jd_routledge

Pivot in progress, raising a $10m seed.

Cheers Chris :)

Thanks - we're very happy with the reaction and all this amazing discussion - it's exactly what we wanted!

I agree on this. When you have big businesses commercially incentivised to promote addictive behaviour it's going to be hard to change the collective behaviour and its potentially harmful impact

Hope they release a "My Startup is Killing It" package.

Hey everyone,

As we all know, everyone "doing a startup" is "killing it" or "smashing it", or "crushing it".

Yet what we all really know, is that nobody ever really is and working life in general can be really fucking hard and has a huge impact on your mental health.

My startup (@SanctusLDN) has produced a podcast with Spotify called "Killing it" that shares real stories from people in startups that are being open and honest about their mental health journey.

The first episode is legendary Alex Depledge who sold Hassle for £24m, but this podcast doesn't talk about that - it talks about her human journey and her mental health.

I would say this, but it's really valuable and well worth a listen.

https://open.spotify.com/show/449We08a4Ja7A4UuLkRRZD

Cheers and would love to know what you all think,

James

Hey everyone, it's been a while since I've posted in here ️

I've had a blog post brewing for a while that I've been desperate to share with this community in particular.

I believe too many people are "doing a startup" for a quick win to be successful and happy. It's what I did with my last company.

I see so many founders raising VC and angel money for businesses that would probably just be amazing organic businesses.

I just wanted to share with you what we're doing with Sanctus, why we're happy that we're building a sustainable business that has no intention to sell or raise VC and why playing "the long game" has transformed my world-view on business.

It feels like there is a band of people who are starting to focus on building awesome 'lifestyle' businesses or just bootstrapping and actually making money from day one.

I hope this post can start what I think is a well-needed discussion

Hey Guys - I've written a new post which might cause some healthy debate

If you've ever been to a startup drinks/networking event, pitch or demo day - you'll know only too well that absolutely everyone is "killing it" or "crushing it" (maybe even "smashing it")..

Yet, we all know that building a startup just isn't like that and I think this culture where everybody claims to be doing really well and "fine" and "ok" is not only disingenuous, but bad for your Mental Health.

Have a read and let me know what you think

Yplan recently shut down in London and there's been some unbelievable (literally un-believable) commentary on their demise.

Half of the people in startups seem to think they were a bunch of gallivanting pirates living off VC cash with no hope of a return.

The other half believe the team were a bunch of brave swashbuckling entrepreneurs trying to change the world, willing to die trying.

Made me think a lot about failure, which is inevitable of course, but sometimes I think it's reckless and other times I think it's brave...

Great advice - thanks

hmm not sure I agree on the age or life experience point. In my case yeah, we were a bad bet, but not because of our age.

I wish investors would stop putting money into businesses solving no real problem/with no real vision.

Also disagree on the human cost point, yes it may have cost a lot of money, but I'm certain the value the team and I will go on to create will far exceed the money we raised.

Awesome quote - gonna add it to the post.

I didn't want the post to be all doom and gloom, just real and honest.

I think your quote could add a bit more positivity lol - where's it from?

You clearly haven't read any of my other posts. Dealing with failure is the hardest thing I've ever done and seriously affected my mental health. Everyone who worked for us went into better jobs than previously and all I'm doing is trying to help more and more people. You are far too quick to judge and seem very bitter about a lot of the startup BS, which I can understand.

When I talk about the fact that the business could have been seen as a success for me, that is because success and failure are completely relative. Many of the people around me would laugh when I said I'd failed, because they were judging it by how far I'd come and the experience I'd gained.

You're absolutely right the business was a complete failure and we spent $800k of someone else's money to get those learnings', but just because someone was a founder/CEO you shouldn't think they're in a different position to anybody else - both financially and emotionally.

I want to help people in startups ride the rollercoaster with a series of mental health classes & workshops

I've published this post which goes into more detail on my vision for this and the first product

I'd absolutely love any feedback from you guys either in the comments or by e-mail

Thanks :D

Hi everyone - I've been posting on HN about mental health in startups semi-regularly.

Today I got a write up in The Guardian which I hope gives the topic some well needed coverage.

Hope you enjoy the read and would love to kick off a discussion on the points raised.

James

Hi Everyone, Following on from the writing I've been doing on mental health in startups - I've decided to create a facebook page dedicated to the topic too.

The aim is to provide a place to share public and anonymous stories from people going through the same issues. I'm hoping this goes some way to raising awareness on mental health and removing the stigma.

Please like and share the page.

Thanks, James

Hi Guys - I'm looking into mental health issues in startups.

It only takes 2 minutes

If nothing else, a great place to write down your thoughts

Thanks

Hi everyone,

Last week I posted an article on mental health in startups (my first HN post!)

I was blown away by the response it got, over 10k reads in 2 days, which is huge for me.

I've written a follow-up post on what I've learnt and shared some of the comments I've had.

There are so many people who want to discuss their issues but just do not know where to turn or are afraid of being judged.

Thanks so much for the reads and shares on the last one (HN was my biggest referrer!)

I've created a short survey within the post on mental health in startups and would love to learn some more about these problems.

James

That's awesome. Completely different perspective that what I have heard so far, thanks.

Great comment - thanks for sharing. I think I agree - it's not just about the environment you work in (although I think certain environments bring it out more), it's a certain type of personality/mindset maybe.

You think it is a personality issue then? Some people can just handle pressure better than others?

Thanks for the insight btw :)

Do you think it is more a mindset of certain individuals as opposed to the environment they work in?

absolutely - maybe even worse as the spirit of sharing etc isn't as strong in the corporate world

Thanks Rob - i'll be in touch

I hope you don't really think like that.

Your second point is completely true and much more sensible. It's about working sustainably.

I knew these issues would be in the corporate world too but obviously I can't relate. These problems reach further then we'll ever know I think.

Hi,

I just wrote a piece about mental health in startups.

This is something that has been covered by a few others in the past, but I still don’t think it is talked about enough.

I don’t know what the answer is, but I am trying to raise awareness and getting people to talk about their struggles more and more.

If you think that this is a topic we should be talking about more please could you like and share my post around?

Also if you know of any other great resource on the topic please can you share it with me?

Thanks so much, James