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  • Lisa Mikkelsen: How VCs Can Better Support Founder Mental Health

    Lisa Mikkelsen: How VCs Can Better Support Founder Mental Health
    2026/09/01
    Lisa Mikkelsen: How VCs Can Better Support Founder Mental Health Most investors will tell you they care about their founders, but Lisa Mikkelsen wants to challenge them to do more. Lisa is the Head of Global Human Capital at Flourish Ventures, where she has built programming specifically designed to support founder wellbeing, including CEO retreats, founder peer circles, and individualized coaching. She is one of the few people in venture capital who has moved from caring about this issue to actually building systems around it, and she extends that support beyond founders to their families. In this episode: Lisa talks about how founder struggles almost never show up looking like founder struggles. They show up as business problems, team problems, hiring problems, anything but the real thing. She talks about what it actually takes for an investor to close the gap between themselves and their founders, and why listening matters more than advising. She talks about the outsized emotional influence investors have on founders, and why that influence comes with a responsibility most investors haven't fully reckoned with. She makes the case to the skeptic in the room who thinks founder mental health support is optional, not a core part of being a good investor. And she closes with the one thing she would change about VC culture if she could change anything. She also makes the case for supporting founder families, not just founders. The data backs her up. A Danish study of over 6,000 entrepreneurs found that spouses of new founders were 36% more likely to be prescribed sleep aids and anti-anxiety medication in the two years after a business launched. A separate UK study tracking 628 couples over three decades found that when one partner becomes an entrepreneur, the other's mental health declines through two channels: the founder's extended work hours and reduced income. The person standing next to the founder is carrying the weight too, and almost nobody is talking about it. When James's first startup was in its hardest stretch, his twins were born three months premature, each weighing two pounds. He was driving back and forth between the hospital and an accelerator program two hours away. His investors knew none of it, and he still wonders what they would have done differently if they did. A line worth remembering: "Celebrate more stories of entrepreneurs who go home, eat dinner with their family, tuck in their kids, and still build unicorns." Timestamps: 00:00 Introduction and welcome to The Founder Exhale 01:46 Lisa joins and the conversation kicks off 02:35 How James and Lisa met at the NVCA panel with Brad Feld and Jennifer Jeronimo 03:23 Lisa's reaction to Yuna and why she thinks it works for founders 08:25 The first question: tell me about a founder whose struggle changed how you think about this work 09:22 Why founder struggles are disguised as business problems 10:56 Spouse support and why founder families get left out of the equation 13:32 Why investors need to do their own work before they can support founders 14:32 The two by two matrix: investors who care vs investors who do 16:10 James on why investors are the exception, not the rule 20:46 What a founder in crisis actually looks like and how investors miss it 23:10 The 10% statistic and what creates the silence between founders and investors 26:01 James shares the NICU story and what his investors didn't know 31:25 Lisa responds and makes the case for the connection between people and performance 35:21 Back from the break: 776, Alexis Ohanian, and firms starting to allocate for founder wellness 37:14 Why resilience programs can add to the problem instead of solving it 38:45 The skeptic question: make the case for founder mental health as a business imperative 41:24 The final question: if you could change one thing about VC culture, what would it be 43:15 The dad joke 45:08 How to connect with Lisa Resources and links: Flourish Ventures: https://flourishventures.com/ Lisa Mikkelsen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisamikkelsen1/ Yuna Health licenses for founders: yuna.io/founderexhale Startup Life by Brad Feld and Amy Batchelor: https://a.co/d/04qsROaH James' book, Burn Bright, Not Out: https://a.co/d/a5PHUjD Kabila Founder Mental Health Fund: kabilamentalhealth.com The Founder Exhale website: thefounderexhale.com Support the work: The Kabila Founder Mental Health Fund has awarded nearly 90 mental therapy grants to founders who need support but can't afford it. If this episode moved you, please consider making a donation at kabilamentalhealth.com. Every dollar helps a founder get the support they deserve. Subscribe, follow, and rate the show on your favorite podcast platform, and visit thefounderexhale.com to leave a voicemail or send a note via the contact form. I want to hear what you thought. Be well, y'all. 🤠 Support the work: The Kabila Founder Mental Health Fund has awarded 90 mental therapy grants to founders who need ...
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    46 分
  • Jeff Johnston: Brightn isn't a startup, it's a legacy

    Jeff Johnston: Brightn isn't a startup, it's a legacy
    2026/08/14

    In the span of four and a half years, Jeff Johnston lost his son Seth to a fentanyl overdose, his wife Prudence to alcohol, and his mother three months after that. Out of that unimaginable grief, he found a mission. And three weeks after Seth died, Seth's daughter and Jeff's granddaughter Brighton was born, the brightest thing to emerge from the darkest season of his life. She gave the platform its name.

