<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>asim</author><text>A lot of people advocate for self help through diet, exercise, meditation, taking time off, etc. While these all have their place, at a certain point and a certain level of stress you stop being able to do it. You end up cutting short during a workout because your brain won&amp;#x27;t switch off. The lack of sleep starts to affect all your cognitive function and then the diet starts to slip and before you know it you&amp;#x27;re eating like crap again.&lt;p&gt;At the best of times these routines of habit are just an escape from the stress or covering the actual problems related to not just running companies as a founder but actual all roles in life that require your ultimate sacrifice of mind, body and soul.&lt;p&gt;The diet, exercise, holidays and whatever else only go so far. Talking to other founders only goes so far. They&amp;#x27;re also struggling but it&amp;#x27;s hard to make time for each other. We&amp;#x27;re all busy just staying afloat. What we don&amp;#x27;t really talk about is the fact that you are more than your startup, that your life and identity is more. Part of that means other experiences or trauma earlier in your life could be magnified by the stresses of running a startup. The people starting companies already have to be a bit delusional.&lt;p&gt;The reality is it&amp;#x27;s excruciatingly hard and yet also still a first world problem because you have to be ultra privileged to be in a place that you&amp;#x27;re even thinking of starting a startup.&lt;p&gt;My last point here. Routines and habits don&amp;#x27;t always help. There has to be more. To ensure the stress and sacrifice are manageable at that level it can often also help to seek external council from a CEO coach, a therapist, etc. Your investors are not going to be helpful here, neither are your friends, family or other founders. You have obligations to all of them and you can&amp;#x27;t use them as a dumping ground. So seeking external guidance at a certain point is a must.</text></comment>