something internal like running out of money—it's going to hit you hard. If you're not mentally healthy enough to push through those circumstances, you're going to end up in a very dark place that a lot of people can't get out of.

Some Advice for Startup Founders

My advice to any startup founder is to be open about your own struggles and reach out to other founders; you might be surprised by how supportive other founders are when it comes to talking about mental health. Speaking through your experiences with another partner that you see on the same stage is probably the best form of therapy you can find. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t supplement that with professional therapy; and thankfully, there are a lot of different services out there.

Last but not least, be open about mental health with your co-founder(s) and ensure everyone is able to speak freely on the subject. I know in some places, like Latin America, the community unfortunately doesn't embrace the topic as much as they should, but it's now slowly starting to become more commonplace.

Ultimately, we all need to accept mental health as something serious that needs to be addressed in the startup community. Because if we don’t, it's going to impact the performance, and therefore the value, of any company we're trying to launch and grow.