Raising humanity's psychological ceiling

Why tech founders are an underserved population, and why we should all care more than we do.

When I tell ambitious tech founders that I think they are an “underserved population,” I get an interestingly intense reaction: a mix of surprise at hearing me say it, and equally strong surprise at how much it resonates.

Why do I think they’re underserved? Because they’re striving to do something more innovative, uncertain, and psychologically demanding than most of us ever try to do—with potentially larger impacts on all of us—and yet their distinct psychological needs have gone largely unstudied and unaddressed by the mental health field.

Why are founders so surprised to hear me say this? After all, they are all keenly aware of the unsparing mental and emotional marathon they’re running every day. And many have come across the headlines signaling a “mental health crisis in startups,” with several high-profile suicides calling attention to the generally high prevalence of mental health issues among entrepreneurs. Yet most founders I speak with take a somewhat stoically dismissive at…