The Startup Founder’s Journey

We love founders.

They are courageous individuals who possess the tenacity and the almost-delusional vision to build something from scratch - against all odds.

Founders believe in a world beyond the realities of today and ultimately shape the future with their dreams of a better world.

It's the fire inside the founders that keeps their teams going with conviction and clarity. The Founder Journey is not an easy one. Although founders love the work they do and foster the energy needed to pursue their visions, they burn out too, losing their fire.

That’s why we are conducting the research on The Founder’s Journey to understand and support founders on this winding path.

The Founder Burnout

In an effort to make the world a better place with their knowledge, skills and resources, founders take on so much, carrying this responsibility on their shoulders. They bring vision, passion, and direction but they also take on the ever-increasing load of weight responding to the needs and demands of investors, teams, and customers. They give disproportionately, overextend themselves, and they don’t want to burden others. So over time they are overloaded, overwhelmed, and perhaps even isolated. 

As founders work passionately toward their mission, which often doesn't feel like work, they start to feel a different kind of burnout. Not the burnout that’s solely a feeling exhaustion due to long hours and disrupted recovery. Although that’s definitely a massive contributor.

The Founder Burnout also comes from genuinely caring about their work, making it their mission to serve and take care of their teams and all stakeholders, and loving it so much that it doesn’t seem like work.

So founders don’t even realize when they have not paused for a moment to reflect, to take care of themselves, their minds, their bodies and their most important relationships. These passionate, hard-working and caring individuals then tend to feel this inexplicable sense of anxiety, despair and sometimes even a loss of purpose, direction and a lack of motivation. 

We’re trying to understand the root causes of this burnout so we can support Founders on their Journey to make it a more peaceful and purposeful one–full of clarity, energy and excitement. 

We’ll share our findings with the whole ecosystem because we believe that we have a role to play to support founders to build thriving organizations–for all of us.

Three Components of Founder Burnout*

Exhaustion - A founder may feel physical and/or emotional exhaustion due to constant pressure, limited resources, and high stakes involved in building and leading a startup. Feeling drained and fatigued, both due to long hours of work without proper breaks and the pressure to constantly be “on” to energize, lead and support others.

Depersonalization & Cynicism - The stress and pressure, not seeing the impact of their efforts causing a founder to become cynical about the work, questioning its significance and value. They also become cynical about the people and emotionally distance themselves from them, including investors, customers, and even team members. They become cynical of themselves and their abilities.

Low sense of personal accomplishment - The nature of the entrepreneurial journey consists of continuous failure and iteration, not knowing the outcomes of one’s efforts and not seeing the results for a long period or at all. Add to that the vision-reality gap and we got a founder who is likely to experience a lower sense of personal accomplishment.

*Adapted from MBI Manual Copyright © 1986-2018 by Christina Maslach, Susan E. Jackson, and Michael P. Leiter.

A Quick Look at Different Levels of Burnout

In the meantime, we want to share profiles* that relate to different types of burnout and work experiences. See which one of these resonate with you:

• Engaged: Pretty straightforward. This profile captures those who are not feeling exhausted or drained, they’re feeling enthusiastic about their work and contributions, and connected to people around them. 

• Ineffective: This profile captures the feeling of doubting one’s own capabilities, perhaps because the outcomes of their efforts are not (yet) visible and there’s little recognition for a job well done (because well, founders are at the top). Founders who fall into this profile are those who cheer on others but perhaps not celebrate their own progress and accomplishments because they believe it’s their job to do all of this anyways (and do it right). This can happen over time if stakeholders also don’t celebrate the founder’s efforts and the progress made, and are quick to judge when something goes wrong.

• Overextended: This profile is easier to recognize that shows up as lack of energy and feeling drained. This person is still enthusiastic about the work and their own effectiveness but is simply exhausted because they are working long hours and not taking proper breaks. 

• Disengaged: This profile captures those who are not necessarily overworked and tired but they are cynical about their work, they lack critical resources (as founders often do), they have poor social relationships, perhaps isolating themselves not to burden others. These feelings may lead to poor performance and lower satisfaction with their work. 

• Burnout: Straight up burnout is the combination of feelings of exhaustion, depersonalization and low personal accomplishment. Those who are emotionally drained, physically tired, doubt their capabilities and the significance of their work and contributions, and who are disconnected from people, both at work and sometimes even in their personal lives (because they’re overextended at work).

*Adapted from the MBI Manual by Christina Maslach, Susan E. Jackson, and Michael P. Leiter.

This was a quick snapshot of different burnout profiles to give you an initial idea of what you (or someone you know) might be dealing with. There are ways of preventing burnout and reducing it’s negative impact both at an individual and organizational level.

A Case for Peaceful & Purposeful

Supported by neuroscience research, we argue that it’s not only possible but actually necessary to lead in a peaceful and purposeful way to tap into the psychophysiological states needed for creativity, learning and connection, which are particularly important in the face of complexity and ambiguity to foster resilience and innovation.

We believe founders deserve to build thriving organizations in a peaceful, purposeful and energized way and we’ll be sharing more resources and practices to support you.

In the meantime, pause, reflect, take care of your wellbeing and connect with people who support you on this journey!