When a startup ends - whether from success or a wind-down - founders lose a core personal mission. Even in the case of a successful acquisition, the loss of ownership and controlled culture naturally results in a loss of the driven enthusiasm that previously formed the foundation of daily work life.
Some former founders adapt and never complete the circle to create again. Others, the perpetual creators, are bound to find the next mission at some point. For those serial founders, the stage after the conclusion of a startup is only prelude to future creation. That interim lasts until there’s a recovery from burnout, an earn out at an acquirer, or enough money is saved to safely take another run at creating a valuable company.
There are many programs and support networks for folks who are currently founders (accelerators, incubators, existing investors, founder groups, etc.). For those former founders considering founding a company again (let’s call them “recovering founders”), resources are focused almost exclusively on the needs of first time founders. These are often centered on basic processes - finding co-founders, incorporating a company, building products, raising money, etc.
The needs of repeat founders, though, are different — and there are no organized, affinity networks to support them.
What We Provide
After potentially years grinding, pushing, and striving - it can be challenging to acclimate to the deceleration process (or even acknowledge the need to decelerate). Burnout is frequent, and convalescence from the effects can take significant time. It’s difficult to assess how much recovery time is sufficient before jumping back on the carousel could make (emotional, physical, mental) sense.
Recovering founders with the battle scars of previous endeavors want the ability to “gut check” this recovery process and explore new ideas with others, but they have to rely on smaller personal networks of other experienced (ex-)founders to find peers.
Founder Recovery solves this need by providing an organized, confidential space where folks can bond over shared experiences, evaluate the foundational question of whether it makes sense to start something new, and get safe feedback on potential endeavors.