Founder Freak-out

Thanks to Digital Brisbane and River City Labs I am doing a course called Entrepreneurship 101 every Thursday. One week we were encouraged to speculate in groups about an idea, it seems we are mostly introverts, so as we looked around the room to communicate with each other we also carefully avoided eye contact. I like the quietness of our group, gradually the ice between us is melting. We seem so different from the amped-up extroverts making pitches on YouTube.

When I talked to the group about Mindsettle, our mentor Aaron Birkby said I should try out the idea with volunteers from River City Labs, because running a start-up is seriously stressful. I have been researching all types of anxieties, but this one had escaped my attention. Business Insider Australia has an excellent article about the dark side of start-ups. Biz Carson sites research and highlights examples of people suffering different levels of anxiety, some even resorting to suicide. "A recent study by Dr. Michael Freeman, a clinical professor at UCSF and an entrepreneur as well, was one of the first of its kind to link higher rates of mental health issues to entrepreneurship."

Encouragingly, as awareness of the problem grows so does the availability of help and willingness to find better ways to cope. This week I'll be putting up a poster at River City Labs asking people to test my MVP, I hope to

get some volunteers.