For many founders, building a startup is one of the most exciting but also most challenging phases in life. Between raising capital, developing their own brand, searching for suitable co-founders and employees and the pressure of impatient investors, many startup founders experience extreme stress - both positive and negative. As a result, many new entrepreneurs pay too little attention to their mental health. However, the following information and tips can help you both run your business successfully and stay mentally healthy in the long term:
Possible reasons for burnout among startup founders
The circumstances that can mentally weaken founders are, of course, very individual for each person affected. Nevertheless, there are some typical nerve-wracking factors that all startup founders have to deal with to a greater or lesser extent:
High level of responsibility: There is always an incredible amount to do in the startup phase of a company. As a founder, you literally outgrow yourself at this stage - it's a lot of fun, but you often lack a healthy balance in the form of sport, inspiring leisure experiences, enough sleep and a healthy diet.
Financial pressure: Especially in the early stages of a startup, everything usually revolves around money. The need to raise enough capital for the further development and survival of the company wears on the nerves.
Lack of support: Many founders work alone or in a small team, which often leads to overtime, a broad distribution of tasks and a lack of relief.
Investor stress: As soon as investors are involved, there is not only financial support, but also the expectation of quickly visible results. This builds up enormous pressure and often causes founders to lose sight of the balance between work and private life.
Little time for private life: During the intensive startup phase, the private life of many founders suffers. Family expectations are difficult to fulfil and there is hardly any time left for activities with friends. The extreme focus on one's own business and the associated intensive investment of time can therefore lead to relationship problems and a lack of understanding from family and friends.
Resilience expert Pia Schlemmer reveals: How founders create a healthy work-life balance
We spoke to systemic coach Pia Schlemmer about the mental health of startup founders. With her expertise in industrial engineering, mechanical engineering and strategic innovation consulting, she supports founders and teams in realising their full potential. With her company Happy Leaderships, she offers coaching sessions and retreats for female founders and female leaders, where participants can find themselves and develop new ideas for their individual challenges together. The resilience expert also works as a project manager at the climate startup Planeteers.
Pia, how can startup founders maintain a healthy work-life balance?
In my opinion, they can't do that at all. Because that would require them to keep their work and private lives separate. However, this is not usually the case for founders. After all, building your own company always means realising your own ideas and values, so ideally work does not have to be balanced out by private life in order to be satisfied. It is more about a balanced relationship between life and work - as well as other areas of life such as health and friends.
Which typical mistakes made by founders most often lead to mental exhaustion?
Of course, there are always many causes and there is never just one reason for mental exhaustion. However, it often happens that founders have far too high expectations of themselves. They need to let go of always wanting to be efficient and instead just look out of the window without feeling guilty.
What advice would you give to founders of startups who want to strengthen their resilience?
In the founding phase of a startup, many elementary things happen at once and as a founder, you are always responsible for everything. Unfortunately, it can easily happen that you overexert yourself. It is therefore advisable to actively and promptly establish healthy routines for a balanced level of stress and relaxation - when you are still in good shape and not when you are already feeling poorly.
Especially in the first few years of a company, many things don't work right away and startup founders also have to deal with setbacks. How do you manage not to let this discourage you?
It is helpful to reflect on your own emotions. If I recognise directly whether I am angry, disappointed or anxious, for example, I can more easily take appropriate measures to make myself feel better again. For example, if my employee or co-founder criticises me in a conflict situation, I initially feel attacked. Without reflection and good self-knowledge, I would probably intuitively switch to counter-attack at first. However, if I recognise early on that I am becoming angry, I have more room to decide how I want to react. This allows me to take a deep breath and see the criticism more objectively.
Set goals
Set yourself clear, achievable goals and work with daily or weekly priorities. This will help you avoid the overwhelm that occurs when you get bogged down in too many projects at the same time.Firmly plan breaks and recovery times
Plan fixed breaks - and stick to them. Studies show that regular recovery periods increase productivity in the long term and protect against overwork.Maintain networking and exchange
Use events and networks to exchange ideas with other founders. Dialogue with like-minded people often helps to gain new perspectives and find solutions to current problems. There are many events in Hamburg where startup founders can share their experiences and find professional support.Create an inner circle
Create your own personal support network of people you trust, such as fellow startup founders, friends, family or even people in your neighbourhood. Knowing that you are not alone in an emergency will make you feel more resilient in stressful situations.Use digital tools for mental health
Mindfulness apps offer guided meditations that can help you calm down and organise your thoughts.
Time tracking apps help you to use your working time effectively by recording how you spend your time on the computer and thus help you to set the right priorities.
