Centering Well-Being is a new weekly newsletter and podcast pairing founder well-being research with real life. It will cover:

The true cost of building Why the system stays stuck Who pays when founders struggle What it would take to change.

We are currently recording conversations with researchers whose work furthers founder well-being so that listeners can hear directly from the people behind the data. Episodes will be available publicly starting this April/May.

Central Question: Is founder well-being a public health crisis?

Context: We start with the scale of the problem, explore why investors won't fix it, then ask whether founder well-being should be treated as a public health issue and what that would mean for how government invests in entrepreneurship.

Q1: You've called founders a "vulnerable population." That's language we use for refugees and the elderly. Why founders?

Q2: After a decade of this work, what's the one thing that still frustrates you most?

Q3: Your research says half of entrepreneurs experience a mental health condition. Is that the real number or is it worse?

Q4: When did you first realize this wasn't just a personal problem but a systemic one?

Q5: When a founder starts struggling, what happens to everyone around them?

Q6: Econa is planning to screen 5,000 founders this year. What are you hoping to learn?

Q7: Insurance companies price founder health into their decisions. Why don't investors?

Q8: A few investors offer therapy stipends, coaching and support. Why isn't that more common?

Q9: Some would say founders chose this. They signed up for risk. Why is their well-being anyone else's problem?

Q10: If investors can't or won't solve this, who's left?

Q11: What changes when you look at founders as a population instead of individuals?

Q12: Is there a founder whose story changed how you think about government's role in this?

Q13: We've called gun violence a public health crisis. Opioids. Obesity. Does founder well-being belong in that category?

Q14: Startups create two-thirds of new jobs. If founders aren't supported, who pays for that?

Q15: Government already spends billions on entrepreneurship. Should founder well-being be part of that?

Q16: What would that actually look like at the city level, the state level and nationally?

Q17: I'll ask you directly: Is this a public health crisis?

Q18: What's something you believe about founder well-being that most people in venture would disagree with?

Q19: What happens if we keep ignoring it?

Q20: Someone's watching and wants to help. What do they do?

Centering Well-Being is a new weekly newsletter and podcast pairing founder well-being research with real life. It will cover:

The true cost of building Why the system stays stuck Who pays when founders struggle What it would take to change

We are currently recording conversations with researchers whose work furthers founder well-being so that listeners can hear directly from the people behind the data. Episodes will be available publicly starting this April/May.

Central Question: What happens to a founder's brain when they're worried about money and what does that cost everyone around them?

Context: Dr. Meuris studies what happens when people are stressed about their finances. His research shows that worrying about money takes up mental space, leaving less room for everything else. He studies employees, not founders. In this conversation we explore his research, then ask him to help us apply it to founders.

Q1: What got you interested in studying money stress?

Q2: You studied truck drivers and found that the ones worried about money had more preventable accidents. What did you find?

Q3: You use the term "tunneling" to describe what happens when people are stressed about money. What does that mean?

Q4: Does the work environment affect how much financial stress hurts someone's performance?

Q5: Your research is on employees. I want to apply it to founders. They often go years without a paycheck. They drain savings. If the company fails, their family goes down with it. What would your research predict that does to someone?

Q6: Investors celebrate founders who bet everything. Second mortgage. Maxed out cards. If you applied your research to that, what would you expect it to cost a founder's ability to think clearly?

Q7: Your research shows that financial stress pulls people toward immediate problems. Founders are supposed to be long-term thinkers. If you applied your findings to that tension, what would you expect to see?

Q8: Your research shows people hide financial stress. Founders are under enormous pressure to project confidence. If you applied your findings to that, what would you expect the hiding to cost?

Q9: Your research shows autonomy and support can buffer financial stress. Founders have a lot of autonomy but often very little support. If you applied your findings to that combination, what would you expect?

Q10: In your research, have you ever seen someone recover from severe financial stress? What did it take?

