<story><title>Managing mental health while running a startup</title><url>https://future.a16z.com/managing-your-mental-health-while-running-a-startup/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>TimPC</author><text>I&amp;#x27;m not sure managing mental health while running a start-up is a topic we want VC blogs to be the experts on.  VCs are a substantial part of the problem here with their decisions to use a power imbalance to get founders to take little to no salary for as long as possible to extend the runway of the company.  A lot of pressure on founders is financial as their personal finances are often a mess even as their company is taking off.  Many VCs have a long history of making this problem worse.&lt;p&gt;Data shows that founders over 50 are the most successful age group yet VCs continue to focus on 20 somethings because few founders over 50 are able to handle the financial terms the VCs want on things like founder salary. I&amp;#x27;m convinced we lose a lot of potentially good start-ups by requiring founders to take vows of poverty.&lt;p&gt;We need a coherent approach to mental health for founders. We need a coherent approach to mental health for early start-up employees. VCs are part of the problem and accepting their recommended solutions will make things worse not better.</text></comment>
<story><title>Managing mental health while running a startup</title><url>https://future.a16z.com/managing-your-mental-health-while-running-a-startup/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>randomsearch</author><text>By far the most important advice here is exercise.&lt;p&gt;Years ago I had a friend who suffered from severe anxiety, to the point where she later took a job working for an anxiety charity to help others.&lt;p&gt;I had some anxiety and followed all her advice for coping with it, got some counselling (really helped), read all the leaflets. Took up swimming. Meditated every day.&lt;p&gt;Recently, after some reading, I tried a different exercise routine for a few weeks, where I worked out every day before work.&lt;p&gt;Compared to all the other stuff I’d done, hitting the gym every day was _dramatically_ more effective for coping with stress and anxiety. I can’t really emphasise this enough. Like, not 2x or 3x as effective, but just off the charts. It felt physically impossible to get severely stressed if I hit the gym every morning.</text></comment>