Dear founders,

This is a first of many newsletter posts looking into mental health, failure, mistakes and more.

I won’t be charting my own mistakes and fails so don’t worry. If anything, I’ll add a few funny stories to lighten the mood when I feel like it is too dark and maybe uncomfortable.

My cat seems to have become a key player. Cats actually play an important role in this series. But, I won’t share how as that gives away the fun.

I call it a series as it is technically not a podcast as it has video, which makes it a Vodcast. I’m ranting but it is one that gets me. Back to the story. They will also be

You might be wondering why I’d even consider writing such a newsletter, or even start a podcast abut founders and mental health.

Probably cynical a journalist is doing this out of the goodwill of his heart. But what makes it madder is I did it for free and in my own time.

To be fair, I understand that cyncism. Of course, that’s what I’m trying to fix with The Interest Rate, my substack on business news and analysis. Instead of paying for transactional journalism you pay for more of a relationship. Many of my best sources, I would consider a friend as that’s the foundations of this project.

I digress, you are still wondering if I will ever get to the point of telling you why this is the conversation we are not having. I will get there but unfortunately, you need some background to actually understand this mission.

I have been a journalist for many years. I’ve covered, every sector, met celebrities, interviewed world leaders and business leaders but the only time I was my happiest was covering business news. It allowed me to use my analytical side of the brain and puzzle things out.

I have sat across from founders and entrepreneurs and heard things that never made it into print.

Not because they were not important. Because there was never enough space.

A newspaper gives you 500 words. A feature gives you 1,500. The part where they told you about the night they nearly lost everything gets cut. The moment they admitted they had not spoken to anyone about how they were really feeling gets cut. The stuff that actually mattered, that would have made someone reading it feel less alone, left on the floor.

That frustrated me. Because underneath almost every success story I covered was the same thing. Isolation. Loneliness. A founder putting on a face while quietly wondering if they were the only one struggling.

They never were.

The fact that entrepreneurship is celebrated loudly but the struggle is dealt with quietly. That social media shows the exit, the award, the revenue milestone, never the 3am moment.

That the language around mental health exists but founders still feel like admitting struggle means admitting weakness.

In the ecosystem, we always talk about how failure is the first step to success and it is important.

Ironically, we don’t listen and we keep making the same mistakes. Often, the advice is the same. Many put on a brave face and walk across the minefield and get on with it.

Nobody is actually telling the truth about what it feels like. Wearing a mask. Surviving on imposter syndrome. And hoping nobody notices.

That is why I started The Burnout Files. No word count. No cuts. Just honest conversations with people who have built something remarkable and the real story of what it cost them.

I try to dig beneath the surface and explore what it means, how it felt and create a safe place and hopefully a community of peers.

But the series credit goes to a conversation with Michael Welch, who shared his frustrations about not having a show like this.

The first episode is with Colin Frame. British Business Entrepreneur of the Year. Founder of Stellar Omada. He talks about a £200,000 crisis on a Friday afternoon, two failed companies, a divorce and a freezing log cabin in October.

It is human, tragic, inspirational, humorous all in one episode.

The podcast is now live and you can listen to it wherever you get your podcasts or watch it on Spotify or YouTube. Subscribe and support the mission.

Let me know what you think

This is just the start.

John