A silent epidemic is plaguing the nation’s startup scene, generally occurring behind closed doors. The pressures and demands of running a company can increasingly leave founders experiencing feelings of burnout and fatigue.
According to a study conducted by Harvard Business Review, 25% of startup founders reported feeling “moderately burned out” while 3% reported feeling “intensely burned out.” On average, the entrepreneurs surveyed said they experienced some level of burnout. A University of California Berkeley study found that 72% of entrepreneurs reported having at least one mental health issue.
The stress experienced by founders can lead to issues such as anxiety, depression, difficulty concentrating, difficulty sleeping and increased substance use.
“Our number one problem by far, and it’s not bankruptcy, it’s founder burnout… And no one’s talking about it,” said Brad Zapp, co-founder of Covington-based venture capital firm Connetic-Ventures.
Zapp discussed this phenomenon with Blue North executive director Dave Knox. Intrigued, Knox began working toward creating a program that could help Northern Kentucky founders navigate the challenges of maintaining their mental health. Knox told LINK nky their initial conversation sparked the idea for what would become Resilience Accelerator.
“If you talk to any founder and they’re ‘busy,’ they use that word, but oftentimes that busy can be really deep stress,” Knox said.
Launched on June 27 by Blue North, an NKY-based entrepreneurial resource and support nonprofit, Resilience Accelerator is a program that will produce content to assist regional founders with managing stress, helping them cultivate a healthy mindset regarding their work.
“It’s going to be for helping people with that journey,” Knox said. “It’s walking through how do we have those conversations? How do founders talk with their board about it? How do they address it? How do they get themselves into a better state of mind overall for this roller coaster that is entrepreneurship?”
Three goals of Resilience Accelerator are to improve founders’ mental well-being, foster business performance and promote sustainable entrepreneurship.
Blue North partnered with locally-based clinical psychologist Dr. Lina Ehlinger to produce monthly content for the program. Ehlinger is a founder in her own right, starting L.E. Psych, which provides therapy for people suffering from PTSD and bipolar disorder. The content is going to be distributed through a monthly newsletter.
“I wanted to give out some sort of practical tools, coping tools, just to help them maximize their mental health and give them something to consider as they move along through their month,” Ehlinger told LINK nky.
Additionally, Blue North will pay for a set number of one-on-one consultations with Ehlinger for founders who may need more advanced help. The confidential consultations are slated to be approximately four hours long and are delivered virtually. The session’s curriculum includes teaching skills in self-care, healthy coping, conflict resolution and self-awareness.
During the program’s kickoff webinar, Ehlinger said she wanted Resilience Accelerator to be proactive rather than reactive, providing founders with the tools to address issues before they intensify.
“Existing programs for health and entrepreneurship are more reactive in nature, so the problem already exists where there’s already something tipping us off that something is going awry so it’s more about responding to that issue,” Ehlinger said.
From Zapp’s perspective, the stress many founders feel can lead to isolation and suffering in silence. It also can hurt a company’s upside, as well as the founder’s personal well-being.
“What I offered was from an investor’s perspective, which was validation that we believe our founders are suffering from fatigue, mental stress and duress, loneliness,” Zapp said.
