Article · 12 min read

Forget 'Crushing It,' Startup Founders Open Up About Mental Health Problems

Jeff Kauflin · Forbes Free Beginner

Marqeta founder Jason Gardner describes, in his own words, being weeks from running out of cash while he 'struggled to sleep,' 'couldn't eat,' and lay on the floor staring at the ceiling. It is the exact scene in this question: a founder whose body is breaking down while the company hangs by a thread. It shows the acute-stress state is survivable and separable from the company's fate, and it does so without hustle-porn gloss.

  • The physical collapse (no sleep, no appetite, lying on the floor) is a known founder state during a near-death cash crisis, not a personal failing
  • Gardner kept the crisis from cratering him partly by having his wife in the room on the real numbers, which is the 'tell one person' move
  • Your survival and the company's survival are two different questions: he came out the other side as a person regardless of what happened to the business
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The question it answers

  1. My startup is failing and I can't sleep or eat. How do I hold myself together while I decide whether to shut down?

Read with it

  1. A clinical, free, no-signup stabilization guide that maps directly onto the answer: controlled breathing to break a panic... NHS (nhs.uk) Article · 8 min read Anxiety, fear and panic: self-help and when to get urgent help NHS
  2. A CEO writing honestly about depression across a multi-year founder run, including the days he couldn't get out of bed, and... Medium Essay · 14 min read My journey through founder depression Matt Munson
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