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Founder life

Should I get a therapist or coach as a founder, and does it actually help?

Yes, and the best founders treat it as a performance tool, not a last resort. A therapist or founder coach gives you a confidential place to process the stuff you can't dump on your team, co-founder, or investors. Jerry Colonna built a whole practice on this: your unexamined patterns will run your company if you don't examine them.

Go deeper

2 resources.

📖 Book
Paid Advanced

From the startup world's most in-demand executive coach, this book makes the case that radical self-inquiry, examining the patterns that drove your success but now hurt you, is essential to leading well without breaking.

Reboot: Leadership and the Art of Growing Up

From HarperBusiness by Jerry Colonna long

  • The psychological habits that made you successful can quietly sabotage your well-being and relationships
  • Radical self-inquiry is a leadership skill, not therapy indulgence
  • Coaching gives founders a confidential space to process what they can't share with team or investors
  • Work does not have to destroy us, but only if we examine ourselves honestly
Open rebootbyjerry.com →
📖 Book
Paid Intermediate

Written by a clinical psychologist married to a serial entrepreneur, it pairs real psychological expertise with lived founder experience, the most practical, non-preachy guide to founder mental health.

The Entrepreneur's Guide to Keeping Your Sh*t Together

From sherrywalling.com by Dr. Sherry Walling & Rob Walling long

  • Concrete strategies for the freedom, responsibility, and existential fear of entrepreneurship
  • How to identify and deal with depression, anxiety, burnout, and ADHD as a founder
  • Protecting your relationships from the stress of building
  • Mental health practices tailored to founders, not generic wellness advice
Open sherrywalling.com →

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Also in How Founders Use AI

How founders actually use AI for this, over in Productivity.

Why let AI handle meeting notes, action items, and follow-ups (Granola, Fathom, Fireflies)? 5 → How do founders get to inbox-zero with AI email tools (Superhuman AI, Gemini, Shortwave)? 4 →
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