Startup Snapshot, a think tank uncovering the unspoken realities of the entrepreneurial ecosystem, has released its latest report, The Untold Toll (Part 2): Navigating Stress, Wellbeing, and Burnout in Startup Teams.

The emotional and mental state of startup teams has emerged as one of the most overlooked drivers of company performance. Startup Snapshot illuminates the unseen side of startup life through global data collected from startup employees. It’s the first study of its kind, and the findings are candid, revealing, and deeply human.

The startup grind is taking a heavier toll than expected. Only 10% of employees anticipated that startup life would harm their mental health, yet 80% say it has. Burnout affects 50% of employees, and 52% report anxiety, surpassing even the rates reported by founders themselves.

Founder stress quietly cascades through the organization. While only 10% of founders openly share their emotional challenges with their team, 57% of employees say they regularly notice signs of founder stress through tone, energy, and facial expressions. 

This unspoken tension shapes culture and affects how safe and stable employees feel. Teams led by highly stressed founders report 16% lower work wellbeing, 14% higher burnout, and 16% lower psychological safety.

The most significant stressor for employees isn’t workload or pay, but uncertainty about what’s happening in the startup. Yet only 18% say their founders are fully transparent about the company’s challenges. 

Transparency directly affects employee performance. Employees working under transparent, communicative leaders experience 19% higher work wellbeing and 26% lower turnover intention. When people understand what’s happening and why decisions are made, they feel secure, valued, and connected to the journey.

The research makes it clear: Founders set the tone for stress and well-being across their startups. When leaders neglect their own mental health, that stress spreads to employees, driving burnout, disengagement, and long-term cultural damage. Startup Snapshot will continue to investigate the emotional and psychological landscape inside startups. If you want to be part of this dialogue, reach out to yael@startupsnapshot.com.

• #seth levine
• #books

My partner Seth Levine has an important new book out today titled Capital Evolution: The New American Economy.

I saw it last night at the Boulder Bookstore in the New Hardback Non-Fiction section (bottom left in the photo below) and am going to the launch event at Composition Shop in Longmont. Join us, say hello, and buy some books!

I love the tagline from the flyleaf: “The future of capitalism isn’t left or right – it’s forward.“

In our over-politicized world, Seth and his co-author, Elizabeth MacBride, do an outstanding job of defining capitalism clearly and explaining how it evolved into today’s approach. They deconstruct the contemporary arguments “for and against,” examine challenges with many existing practices, and paint a new and compelling path forward.

Seth and Elizabeth have been working on this book for over two years. I read an early draft around a year ago and gave them a lot of feedback, so it’s been a joy to see it take shape.

Unlike my largely anecdotal books, which draw on my experiences, often with sidebars from others sharing theirs, Seth and Elizabeth did deep research for this book. I fondly remember showing up at Seth’s party barn at his house one day to see the large dining table covered with hardcover books on economic theory, the history of business (and capitalism and economics), and a bunch of other stuff he was reading as part of his extensive research.

As with Seth’s other book, The New Builders, it is both extremely substantive and eminently readable. I encourage you to buy and read a copy of Capital Evolution: The New American Economy.

• #google

Google seems a little confused.

It was even confused about my age the other day, but at least it has that right now. It was a little confused on December 1st.

I mean, c’mon Google. Use all those chips you have to get it right!

My father Stan and I in our default states.

lsof -ti:3000 | xargs kill -9 2>/dev/null; npm run dev

I’ve been wandering up to 60 for a while. During my extreme-extroversion around Give First: The Power of Mentorship I described myself as “almost 60” a bunch of times just to try it on.

It feels comfortable.

Several people responded with “60 is the new 40.” Nope. Not even close. I most definitely do not feel like I did when I was 40. On my annual birthday run this morning (at least 1 minute for each year), I just plodded along, even though I comfortably covered 65 minutes. I sleep more (good), I care less about a bunch of stuff (good), but my energy is lower and the fatigue is ever present (bad).

I’ve definitely shifted into a new mode over the past year. I’m still on a bunch of boards for Foundry and deeply involved in several companies. But I’m much less focused on the broader technology industry, uninterested in many of the things that are going on, and tired+bored of the arc the narrative about technology and society has taken.

In contrast, I’m much more interested in people I care about. Not big groups of them, but the one-to-one relationships. My real friends are wonderful. The deep relationships are what have meaning to me.

I recently told Amy that I enjoy all the CEOs I’m working with. While I’ve always been friends with many of them, this is the first time that I can recall feeling a genuine friendship with all of them. I know that something new will be fucked up in my world every day, so that has nothing to do with these relationships. Instead, how we deal with whatever new fucked up thing will happen means everything.

I’m writing a lot. Give First: The Power of Mentorship may be my last non-fiction book. I’ve shifted to fiction and software. I’m having a ton of fun with both, bringing a beginners mind to the mix, even though I have the right kind of muscles for each from my past experiences.

While I haven’t solved my post-exertional malaise issue, I’ve settled into an understanding of it and how it impacts me physiologically. I’m experimenting with a bunch of things, keeping the ones that work and punting on the ones that don’t. And yes, pilates is magnificent.

On to the next decade …