Duncan So’s Post

Finally an industry acknowledgment of how important mindset is to entrepreneurial success. Thank you Founder Mental Health Pledge for advocating for such an important cause. I believe working on your mind is as important as working on your business. It’s part of my everyday routine and it has helped me tremendously. A famous tennis player Roger Federer worked on his mindset for several hours a day and credited it to be the reason for his incredible success. Mindset has always been a critical part of PowerUp precisely for that reason. Our coaching program is specifically focused on addressing these challenges. Our cost effective approach allows to reach founders everywhere. Our first cohort is already running, three more open for enrollment! https://lnkd.in/dJr97RCS Thank you to Melek Capital, Open Opportunity Fund, Forum Ventures, Red Swan Ventures, Roadster Capital, evio.vc and Playfair for being first. Note: mental health goes beyond mindset. Not everything can be willed away. Thus it’s also incredibly important to make it accepted to treat our minds when needed, without shame or fear of being judged. To get the help we need to succeed. #foundersmentalhealthpledge #FounderPledge #FounderMentalHealth #thestartupstation #powerup #entrepreneurialmindset #thoughtleadership Clarence (Hamp) Hampton Thierry Vodounou, MBA, PMP Lori Sokol, PhD Nicki Bedford Deborah Streeter Angela Shurina Executive Coach

The Founder Mental Health Clause is live! As one of the early signers (and ZenFounder being part of their Resources guide), I am thrilled to see how they are expanding their impact daily, empowering every entrepreneur to focus on wellness and making mental health a business priority. #entrepreneurmindset #entrepreneurship #founders #founder #hustle #preventburnout

12 funds acknowledge the distinct mental health challenges that founders frequently encounter while developing and expanding their businesses. Through the adoption of this mental health clause, for the very first time, VCs and investors are putting in contractual writing that founders don’t just have permission, but are encouraged to prioritize their mental health as a business objective and priority Great initiative and precisely what Monika Holod and OMA Mind are addressing....

🌟 It's inspiring to see the growing recognition for mental health in the startup world! 🌟 At Hive Health, we're committed to supporting founders and startup teams in managing the stress, burnout, and mental health burdens of the fast-paced journey from early-stage startup to commercial success. Our innovative solutions offer personalised wellbeing support, empowering founders to prioritise their mental health and create a thriving work environment for their teams. If you're struggling to manage the mental health of your team, reach out to learn more about how Hive Health can help. Together, let's prioritize wellbeing and build a healthier startup culture. 💪 #FounderMentalHealth #WellbeingSupport #StartupSuccess

Great coverage Claude Alan Woodruff! Important that the industry does not stop at words. Implement! Early data from our research does, however, indicate that only reducing cultural risk of 'all nighter trophies' and the consequent mental health catastrophes, while absolutely necessary, is not sufficient for the majority of gains to be made in founder health and performance, mental and physiological. This is not rocket science - companies, leaders and funds don't need to wait for the next Nobel Prize in Medicine and Physiology to implement the essentials. The majority of founders and funds ought to flourish more, and fail less, following well established health and performance best practice applied routinely in other domains for decades - elite sport, the military, expeditions and other 'extreme occupations' where leaders and teams face heightened physiological and mental demands. There is no reason why the health and performance gains seen in these other industries and domains will not translate to the startup world. Our very early data supports this, at least when implementing integrated physiological and mental health essentials with elite performance coaching for leaders and teams. In any case it is great to see all these funds vocalising their support. Change is happening thanks to Founder Mental Health Pledge and other superb contributors in this space. Time now to implement the essentials and study the ROI, both financial and human.

🚀𝐅𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬' 𝐬𝐮𝐜𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐟-𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐞𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞. Burnout leads to poor decisions and sabotaging business. I've been talking about it to VCs, incubators, accelerators, companies for a while now - startups and the best ideas are setting themselves up for long-term failure due to lack of science-backed self-care. The work and the human are one and the same. Not only that, in real-life case studies, 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐟-𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐬𝐤𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐬, 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐬𝐤𝐢𝐥𝐥, 𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐟-𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩 𝐬𝐤𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐬 𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐞𝐝 𝐛𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐬𝐤𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐬 𝟑𝐗 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐢𝐭 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐨𝐭𝐭𝐨𝐦 𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞. It's just wild that we often still don't get it - 𝐬𝐮𝐜𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐢𝐬 𝐝𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐛𝐲 𝐩𝐞𝐨𝐩𝐥𝐞, 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 "𝐡𝐮𝐦𝐚𝐧 𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐡" 𝐅𝐈𝐑𝐒𝐓. Be well. Work well. Do well. Where do we go from here❓ Thomas Bongani Hart Henri Zietsman Sthe Shabangu David Gate Alexandra M. Michael K. Akimov Victoria Yampolsky Angelo Zanetti Scott Young, CFA Will Green Karl Nchite Chase Warrington Mathew Marsden Louis Buys Kieno Kammies Nick Dreyer Joshua Romisher, CFA Andrew Hutton Raj Kulasingam Phillip J Mostert 🇿🇦 Johan Bosini Catherine Young Anthony William Catt Baybars Altuntas Chris Houghtaling Charles Laughlin Sandra Buckingham stephan ekbergh #founder #startup #entrepreneur #mentalhealth #successmindset #burnout #resilience #sustainability #productivity

