Founding and growing a business is incredibly stressful. The success of a business, certainly at the early stages, depends on the founder(s). I was interested to see the statistics in this article from Startup Snapshot, “Behind the silence: Why do only 10% of founders open up to their investors?” The article begins:
In the high-stakes world of entrepreneurship, resilience is often prized above vulnerability. Yet, beneath this veneer of indomitable strength lies a startling truth uncovered by our research at Startup Snapshot: only 10% of startup founders feel comfortable sharing their stress and struggles with their investors. This finding, detailed in our report “The Untold Toll,” highlights a significant communication gap that extends far beyond individual founders, casting a shadow over the very success of their ventures.
So, investors may be giving founders millions of dollars, but founders don’t share their mental health challenges, which could impact the success of the business. Investors probably have a right to know.
Who do founders open up to? Most open up to their spouse or family (76%) and about half (49%) will talk with a cofounder. This is surprising to me because you would think that cofounders would share everything, but this is not the case. To a lesser extent, founders might talk with a therapist or coach (23%) and with investors (10%).
I can imagine this is a complex issue for founders. As the founder, you would want your executive team, employees, and investors to think that you were at the top of your game and had everything under control. Admitting to feeling stress could be perceived as weakness, which goes against the startup grind expectations.
But this really isn’t fair, and I don’t think it’s helpful to anyone.
Executive Coach Stephen Stynes says in the article:
I would love to see a more open dialogue between investors and founders. The single point of failure for any business is the founder and its leadership team. It’s not the technology, it’s not the market, it’s not the funding. It’s crucial that both founders and investors understand this and work together to ensure that the founder is not the point of failure for the initiative.
Even if you do not have investors, as the founder or owner of a small business, you need to have people and support systems in place for the stress you will feel from time to time. Running a business is hard. In these crazy times, I think it has gotten even harder.
While I understand someone sharing their stress with their family, over time, this can put a strain on your personal relationships.
I recommend creating or joining a mastermind group of other founders or business owners to support yourself and normalize the inevitable ups and downs of owning a business.
Also, consider retaining a coach or therapist so you know that you always have someone on your side.
We need to openly talk about stress and get comfortable with asking for support or help. Stress doesn’t go away just because you don’t talk about it.
However, the opposite can be true: talking about your stress can help alleviate it, or at least make it more manageable.
You can download the full report from Startup Snapshot here.
Photo by ahmad gunnaivi on Unsplash
