Jason M. LemkinCEO, SaaStr · Co-Founder of SaaStr AI, SaaStr Fund, Adobe Sign

Protecting Family from Startup Stress

1 Jul 2023 · 1 min

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Jason M. Lemkin gives concise mentor-derived advice to founders: do not make family members the primary outlet for startup stress. He warns that repeatedly offloading drama (near-bankruptcy, bad hires, lost customers, difficult VPs) onto significant others or friends can burn them out and, in turn, worsen the founder's own burnout. He recommends building internal company supports (senior VPs who can buffer stress), sharing necessary information with family but avoiding making them the ongoing emotional safety valve.

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And this is. This one's a bit meta. Okay, what do I mean? This is advice I got from one of my mentors and it took me a while to understand it in my first startup because we got acquired in a year. But at some point, your significant other, your best friend, that doesn't work at your startup, it's too much. The stress and the drama, the almost running out of money, the crazy vp, the terrible hire, the lost customer. It's too, too much on your family, it's too much on folks you don't work with. You need those VPs internally that can take some of that burden to help destress you. But your family cannot be your outlet for your work stress, at least not after the beginning. If you burn out your family, you're going to burn out yourself even more. Share what you need to do. But again, be careful.