🚀 We are delighted to announce the closure of our seed round! A warm welcome to Peak, our new investor, and a heartfelt thank you to our current investors and friends, The Inner Foundation, Unconventional Ventures, and Calm/Storm, for their continued support. In an interview with Impact Loop, Tiffany Boswell, our CEO, explains why she started Meela, how she never intended to become an entrepreneur, and how investors are (actually) keen to invest in mental health. "Personally, I hope that more impact companies can show venture capitalists that purpose and profit can go hand in hand", says Tiffany Boswell. With this funding, Meela is ready to take on new challenges and opportunities in the UK market. We can't wait to see what the future holds! Link to the article in the comment section. #mentalhealth #psykiskhälsa #socialimpact #healthtech

Amazing collab claxon 🔊 We are buzzing to announce our partnership with Angel Investment Network - joining forces as their global founder mental health and wellbeing partner. Angel Investment Program (AIN) is an online platform that connects startups with angel investors globally. With 40 networks extending to 90 different countries and nearly 2m users, it is the largest angel investment community in the world. AIN has helped tens of thousands of businesses worldwide with investments ranging from £10,000 to £1m. The AIN mission is: Connecting the world to enable investors to back the great businesses of tomorrow. This gives us the opportunity to pursue our mission to help every entrepreneur in the world avoid the dark side of success. If these founders break, their businesses break - and the angel investment is lost. We want to help back these great businesses by sharing The Groove and ways to Stay in The Groove! Our partnership is kicking off with: An in-depth interview with our founder, Dan Kirby. A post-Christmas Survival Campaign. A January webinar, “How to avoid the dark side of success” - which will be running quarterly. A discount offer for all AiN members for The FAM! We LOVE the Angel Investment Network team - we share values and good vibes. Founders have to deal with a lot of BS. The FAM is designed to help you keep peace of mind - and have some fun - while building your business. Workshops are held online and in only a few hours a month you can stay 'good mental', together with a tribe of fellow 'Mental Founders'. Launched in October 2023, we already have an international membership.  DM us now for more information. It’s £250 a month but we’re offering 50% off for the first 3 months of 2024, if you sign up by Wednesday 20th December. This means you can start in January and hit the ground running in the new year! #StayInTheGroove  #FoundersJourney #businesscoaching #AvoidTheDarksideOfSuccess #AngelInvestment #FounderLife

📝 Put the business over yourself.   That’s the pressure founders feel. They experience that if they stop momentarily to take care of themselves, their company will suffer. The weight of that pressure requires immense strength to carry. We see that firsthand when working with founders in the #PSVtribe, and the grim reality is that not one single founder in Sifted’s recent survey hadn't experienced mental health issues. There's a cause for concern 🚩   We can’t turn the startup journey into a walk in the park, but we have to help founders balance the scale between their own well-being and their company. Long story short, the business won’t survive if founders burn out, so the truth is they have to take care of themselves. The hard part is how when you’re putting out fires every moment of the day.   It’s a continuous and long-term job to find and regain balance when the weight becomes too heavy on one side for too long, so our dynamic People and culture duo, Heidi and Mathias, have distilled their "how to fix it guide" with 5 pillars of building mental resilience as a founder. 🧖🧖♀️   It’s our blueprint for balance. https://lnkd.in/dXQiBeVi   P.S. Luckily several founders are beginning to speak up. Like in Sadia Nowshin's 'you feel like a hamster' article, but also alumni PSV founders like Mik Strøyberg. Read along for more inspiration. https://lnkd.in/d-zwz_UD

Last week, I had an energizing conversation with the founder and CEO of Beckley Psytech, one of the leading mental health startups I've backed as an angel investor. The passion and dedication radiating from Cosmo reinforced why I believe so deeply in their mission. In our world today, mental wellness is not just a necessity, but an imperative. Investing in mental health startups is a commitment to fostering wellness and wellbeing. I believe mental wellness is at the foundation of all aspects of creating a healthier and happier world. With exceptional companies like Beckley Psytech at the forefront in the UK, the future of mental health is looking brighter. Their recent investment from atai Life Sciences is a testament to their significant potential. Courageous founders like Lars Christian Wilde are transforming these dreams into reality. As we move forward, I'm beyond thrilled to watch the transformative impact Beckley Psytech will make, not just within the UK, but globally. We're all in this together, and it's our shared responsibility to champion mental health. Here's to shaping a future where mental health is prioritized, stigma-free, and accessible to all. If you're a growth stage mental health or wellbeing startup CEO or investor, I'd love to share with you what we at Nfluence Partners are seeing in the market in mental health fundraising and M&A activity. If you're an early stage mental health or wellbeing investor or founder, I'd love to connect with you to learn more about what you're focused on that’s creating a positive impact. Message me here to start the conversation. I hope you take the time today to do whatever brings you joy and serenity. #mentalhealth #wellness #wellbing #impact #angelinvesting #VC #fundraising #startups #M&A #founders #entrepreneurs #investors #investmentbanks