Cultivate a culture of openness
If you already have employees, promote a culture of open dialogue in which problems can be addressed. Such an atmosphere helps all team members to deal with their stress openly and honestly and to find mutual support.Accept crises and changes
It is normal that things do not always go well. Consider problems as temporary phases and trust that the situation will improve again afterwards.Analyse problems
You can only overcome difficulties if you actively deal with them instead of avoiding them. Only in this way can you recognise what you can influence positively and act accordingly.Have self-confidence
In difficult moments, rely on yourself and on your intuition to tell you the right thing to do.Set a healthy standard
As an entrepreneur, professional anger can sometimes dampen your mood, but don't let it define and guide you. If you look at things from a distance, many problems are only half as bad as they seem at first.Make time for regeneration
When do you come up with the best ideas for solving problems? Often a little distance or a short break, e.g. through sport, an outing or a meeting with friends, can help you to get a fresh perspective on things.
Promoting mental health in the team - what you can do as a founder
There are a few measures you can implement in your startup to promote your own health and that of your team:
Flexible working hours and home office options - flexibility reduces stress and allows all employees to positively shape their own work-life balance.
Health offers such as sports or relaxation programmes - Offers such as regular yoga, back fitness or mindfulness exercises can promote and improve general well-being.
Mental health checks - Regular discussions about workload and mental health in the team can help to recognise overload at an early stage.
Alexander Kasinec from Evitado Technologies also confirms that the mental health of founders is an important prerequisite for the entrepreneurial success of a startup, especially in the long term: ‘Founding a company is a marathon, and if you strengthen your health and friendships, the journey is less stressful and offers more stability.’ Evitado is developing a collision avoidance system that provides support when moving large objects, such as an aircraft in a hangar. The system warns before an accident occurs, which can prevent costly damage and downtime. The startup began back in 2017 as a student project at the TU Hamburg. Since then, Evitado has received a number of awards and grants and has made a name for itself internationally in the aviation industry.
Offers for founders to avoid stress and prevent burnout
There are several programmes, coaching sessions and networks for founders and startup teams in Hamburg that can help you manage stress and prevent burnout:
Startup Port Hamburg
The Startup Port is not only a network for the promotion of innovative projects with a university background, but also offers targeted coaching programmes for personal development. At events and consultations, founders can discuss their individual challenges and receive professional support on topics such as work-life balance, time management and resilience.Impact Hub Hamburg
The Impact Hub Hamburg brings together startups and young companies that want to positively change the economy and society both in Hamburg and beyond. In addition to sharing ideas and business expertise, there are also regular offers for mental strengthening, such as ‘Mindful Monday’, a quarter of an hour of mindfulness exercises that you can also take part in online.
These offers in Hamburg provide you as a founder with targeted support and valuable resources to stay healthy and resilient, even when your day-to-day startup life is challenging. Take advantage of these opportunities to create a stable foundation for your company and yourself!
There are inspiring startups in Hamburg that offer innovative and technically leading solutions for better health, fitness and well-being - here are a few examples:
HelloBetter
HelloBetter offers online psychological therapy courses, the costs of which are fully covered by health insurance. The courses can also help founders to sustainably lower their stress levels within twelve weeks, effectively reduce burnout symptoms and release new energy.Sympatient
Sympatient has developed the Invirto programme, an app for the digital treatment of anxiety disorders. Using virtual reality and digital tools, sufferers can overcome their fears at their own pace - a solution that could support stress-stricken founders in particular during challenging phases and that can also be available free of charge on prescription.YAB Fitness & Health GmbH
YAB Fitness & Health GmbH has developed versatile, patented training weights and sells them itself. The dumbbells can be handled in such a way that you don't always have to hold them and can therefore also train with an open hand. This allows training movements to be performed more intensively.Mind Hero
The Mind Hero app offers guided relaxation exercises that can help you to calm down, overcome stress and stop your thoughts spiralling in difficult situations.MYNDPAAR
With the help of the MYNDPAAR app, couples and singles can build more intimacy in their relationships and develop a clearer perspective for the future. The AI-supported therapy offers modules that adapt to the individual rhythm of life.21done
21done is a coaching app that guides employees towards helpful practices and thought patterns, helping them to develop effective new habits.Affirmation AI
The app creates personalised affirmations that help users to optimise their mental attitude and thus better achieve their goals. Affirmation AI combines daily goals, gratitude tracking and personalised AI-driven audio sessions.
Founding a startup is a challenging task, but also an incredibly rewarding journey. The key to success is to prioritise not only the growth of the company, but also your own health. With a mixture of targeted breaks, the right digital tools for you and openness to support and dialogue, you can create a solid foundation that will keep you healthy and successful in the long term. Hamburg offers you comprehensive support with innovative health startups and networks - take advantage of these opportunities to strengthen your health and ensure your entrepreneurial success.
If you are in the middle of founding a startup or your young company is already active on the market, you will find a wide range of information on consulting and funding opportunities as well as networks and players here on the Startup City Hamburg portal.
