The evidence.

This isn’t a feeling. It’s a finding.

Founder wellbeing is one of the most consistently documented and least acted upon findings in entrepreneurship research. Here is what the studies show.

72%

of entrepreneurs report a lifetime history of at least one mental health concern, compared to 48% of a matched comparison group.

UCSF, Freeman et al.

72%

of entrepreneurs report a lifetime history of at least one mental health concern, compared to 48% of a matched comparison group.

UCSF, Freeman et al.

2x

Entrepreneurs are roughly twice as likely as comparison participants to report depression.

Freeman et al., Small Business Economics.

2x

Entrepreneurs are roughly twice as likely as comparison participants to report depression.

Freeman et al., Small Business Economics.

3x

Entrepreneurs are roughly three times as likely to report substance use concerns.

Freeman et al., Small Business Economics.

3x

Entrepreneurs are roughly three times as likely to report substance use concerns.

Freeman et al., Small Business Economics.

81%

of founders say they do not openly share their stress, fears, and challenges, worried that vulnerability could hurt their reputation or their company.

Startup Snapshot, The Untold Toll.

81%

of founders say they do not openly share their stress, fears, and challenges, worried that vulnerability could hurt their reputation or their company.

Startup Snapshot, The Untold Toll.

10%

of founders talk to their investors about what they are carrying, concerned that honesty could affect their funding.

Startup Snapshot, The Untold Toll.

10%

of founders talk to their investors about what they are carrying, concerned that honesty could affect their funding.

Startup Snapshot, The Untold Toll.

23%

of founders seek help from a psychologist or a coach. The rest carry it alone.

Startup Snapshot, The Untold Toll.

23%

of founders seek help from a psychologist or a coach. The rest carry it alone.

Startup Snapshot, The Untold Toll.

The pattern is simple and it is damning.

Most founders are affected. Most founders hide it. Almost none of them have anywhere to take it. Read those three sentences against the numbers above and the shape of the problem becomes very clear.


Notice who founders are not talking to. The people funding them and the people running their programs are the last people founders feel safe telling, because those are the rooms where the performance matters most. That is not a character flaw in founders. It is a structural gap in how the startup ecosystem is built.


The Collective exists to close that gap. Not with content, not with an app, and not with a poster about balance in the office kitchen, but with an actual room, actual coaches, and actual peers, sealed by actual confidentiality.

We intend to add to the evidence.

The Collective sits inside a network of more than 350 accelerators, venture studios, and innovation hubs across six continents, which gives us a view of founder life that very few organizations have. We will publish an annual State of Founder Wellbeing report drawing on that network, openly and at no cost, beginning with the first edition. Leave your email and we will send it to you the day it publishes.

Sources

1. Freeman, M.A., Johnson, S.L., Staudenmaier, P.J., Zisser, M.R. Are Entrepreneurs Touched with Fire? University of California San Francisco, 2015.

2. Freeman, M.A., Staudenmaier, P.J., Zisser, M.R., Andresen, L.A. The prevalence and co-occurrence of psychiatric conditions among entrepreneurs and their families. Small Business Economics, 2019.

3. Startup Snapshot. The Untold Toll: The Impact of Stress on the Well-being of Startup Founders and CEOs, 2023.

4. Riley, P. The Founder Wellness Pact: How Accelerators are Addressing Depression Among Founders, 2017.

The research says founders need a room like this. Come see it for yourself.

Start with a conversation