This document discusses the emotional highs and lows experienced by startup founders. It describes the spectrum of emotions founders feel, from elation and success to anger, depression, and failure. It also identifies key drivers of founder emotions, such as hiring and firing employees, competition, health issues from overwork, funding challenges, relationships with co-founders, and doubts about the business. The document advocates practicing gratitude, empathy, and focusing on positive aspects as ways for founders to improve their happiness and well-being during the emotional rollercoaster of building a startup company.

1. Startups
The emotional spectrum
TechPeaks, Tento 2014
Andy Parsons @andyparsons

2. TECHPEAKS 2014
This talk
Actual Suc ces s
A p p a r e n t
Succe s s
Real i ty
S tar t ing
Startup press glorifies
SACRIFICE and DRAMA.
!
But the truth is building a
company is a journey full of
exhilaration and pain.
LET’S TALK ABOUT THAT.
!
WHAT ARE THE DRIVERS
OF STARTUP EMOTION?
Fai lure

3. Me.
• startup junkie. masochist. EE/music
• co-founder/CTO Happify, CTO new ed tech stealth
• founded/sold shrty
• CTO Outside.in (acq. aol), bookish (acq. zola), DRR ...
• MENTOR @ seedcamp, 500 Startups
• ADVISOR to many NYC early stage teams
• pragmatist

4. not Me.
• “STRATEGIST” (lessons learned are mine)
• billionaire (still working hard)
• IDEALIST

5. what is “success?”
• milestone success
• terminal success
• coping success

6. TECHPEAKS 2014
EMOTIONAL spectrum
and: anger, boredom, fatigue,
elation, depression, peace, shame, paranoia …

7. Happiness skills
‣ savor
‣ thank
‣ aspire
‣ give
‣ empathize

8. stories
‣ have collected a lot
‣ all firsthand / secondhand
‣ patterns are hundreds of years old, but…
everything happens faster now!

9. THE ups

10. celebrate these!
‣ incorporating
‣ first launch
‣ key meeting goes well
‣ first user
‣ first revenue
‣ key hire
‣ funding
‣ hitting kpi milestone

11. THE downs

12. hiring/firing/team management
• making a great hire… or so you thought
• no good time for people to leave
• firing friends
• anxiety
• mutiny

13. COMPETITION
‣ must be better
‣ envy - enemy of happiness

14. your health
• things that are healthy, ironically, are the first to go
• fatigue: mental and physical

15. funding and press
‣ investors pass
‣ press may not cover you
‣ feedback: know their backgrounds and viewpoint
‣ don’t doubt based on one or 2 meetings
‣ down rounds and no follow-on

16. founder relationships
• shit happens
• personalities emerge
• empathy

17. screw ups
‣ servers crash
‣ customers get mad. or just leave.
‣ founder true colors show

18. network, social capital
• nothing is more important!

19. cash and operating
‣ Runway
‣ the fundraising treadmill
‣ limited burn vs hibernation mode
‣ lights out

20. decision making and boards
• decision paralysis
• consensus
• misaligned board members

21. doubt
‣ responsibility of spending investor money
‣ co-founders
‣ market/customer
‣ imposter syndrome
‣ what am i doing with my life?

22. CLosing thoughts

23. Trusting your gut
‣ in matters of integrity
‣ in the absence of data

24. the path of least resistance

25. Happiness skills
‣ savor
‣ thank
‣ aspire
‣ give
‣ empathize

26. 3 Good things
‣ do it every day
‣ counteracts natural tendencies
‣ Works!

27. contact me:
andyparsons@gmail.com
@andyparsons
thank
you!