Q11: You've studied interventions like emergency savings programs. What have you seen actually work to reduce financial stress?

Q12: Your research is on employers and employees. If you applied it to investors and founders, what would it look like for investors to treat founder financial stability as something worth investing in?

Q13: If you applied your research beyond investors, who else could play a role in reducing financial stress for founders?

Q14: Your research shows reducing financial stress is good for organizations. If you applied that to startups, what would it take for founder financial stability to become standard?

Q15: What surprised you most in studying financial stress and work performance?

Q16: You study employees, not founders. But based on everything you've learned, what does the startup ecosystem get wrong about money and founders?

Q17: Someone listening has been running on money worry for years and telling themselves it's just part of the job. Based on what you've learned about financial stress, what do you want them to hear?

Centering Well-Being is a new weekly newsletter and podcast pairing founder well-being research with real life. It will cover:

The true cost of building Why the system stays stuck Who pays when founders struggle What it would take to change

We are currently recording conversations with researchers whose work furthers founder well-being so that listeners can hear directly from the people behind the data. Episodes will be available publicly starting this April/May.

Central Question: What does chronic stress actually do to a founder's brain?

Context: We start with how the brain responds to stress at the molecular level, explore why founders are particularly vulnerable, then ask what recovery actually requires.

Q1: You've written that even mild uncontrollable stress can cause "rapid and dramatic loss" of our highest cognitive abilities. What does that actually mean for how we think?

Q2: You started this work after meeting a patient with schizophrenia who had been an astrophysicist. He could talk coherently about astronomy, but fell apart at the mention of a stressful memory. What did that moment teach you?

Q3: Walk me through what happens in the prefrontal cortex when someone experiences uncontrollable stress. What's actually changing?

Q4: You've described this as the brain flipping from "reflective to reflexive." What does that switch feel like from the inside?

Q5: Your research shows this isn't just chemistry. Chronic stress causes architectural changes. The brain physically reshapes itself. How quickly does that happen?

Q6: Is there a point where the damage compounds? Where stress makes someone more vulnerable to future stress?

Q7: Founders face what you'd call uncontrollable stress almost daily: fundraising rejection, market shifts, team problems they can't immediately fix. Based on your research, what would you expect to see in their brains?

Q8: You've noted that whether stress impairs function depends on whether someone feels in control. But founders are told to project confidence even when they feel none. What does that gap do to the brain?

Q9: A founder might read your research and think, "I just need to be tougher." Is mental toughness a real buffer, or is that a misunderstanding of how stress works?

Q10: When a founder's prefrontal cortex goes offline, they lose exactly the capacities they need most: judgment, impulse control, flexible thinking. Are we setting founders up to fail at the moment they most need to succeed?

Q11: What does this look like when it goes wrong? Not necessarily a founder, but someone under chronic uncontrollable stress.

Q12: Here's the question every founder listening wants answered: Can the brain recover from chronic stress?

Q13: Your research found that young rats recovered their prefrontal connections when stress stopped, but older rats didn't. What does that mean for founders who've been at this for years?

Q14: You've said that feeling a sense of control is protective. But founders often can't control their outcomes, only their effort. What does real recovery require when you can't escape the stressor?

Q15: You helped develop treatments like guanfacine for ADHD and prazosin for PTSD by understanding how stress chemicals work. Are there pharmaceutical interventions that could help founders under chronic stress?

Q16: If the startup ecosystem wanted to protect founders' brains the way sports medicine protects athletes, what would that look like?

Q17: Research like yours depends on federal funding. What's happening right now to neuroscience funding in the U.S.?

Q18: If this research slows down or stops, what do we lose?

Q19: Someone listening wants to help protect this kind of research. What can they do?

Q20: I'll ask you directly: Is chronic founder stress a neurological injury?

Q21: What's something you believe about stress and cognitive function that would surprise most people?

Q22: A founder is watching this and recognizing themselves. What do they do?