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SamNav Archive 2014 Founder Depression
SA-2014-06 · Entry 0039Public essay

Founder Depression

The post discusses the emotional challenges faced by startup founders, particularly the pressure to maintain a facade of success while grappling with feelings of isolation and depression. It emphasizes the importance of open communication about struggles and encourages founders to seek support from peers, highlighting that they are not alone in their experiences.

Published 2014-06-13 2 min read 272 words 3 topics
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Excerpt · opening linespulled from source
If you ask a founder how her startup is going, the answer is almost always some version of “Great!” There is a huge amount of pressure as a founder to never show weakness and to be the cheerleader in all internal and ext
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Original source
Read the full essay on Sam Altman's blog
blog.samaltman.com/founder-depression
Opens the original in a new tab · last reachable 2026-06-05
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