    Most people who lose what Jeff lost don't come back from it. He did, and then he made a promise to spend the rest of his life making sure other families don't have to go through what his did.

    In this episode:

    Jeff takes us through the trajectory that started with a parent-teacher conference and an Adderall prescription, the hiding in plain sight that followed Seth's death, the Christmas Eve moment that led to sobriety, three days alone in a closet that became the greatest test of his life, and why he refuses to call Brightn a startup.

    Jeff told me that surviving those three days in the closet is the greatest accomplishment of his life, more than his kids, more than his marriage, more than anything else he's ever done.

    Timestamps:

    00:00 Introduction and welcome to The Founder Exhale
    01:45 Jeff responds to his intro and the synchronicity of both our wives being named Prudence
    02:25 Jeff's chapter in Burn Bright Not Out and the person who cried reading it
    04:55 Seth's fentanyl overdose, the Adderall prescription, and what Jeff has to carry
    08:23 How he would do it differently if he could
    10:25 Hiding in plain sight after Seth died
    10:31 Christmas Eve 2017 and the moment sobriety began
    12:25 Prudence's death on June 29, 2021
    13:18 What kept Jeff going through losing Seth, Prudence, and his mother
    15:05 Three days alone in a closet at Christmas 2021
    17:15 Back from the break
    18:58 Brighton, Jeff's granddaughter, and how she came into his life
    22:46 Why Jeff refuses to call Brightn a startup
    25:36 What Brightn is and why he built it upstream
    30:00 The Founder Exhale Walks and the Barcelona connection
    32:13 What Jeff wants people building companies to take away from his story
    35:22 The transition to the dad joke and why laughter matters
    36:21 The dad joke showdown
    39:15 How to connect with Jeff
    40:00 Outro

    Resources and links:

    Brightn: https://www.brightn.app/

    Living Undeterred: https://www.livingundeterred.org/

    Jeff Johnston on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffrey-a-johnston/

    James' book, Burn Bright, Not Out: https://a.co/d/a5PHUjD

    Kabila Founder Mental Health Fund: kabilamentalhealth.com

    The Founder Exhale website: thefounderexhale.com

    Support the work:

    The Kabila Founder Mental Health Fund has awarded nearly 90 mental therapy grants to founders who need support but can't afford it. If this episode moved you, please consider making a donation at kabilamentalhealth.com. Every dollar helps a founder get the support they deserve.

    Subscribe, follow, and rate the show on your favorite podcast platform, and visit thefounderexhale.com to leave a voicemail or send a note via the contact form. I want to hear what you thought.

    Be well, y'all. 🤠
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    41 分
  • Nick Merich: Nobody Warns You About Burnout After the Exit

    Nick Merich: Nobody Warns You About Burnout After the Exit
    2026/08/01

    Everyone talks about burning out on the way to the exit, but nobody talks about what happens after.

    Nick Merich co-founded Songlink, built it to 22 million users, and sold it to Linktree. Then he felt like he jumped off a cliff, and there was no bottom.

    In this episode:

    Nick takes us behind the highlight reel. The perfectly crafted LinkedIn posts, the Instagram moments, the version of yourself you put out into the world when you're building something and desperately need it to work. He talks about why he used edibles not to get high but to get ten thousand feet above his business and look at it differently, and why he doesn't see that as a problem. He talks about selling Songlink and expecting the exit to solve things it was never going to solve. The identity loss that followed. The free fall. What it felt like to wake up the morning after the wire transfer and not know what to do with himself. He talks about his wife seeing the writing on the wall long before he could say it out loud, and about Saturday morning pickup basketball with his dad and cousins being the thing that actually grounded him when nothing else did. And he talks about what he tells founders now when they come to him burned out, whether they've exited or not.

