How the mental health of the founders also collapsed in the fall of SVB

Those with SVB assets must ask themselves, “How do I make a salary?” Nathalie Walton, co-founder of Expectful says.

“In those circumstances as a builder, you don’t really take care of yourself,” Walton said Good luck. He sold his company in January but was very sympathetic to the sudden stress the founders felt after the SVB news. “You put out the fire, and you make sure everyone is fed and taken care of before you take care of yourself.”

He added, “I don’t think any of the founders practiced self-care this week.”

And if there is a fire to put out, the builders must act with the utmost speed.

“Sometimes it gets to the point where it’s like, if you don’t respond, you can lose everything,” he said, adding that being a founder had a detrimental effect on his mental health, and especially his sleep.

For Niles Lichtenstein, co-founder and CEO of Nestment who has worked with many startups, the most challenging part of being a founder is suddenly losing control of the situation. It feels like the world is collapsing, he says luck.

“You’re in this scary place where you feel like you’re with your investors, your team, and yourself,” he said. “It can be a lonely position to be in.”

Brad Feld, a venture capitalist and co-founder of Foundry Group, noted the immediate impact of SVB on the well-being of founders, especially founders who are new to the arena. He wrote a blog post answer the issue Tuesday.

“…the level of stress and anxiety, especially among first-time founders, is very high,” he wrote on his blog, adding that he facilitated several conversations with his portfolio of company CEOs where people can openly question and “just compromise.”

A commitment to the mental health of the founders

Pioneer Mind, a company that provides mental health support for founders that is also funded by SVB, publicly acknowledged the need to address founder mental health this week. Naveed Lalani, the CEO and founder of Pioneer Mind, with the help of Aaron Gershenberg, the former founder of SVB Capital, created a Google Docs where investors and startup sponsors can pledge a “commitment to take an active role in encouraging mental healthcare for founders and the larger startup community.”

It highlights the need for founders to address their own mental health, and foster environments within their workplaces that promote mental health.

“The process of establishing the company requires a lot of difficulty, risk-taking, and great ambiguity,” the promise says. “Founders make countless sacrifices, both professional and personal, that come at the expense of their mental health. However, founder mental health struggles remain stigmatized and rarely discussed.”

So far, more than 30 venture capital firms have supported the pledge, amounting to more than 120 signatures representing more than 13,500 portfolio companies as of Friday.

It comes as previous research from the University of Berkeley, California, and the University of California, San Francisco reported that founders were more likely to experience symptoms associated with mental health conditions, such as depression.

Mental health as a business priority

Lalani hopes this public support allows founders to speak openly about stress and anxiety, highlighting vulnerability as a strength for business. He sees the support of VCs as showing “mental health as an advantage versus a liability.”

Lalani said building resilience should be seen as a “business cost.” VC firms’ commitment to the mental health of their founders reinforces that mental health is part of the cause. In a Pioneer Mind Survey of 200 Series D+ startup founders and executives who participated in therapy or coaching, one-on-one or in a group, about 90% reported a reduction in stress and loneliness; 91% improve business performance, and 75% improve employee retention.

“We don’t make it easy for startups. We make builders stronger,” said Lalani, using his team’s internal motto.

While builders could ease their gas on Sunday when the FDIC promised to make SVB depositors whole, the panic and pressure to keep rising remained. Prioritizing mental health on a regular basis is key—it’s not a one-and-done kind of thing.

Taking responsibility and accepting a leadership role comes with the founder’s territory, Lichtenstein said. But he is most successful when he has what he considers a “patient urgency” or “the urgency to get things done, but also the patience to let certain strategies work for a long time.”

While being willing to disrupt the status quo helps founders succeed, “that doesn’t mean we always have to break and create a ton of friction in the process,” he says.

Walton suggests founders practice setting boundaries when they’re in a “steady state,” when fundraising isn’t top of mind or the fires seem to be temporarily gone. Taking time to recharge will benefit their productivity in the long run, but there’s no reason to think that self-care can always come before the company, he says.

Brian Femminella, co-founder of SoundMind, a mental health education platform and technology, reminds himself to celebrate small victories.

“Being a founder is like actually falling 99 times, and once you win, you have to take care of it, even if it’s a small victory because that’s what supports the mental health of founders the most difficult time,” he said.

There is also the comfort of fellowship – knowing that other builders are in the same boat.

“…many founders have told me that feeling part of a larger community helps,” Feld wrote in his blog post.

Having someone to call when things got tough saved Lichtenstein in many ways, he said. He knows that there are times when recharging, and seeking support, whether in a therapy session or group coaching group, gives him more strength for the challenges ahead.

Addressing the mental health of founders doesn’t just mean implementing self-care habits but instilling a mindset that while pacing and resilience can be important, recharging and vulnerability reinforces on the mind and, therefore, the business.

“Are there ways to be healthier, more efficient and productive?” Lichtenstein says. “How do we not have to give all our time as founders to our business?”

While some may call it idealistic, there may be a paradigm ahead where builders who move quickly and destroy things also come up for air, many of them say luck.

“You can move fast and break things, but don’t break people,” says Lalani, a phrase the co-founder told him. “People need to be strong to do better, and that’s what I hope for [this pledge] did.”