In my six years reporting on European tech, I’ve often been intrigued by the variety of founder-investor relationships. Some founders claim to be close to their investors, able to tell them anything. Others keep a clear-cut professional distance, only calling their VCs for advice when a fire needs putting out.
The spectrum of founder-investor relationships is complicated by the fact that VCs ultimately hold a lot of the power: they need their portfolio companies to perform at the highest level, chase a big exit and ultimately return money to their LPs. So if founders are struggling to perform due to exhaustion, burnout or other health issues, whose responsibility is it to ensure they get the help they need?
It seems many VCs don’t think it’s their job. In a recent Sifted survey that asked 138 European founders about the state of their mental health, 56% reported receiving no help from investors, while just 3.6% reported receiving a lot.
But with the performance of founders and their companies inextricably linked to the performance of VC funds shouldn’t investors be paying more attention to how founders are feeling? On a human level, should they care more?
“I’d argue it’s not a VC’s primary role,” says Tim Chong, cofounder and CEO of credit card fintech Yonder. “An investors’ primary role is to ultimately generate a financial return, that’s their fiduciary duty. I think we sometimes expect things from our investors that we shouldn’t, which is what creates the misalignment from founders.
“I do think being open to chat and showing more empathy can never hurt, and I think that’s just part of being a good human, regardless of whether you’re an investor or not,” he adds.
Some VCs have taken supporting founder health more seriously. London-based VC Balderton made a splash in the summer of 2023 when it became the first European VC to launch a founder health and performance programme, with the aim of helping founders to ‘build resilience’ — much like an athlete needs to do to perform at the highest level. The six-month health programme offers blood work, sleep monitoring and nutrition plans and costs £7,000 per person, with the VC covering 50% of that cost. Balderton also offers CEO forums, executive coaching and support for parents, such as virtual coaching and parenting classes, which are paid for separately by the VC. So far, 100 founders have participated in at least one of the offerings.
Other VCs seem to be on the lookout for solutions too. UK healthtech Elevate Health, a workplace wellbeing provider, says it has seen “a strong response” from VCs and founders to a membership it launched in January offering things like full-body MRI scans, in-depth blood analysis and lifestyle plans created by doctors — but not mental health support. The membership offers a flexible “co-pay model” so investors and founders can share the cost. They’re increasingly “recognising that health is a crucial factor in long-term performance,” says Elevate’s founder and CEO Adil Mohammed, who has founded multiple startups and has two exits under his belt.
“There’s been a lot of discussion around mental health in the startup world, but what often gets overlooked is how much physical health impacts focus, decision-making and resilience,” says Mohammed. “Chronic stress, sleep deprivation and underlying health issues can quietly build up, affecting everything from cognitive sharpness to energy levels.”
While getting a 360-degree analysis on your physical health makes sense in terms of preventing long-term health conditions, I wondered whether partially subsidised wellness programmes and subscriptions like Elevate’s are actually beneficial for time-strapped founders.
Jessica Holzbach, a serial fintech entrepreneur who has exited two companies, tells me that she’d “definitely say yes” if she were offered to test out a wellness programme. She recently took a sabbatical and says that after years running companies she was reminded of the “recharging” benefits of having a regular fitness routine and getting regular health checks.
Reflecting on her early years as a founder, Holzbach says that the “free” wellness things she was offered by her investors — such as six months of 1:1 coaching, which included breathwork and meditation — was a “huge plus”, because “at the early stage you can’t justify the money spent on these luxuries, even though it becomes apparent with hindsight that they are not really luxuries.”
Chong, meanwhile, tells me he “likes the idea” of being offered a wellness programme, but it would depend on whether the provider had a good track record of founder testimonials and on the quality of the coaching — “which varies so much” in the startup world.
Sustaining your health long term “isn’t just being about an elite athlete 24/7 but finding time for the simple things in life as well,” says Chong. “I find going back to Australia to go camping and fishing with friends for three days is invaluable for my own mental health.”
He adds that founders should ultimately take responsibility for their own mental health and not expect VCs to do it for them: “That means finding great support networks, which could take the shape of founder networks, family, close friends, community groups and counsellors/coaches. That’s what I’ve found ultimately invaluable for me, much more than what I would expect from our investors.”
Readers, I want to hear from you. Should VCs be putting in more effort to support founders with their mental health? What would that look like? Is it necessary for VCs to fund wellness programmes for their portfolio companies, or is simply leaving the door open for a chat when times get tough enough? Let me know here.
This article first appeared in Sifted’s Startup Life newsletter. You can sign up here.
Read the orginal article: https://sifted.eu/articles/founder-wellness-programmes/