    Timestamps:

    00:00 Introduction and welcome to The Founder Exhale
    02:35 The highlight reel and what's actually happening behind it
    04:10 Using edibles to get perspective, not to escape
    08:30 What the exit actually solved and what it didn't
    14:26 Identity loss and the free fall after the wire transfer
    17:17 Purpose, passion, and what happens when your vehicle disappears
    21:09 What burnout actually is, and what it isn't
    24:51 Back from the break: what Nick's wife saw that he couldn't
    27:32 Saturday pickup basketball, Gryt Run Club, and what real recovery looks like
    29:18 Practical advice for founders dealing with burnout right now
    31:52 Self-awareness as a gift, and why it took Nick 35 years to ask for help
    33:18 The dad joke and its backstory
    35:40 How to connect with Nick

    Resources and links:

    Gryt Run Club: Connect

    Nick Merich on LinkedIn: Connect

    Nick Merich on Instagram: Connect

    Nick's email: merichnick@gmail.com

    Yuna Health: Free Yuna licenses for founders

    James' book, Burn Bright, Not Out: https://a.co/d/a5PHUjD

    Kabila Founder Mental Health Fund: kabilamentalhealth.com

    The Founder Exhale website: thefounderexhale.com

    Support the work:

    The Kabila Founder Mental Health Fund has awarded nearly 90 mental therapy grants to founders who need support but can't afford it. If this episode moved you, please consider making a donation at kabilamentalhealth.com. Every dollar helps a founder get the support they deserve.

    Subscribe, follow, and rate the show on your favorite podcast platform, and visit thefounderexhale.com to leave a voicemail or send a note via the contact form. I want to hear what you thought.

    Be well, y'all. 🤠
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    36 分
  • Shaler Houser: I Burned It All the Way Down

    Shaler Houser: I Burned It All the Way Down
    2026/07/20

    Shaler Houser built and sold four companies over three decades. He also lost everything more than once, not just financially, but personally.

    In this episode, I sit down with Shaler Houser, a 4x exited founder and Partner at Founderville VC, who has spent nearly three decades building companies, losing everything, rebuilding, and using every hard-won lesson to invest in and support the founders coming up behind him.

    This is the most honest conversation I've had about addiction, identity, and what it looks like to burn your life all the way down and come back from it.

    In this episode:

    Shaler takes us back to April 14, 2000, the day NuVox filed to go public, which turned out to be the very day the NASDAQ had its biggest single-day crash in history. He walks us through the merger, the recapitalization, and what it felt like to go from 2.7 million shares at $12 to $14 per share to 27,000 shares at a dollar, while carrying personal debt borrowed against those same holdings.

    He talks about what it felt like to be forced out of the company he founded, wrote the business plan for, and wrote the first check for, at 29 years old.

    He talks about how the addiction that had been quietly building through all of it finally spiraled, and what it took to get sober, including three months in a treatment facility. He talks about his mom, the promise he made her, the four and a half years of sobriety, and the relapse six weeks after she passed.

    And he talks about building YouTurn Health, the company he says he's most proud of, out of everything he lived through.

    He also shares something that reframed how I think about founder mental wellness as a VC strategy: stigma is what drives investor apathy. If the VP at a major fund hasn't addressed their own struggles, they're not going to talk about it with their portfolio founders. That insight deserves its own conversation.

    Timestamps:

    00:00 Introduction and welcome to The Founder Exhale
    02:00 Shaler's background and entrepreneurial journey including Green Cloud Technologies
    03:21 The NuVox IPO filing and the day the NASDAQ crashed
    08:48 The recapitalization, the identity shatter, and walking away with nothing
    12:37 How addiction built quietly through the founder journey and finally spiraled
    16:28 Building YouTurn Health for families navigating addiction recovery
    18:41 How Shaler's experience shapes the way he invests and shows up for founders
    21:35 Why stigma drives investor apathy around founder mental health
    22:33 Founder mental wellness as a portfolio risk mitigation strategy
    24:01 The final question: what to say to a founder sitting alone with substances right now
    30:24 The dad joke segment
    31:20 How to connect with Shaler and learn more about YouTurn Health

    Resources and links:

    YouTurn Health: youturnhealth.com

    Shaler Houser on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/shalerhouserhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/shaler-houser-801187/

    Shaler Houser on X: @shalerhouser

    Founderville VC: https://founderville.vc/

    Burn Bright, Not Out: https://a.co/d/a5PHUjD

    Kabila Founder Mental Health Fund: kabilamentalhealth.com

    The Founder Exhale website: thefounderexhale.com

    Support the work:

    The Kabila Founder Mental Health Fund has awarded nearly 90 mental therapy grants to founders who need support but can't afford it. If this episode moved you, please consider making a donation at kabilamentalhealth.com. Every dollar helps a founder get the support they deserve.

