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JOIN THE
‍FOUNDER MENTAL HEALTH PLEDGE



Hustle responsibly. Make mental health a business priority.


Take the pledge

As seen in:






677 SIGNATURES INCLUDING:

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Y Combinator

Niko
 
Bonatsos

General Catalyst

Brad
 
Feld
Partner at Foundry
Partner at Foundry
Peter
 
Fenton

Benchmark Capital

 


Techstars

Devika
 
Bhushan
Former California Acting Surgeon General
Former California Acting Surgeon General
 


Antler

Marta
 
Ghiglioni

Endeavor Global

Justin
 
Kan
Co-Founder of Twitch
Co-Founder of Twitch
 


Felicis Ventures

Michael
 
A. Freeman, M.D.
Co-Author of “Are Entrepreneurs Touched With Fire?”
Co-Author of “Are Entrepreneurs Touched With Fire?”
 


Masters of Scale

Sophia
 
Amoruso
Founder & GP at Trust Fund
Founder & GP at Trust Fund
Peter
 
Fenton
General Partner at Benchmark
General Partner at Benchmark
 


Brex

Mallory
 
Contois

Mercury

Jerry
 
Colonna
CEO at Reboot.io
CEO at Reboot.io
 


Hustle Fund

Lolita
 
Taub
GP at Ganas Ventures
GP at Ganas Ventures
 


Foundry

Craig
 
Morgan
Mayor of Round Rock, TX
Mayor of Round Rock, TX
David
 
Lightburn
Co-Founder of Atlanta Tech Village
Co-Founder of Atlanta Tech Village
 


Atlanta Tech Village

 


Uncork Capital

Saar
 
Gur
General Partner at CRV
General Partner at CRV
 


Founder Institute

Danielle
 
Strachman
Founder at 1517 Fund
Founder at 1517 Fund
 


LTSE

Gagan
 
Biyani
CEO and Co-Founder at Maven
CEO and Co-Founder at Maven
 


Atomico

James
 
Roycroft-Davis
Host of Vulnerable Podcast
Host of Vulnerable Podcast
 


Bonfire Ventures

Jesse
 
Middleton
General Partner at Flybridge
General Partner at Flybridge
 


Footwork

Morra
 
Aarons-Mele
Host of The Anxious Achiever
Host of The Anxious Achiever
 


Forum Ventures

Aaron
 
Gershenberg
Founding Partner Emeritus at SVB Capital
Founding Partner Emeritus at SVB Capital
Saba
 
Karim
CEO & Co-Founder of Favs
CEO & Co-Founder of Favs
Representing 41 countries and over 26,636 total portfolio companies
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FOUNDERS MAKE COUNTLESS SACRIFICES AT THE EXPENSE OF THEIR MENTAL HEALTH


They are more likely to suffer from:
*
Are Entrepreneurs Touched with Fire?” — Michael A. Freeman M.D. (UCSF)
Anderson, Chris (May 8, 2006). "Jimmy Wales – The 2006 Time 100". Time. Archived
from the original on October 12, 2022. Retrieved November 11, 2017.
2X Suicidal Thoughts & Depression 
Anderson, Chris (May 8, 2006). "Jimmy Wales – The 2006 Time 100". Time. Archived
from the original on October 12, 2022. Retrieved November 11, 2017.
10X Bipolar Disorder
Anderson, Chris (May 8, 2006). "Jimmy Wales – The 2006 Time 100". Time. Archived
from the original on October 12, 2022. Retrieved November 11, 2017.
3X Addiction
6X ADHD


OUR PLEDGE FOR FOUNDER MENTAL HEALTH



To make mental health a business priority




1. MAKE A COMMITMENT TO TAKE AN ACTIVE ROLE

We pledge to take an active role in encouraging mental healthcare for founders
and the greater startup community.


2. INVEST IN MENTAL HEALTH

We pledge to encourage the founders we partner with to invest in their personal
mental health and build a workplace culture that promotes mental health.


3. SUPPORT MENTAL HEALTH AS A BUSINESS PRIORITY

We pledge to be supportive of founders treating the direct cost of caring for
their mental health as a legitimate, worthwhile, and encouraged business
expense. Founders should look at their mental health as a business priority –
including therapy, coaching, group support, and app-based solutions.

Take the pledge


TESTIMONIALS



Industry leaders are backing this movement.

