Founder mental health and mental health start-ups
A weekly newsletter that profiles women in venture and technology
Welcome to Heroa, a weekly newsletter that aims to raise the profile of women in venture. If you enjoy what you read, please do share this newsletter with friends and subscribe - Alexandra.
This week is Mental Health Awareness Week, and therefore this issue is dedicated to mental health. My colleague shared the below picture today, which is a helpful reminder that although we can’t always see mental health difficulties, that doesn’t make them any less valid.
A recent study conducted by Dr Michael Freeman showed that 72% of entrepreneurs suffer from a mental health issue. Although estimates vary, most studies agree that founders are more likely to have a mental health issue than a member of the general population.
VC’s also recognise that mental health is a growing and underserved marketplace. According to PitchBook, venture investment into mental health investments has more than quadrupled since 2015. Driven by pandemic demand, mental health startups surpassed 2019 funding in 2020.
The events section is always at the end of this newsletter. Still, I wanted to signpost that Silicon Valley Bank is hosting a webinar with Unmind, Aon and Health Assured on mental wellbeing in the workplace. This will be tomorrow, 11th May, at 10 am BST, and you can sign up here.
It’s also worth checking out this curated resource of mental health tools for founders and this great mental health start-up map and accompanying analysis.
Round-up of the news this week
Jessica Alba’s Honest Company is one of very few unicorns 🦄 to lose its billion-dollar valuation and regain it. This week’s IPO also saw its shares rise by 44% on the first day of trading. Nearby, the marketplace B2B solution founded by April Underwood raises a $21M Series A. Investors spend 18% more time on pitches coming from all-male teams.
Claire Díaz-Ortiz of Magma Partners has set up the ‘Pregnancy doesn’t have to be a PR crisis campaign’. Monzo Bank is now offering employees paid leave after pregnancy loss. Either partner can take up to 10 days’ leave after miscarriage, stillbirth or abortion.
From the investors
“Mental Health is an underserved market. Nearly two-thirds of people (65%) say that they have experienced a mental health problem. Yet affordable, effective solutions to the mental health crisis are few and far between. NHS waiting times are months, sometimes years, long.” Check Warner of Ada Ventures.
Ada Ventures investment in Spill. Check Warner of Ada Ventures talks through why Ada led a £2m investment in Spill. Spill provides all-in-one mental health support, delivered through Slack, to over 100 companies and growing. One of the mental health market challenges is who pays and how to make the support accessible to those that need it most. Spill address this through offering a B2B solution given that Corporate wellbeing annual spend is estimated to rise to $100bn by 2027 … Read more here.
Principles for effective remote work. How venture capitalist spend their time directly impacts their ability to win allocations in today’s hyper-competitive fundraising climate. Brianne Kimmel of Work-Life Ventures says you need to optimise for deep work, batch routine tasks, work your outbox and build for scale. She also has an awe-inspiring calendar blocking system … Read more here.
The customer-facing side of B2B SaaS. Corinne Riley of Greylock Ventures talks through how she’s identified particular areas of interest within the SaaS space and why she thinks connecting products all the way to sales through a customer-centric lens is a big opportunity. While there are considerable players in each of the markets across the stack (DevOps, Marketing Ops, etc.), right now, many of these tools do their jobs in a siloed way… Read more here.
From the operators
“The venture community is increasingly recognising the importance of supporting founders’ mental health. Building a company is an emotional rollercoaster, and sustainably leading a company from inception to exit requires real reliable support.” Ushma Baros of Big Health
Opening up the conversation on founder mental health. Here’s what you probably already know: leaders being candid about their mental health struggles is a good thing. Of 1,000 employees surveyed by Forbes, 62% said having someone in a leadership role speak openly about mental health would make them feel more comfortable talking about it themselves. Ushma Baros of Big Health says that these conversations can help create a more open culture and regular signposting to mental health resources … Read more here.
All the stuff I got wrong. Sharmadeann Reid, founder of The Stack and WAH Nails, talks honestly and openly about her doubt, Netflix and her mistakes as an entrepreneur and what you can learn from them … Read more here.
How to manage your mental health as a solo founder. Managing your mental health is the hardest part of being a solo startup founder. Doing everything, making every decision and taking responsibility completely on your own is tough, and it’s easy to spiral when things aren’t going right. Robyn Vinter, founder of The Overtake has some useful tips … Read more here.
Events
🚀 "Ecosystem Giants" with Meagan Loyst - Meagan Loyst is a VC at Lerer Hippeau, where she focuses on seed-stage investing. Meagan is also the Founder of Gen Z VCs, a global collective of 7,000+ Gen Z investors, founders, angels, students, and aspiring VCs - and now, a movement. The talk will cover the consumer trends Meagan (and other Gen Z VCs!) follow in EdTech, The Creator Economy, and more. Tuesday, May 11, 6:00 PM – 7:00 PM BST
#DSLive3 - this is a live Pitch Competition featuring 5 pre-Seed Startups pitching to some of the top VC's in the UK. The pitch competition winner will receive a £100,000 SEIS investment from Ascension Ventures 💷. Thursday, May 13, 9:45 AM to May 13, 1:30 PM (BST).
Pear Accelerator - Pear.VC announced a final call for their Summer Accelerator program. The team will work closely with 15 selected startups over 3 months. The cohort begins on 15 June.
Opportunities
SpeedInvest - Fintech Associate - 🇬🇧🇩🇪🇫🇷
Citymapper - Founder Associate - 🇬🇧
PG Impact Investments - Associate Private Equity, Climate Growth Fund - 🇬🇧
SEE YOU NEXT MONDAY!
If you have any comments, questions, or want to chat about start-ups and venturing, then do drop me a comment.
Written by Alexandra Wyatt, based in London but (usually!) a global traveller. You can also reach me on Twitter and Instagram.