    Please subscribe, follow, and rate the show on your favorite podcast platform, and visit thefounderexhale.com to leave a voicemail or send a note via the contact form. I want to hear what you thought.

    Be well, y'all. 🤠
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    32 分
  • Grant Winns: What Four Successful Exits Taught Him About Self-Doubt

    Grant Winns: What Four Successful Exits Taught Him About Self-Doubt
    2026/07/01
    Every founder deals with self-doubt, but most never tell anyone. In the very first episode of The Founder Exhale, I sit down with Grant Winns, an 8-time founder with 4 successful exits, including the globally recognized brand BYLT Basics, and CEO of Yuna Health, an AI-native mental health platform built to fill the gap between crisis care and traditional therapy. Grant gets real about the mental health challenges across two decades of entrepreneurship, what self-doubt actually looks like from the inside, and why he built Yuna Health for a version of himself that needed it most. In this episode: We get into self-doubt and how it showed up for Grant from the very beginning, when he dropped out of school, moved to California, and bet on himself with his first company. We talk about the difference between your startup happening because of you, of you, and through you, and why that third level changes everything for your mental wellness. Grant shares why he kept his self-doubt completely private for the first three quarters of his career, what he was afraid would happen if people found out, and why he now believes sharing it is the move. We also dig into confidence, what it means to wear it as armor versus build it as a muscle, and how, as a kid, Grant had a wrestling match while terrified and still won. And Grant shares something he says he's never said out loud on a stage or in an interview: that even after his biggest wins, he still felt like a failure. What you'll hear: Grant's framework for moving from self-doubt to action, starting with your inner circle and working outward. Why journaling your fears is one of the most underrated tools a founder has. The three levels of entrepreneurial identity, and why "this thing is coming through me" is the one that protects your mental health. Why the unspoken, unclarified fear is the dangerous one. Mike Ma's chapter in Burn Bright, Not Out, "You Are Your Startup. You Are Not Your Startup." and why it hits different after hearing Grant's story. The Gain and the Gap by Benjamin Hardy, and why Grant thinks founders spend too much time staring at what's ahead instead of how far they've come. And Grant's final message to any founder sitting alone right now, dealing with self-doubt and not telling anyone. The gift: Yuna donated 300 free licenses to the Kabila Founder Mental Health Fund for founders in my ecosystem. That's $60,000 worth of access to an AI mental health companion, at no cost to you. Go to yuna.io/founderexhale to activate yours. Timestamps: 02:05 Grant's journey and the personal story behind Yuna Health 04:05 How I use Yuna daily and what it's done for my mental wellness 05:40 Self-doubt as a founder: Grant takes us back to the beginning 08:25 Do I have what it takes? The imposter syndrome nobody talks about 11:14 The three levels: because of me, of me, and through me 12:52 Who did you tell? Grant's honest answer for the first three quarters of his career 16:06 Wearing confidence as armor vs. building it as a muscle 18:29 The wrestling match, fear, and acting as if 22:52 Succeeding on paper while feeling like a failure inside 29:40 Therapy, Yuna, and what finally moved Grant from clinical back to functional 33:15 What to do right now if you're a founder sitting alone in self-doubt 35:05 The dad joke (it's founder-specific, I'll let you decide if it lands) 37:22 How to connect with Grant and claim your free Yuna license Resources and links: Yuna Health: Free Yuna licenses for founders Grant Winns on LinkedIn Grant's email: grant@yuna.io James' book: Burn Bright, Not Out The Gain and the Gap, by Benjamin Hardy Kabila Founder Mental Health Fund The Founder Exhale website Support the work: The Kabila Founder Mental Health Fund has awarded nearly 90 mental therapy grants to founders who need support but can't afford it. If this episode meant something to you, please consider being a donor at kabilamentalhealth.com. Every dollar helps a founder get the support they deserve. Subscribe, follow, and rate the show on your favorite podcast platform, and visit the podcast website to leave a voicemail or drop me a note via the contact form. I want to hear what you think. Be well, y'all. 🤠
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    38 分
  • Trailer: Welcome to The Founder Exhale

    Trailer: Welcome to The Founder Exhale
    2026/06/12

    Here's why I started this podcast and what you can expect.
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    2 分