Brad Feld
 
LinkedIn icon
Twitter icon
Partner at Foundry

"Following the Silicon Valley Bank crisis, I saw and experienced the extreme
stress and anxiety that founders, CEOs, and leaders of startup companies face
almost daily. It reinforced the importance to me of continuing to help
destigmatize mental health and mental fitness issues across the startup
community. I’m pleased to add my personal support to this movement."
Maëlle Gavet
 
LinkedIn icon
Twitter icon
CEO at Techstars

"As anyone who has been on the entrepreneurial journey will tell you, building a
company from scratch is a lonely and exhausting endeavor. Things go wrong more
often than they go right. Your life is an endless list of intractable problems.
And the pressure, once it takes hold of you, rarely lets up. That is why it’s so
important that as an ecosystem, we continue to prioritize our personal mental
health, that of our teams and of our founders."
Michael A. Freeman, MD
 
LinkedIn icon
Founder at Econa

"The mental health of founders matters because our future is in their hands. 80%
of net new jobs are created by companies that are less than five years old. The
visionary entrepreneurs that build these companies give us full employment today
plus breakthrough solutions for the challenges of tomorrow. Econa researchers
have found that 3% of entrepreneurs make suicide attempts and 1.7% experience
psychiatric hospitalization. This is unacceptable. Entrepreneurs take care of
us. It’s time for us to take care of them as well."
Jerry Colonna
 
LinkedIn icon
Twitter icon
CEO at Reboot.io

"Too often, founders and other folks who join startups lose their way and find
themselves struggling to stay mentally well. Worse still, when we merge our
sense of self-worth with endeavors like our companies, it is not only us who pay
the price but those who love us--our partners, our families, and even our
children.  It's not enough that we normalize talking about our struggles to
maintain mental well-being. While normalizing the struggle is important, it's
time that we made investments in mental well-being tools an essential component
of investing in companies."
 
Alex Auerbach, PhD
LinkedIn icon
Twitter icon
Performance Coach

"Like other investments in optimizing business performance, paying for a founder
to receive support is simply an investment in the business’s future performance.
Founders deserve access to the same tools and techniques that help all high
performers be their best when it matters most. That’s why we’re bringing mental
performance to the founder community — it’s a way to help founders make
meaningful progress on something they care about, their own performance, and to
engage with a professional that’s there to  serve them and their business."
Sherry Walling, PhD
 
LinkedIn icon
Twitter icon
Founder at ZenFounder

"I wish more founders realized that they do not have to go it alone. A range of
mental health experts and coaches are much more accessible than founders
realize. Working with the right expert can be a game changer to a founder's
personal well-being, productivity, creativity, communication, and overall
well-being. It is a very small investment of time and resources given the
potential gains for the business and the human lives involved."
Ute Stephan, PhD
 
LinkedIn icon
Professor at King's College

"The mental health and wellbeing of founders is often overlooked, yet it’s
critical to their business. Founders who are mentally well make better business
decisions, are more creative and persistent. Therefore, their businesses thrive.
Nurturing founder mental well-being is likely one of the most cost-effective
investments for success."
Andy Johns
 
LinkedIn icon
Twitter icon
Creator of Clues.Life

"The upside of supporting an entrepreneur's mental health far outweighs the cost
to do so. A more resilient entrepreneur — one who is developing more control
over their mind and emotions — is an entrepreneur that can run a company longer,
build a healthy and productive work environment, and make better decisions
across all aspects of their company."
Pedro Franceschi
 
LinkedIn icon
Twitter icon
Founder at Brex

"Mental health is a deeply personal and important topic for me. Since founding
Brex, I’ve been deeply ingrained in the startup community.  I’ve seen many
founders succeed and build great companies, but I’ve also seen others quit
prematurely and not reach their full potential because of the impact the job has
on their mental health. It’s a sad and limiting situation for the tech
ecosystem, and one that founders, investors, and executives should deeply care
about."
Deron Triff
 
LinkedIn icon
Founder at WaitWhat

"As a founder, the steps you take to protect your mental health are constant,
and frankly, it's the most strategic dimension of your success. If investing in
startups becomes a more meaningful part of my life, one of the very first themes
I'll explore with my founders is their well-being plan, and how I might provide
guidance in that regard. If a founder doesn't have an active strategy to protect
their mental health, it's a red flag, as much as it's a red flag to have
investors who are not actively supporting their portfolio companies in this way,
if only to protect their investment itself."











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