Founder Self Care Compilation

Season 2 kicked off with a topic near and dear to me: self-care. What follows are 10 episodes of the things I do / am doing / am trying to do to be my best self. If you find them valuable, please share VC Minute with a friend.

051.  KICKING OFF SEASON 2
052.  TIMEBOXING
053. GSD DAY
054. RELENTLESS REPRIORITIZATION
055. ASK FOR HELP
056. CHRONOTYPE & KNOW THYSELF
057. SPEND TIME ON YOURSELF
058. FIND A THERAPIST
059. SLEEP
060. SELF-COMPASSION


About SpringTime Ventures
SpringTime Ventures seeds high-growth startups in healthcare, fintech, logistics, and marketplace businesses. We look for founders with domain expertise, forging a path with a truly transformative technology. We only invest in software-based businesses in the USA. We bring a people-focused approach, work quickly, and reach conviction independently. Our initial check size is $400k to $600k. You can learn more about us and our approach.   

About Rich Maloy
Rich's mission is to rebuild the American dream through entrepreneurship. He works with early stage startups transforming the world, giving all people the opportunity to grow, learn and earn. With prior careers in finance and sales, he's now focused on startups investing through SpringTime Ventures where he is a Managing Partner. He's a father of two young children and loves sci-fi, skiing, and video games.  

Transcript

Rich: 0:00

This is Rich Maloy with SpringTime Ventures, bringing you the VC Minute, quick advice to help startup founders fundraise better. Thank you, everybody for your patience as it took me some time to kick off season two of the VC Minute. I'm grateful that you stuck with me and it's wonderful to be back on the mic sharing with you thoughts, insights, and analysis to help you fundraise better. I have some great excuses about what took me so long but I'll spare you the details. Let's just talk about what's coming for this season. We have more perspectives coming from different guests. We're going to have a great pitch coach, a startup lawyer, some of the best fundraisers that I know in the seed community, and of course you get my take and my analysis on the market. Let's start with where we are right now in the fundraising environment. If you've been trying to fundraise and are wondering why in the hell some companies are announcing five, seven, even$9 million seed fundraises, but you can't seem to rub two nickels together. I hear you. And unfortunately you're not alone. I was expecting the seed market to bifurcate. I have a Q3 market analysis report that I highly recommend you go and download. I'll put the link in the show notes. You can also find it on SpringTimeVentures.com. I was expecting the market to bifurcate a bit. I was calling it the HOT or NOT seed funding round. But I'll admit this is a greater divergence than even I was expecting. Where we are right now is the seed phase has lengthened, venture funds are deploying at a significantly slower pace. And it seems every fund is trying to cram into just a few hot rounds while ignoring the rest of the market. It's hard to see so many startups that are struggling to raise. How do you turn your pool party in one of the hot ones? Well, we'll get back to that in a few episodes. Where I want to start this season is with something that I needed to revisit over the past few months, and maybe you did too: founder mental health. So, thanks for sticking with me. Thank you for your patience. And i'm looking forward to hearing your feedback on season two of the VC Minute, quick advice to help startup founders fundraise better. As a founder every day, you go out and put yourself on the line to sell to customers, hire the best people, pitch to investors and try to keep everyone motivated and focused. But who's taking care of you? The whole business starts and ends with the founders. And your mental health needs to be a priority. Over the next few episodes. I'm going to share some things to try, things that have worked for me over the years, things that I've dug it back into recently. Some of these may feel right, some may not. This is not intended to be"Rich's 14 step guide to founder happiness." It's more of some things to try. Pick up what fits, mold to you and keep putting one foot in front of the other. Hopefully this helps you find some solid footing in these rocky times. The organization of this is going to be extrinsic followed by intrinsic. My very first extrinsic suggestion is Timebox. You'll hear me say this all the time: time is our most precious asset. Maybe a corollary to that is focus. I found that I can create focus by time boxing. The simple version of this is to have designated times for different activities. I learned this while doing sales, I would block out times to research leads and plan my calls. And then I would have a time of block just for calling, followed by a time of block, just for emailing. This way, I was deeply focused on one activity at a time. My friend, Tim says,"structure gives you freedom." And I love this. In this case, when it comes to time boxing. Create the space to succeed at everything in one bucket. And that momentum will carry you to the next and the next and the next. I still practice this today, though in different ways. As a husband and a father, I have designated family time. I stop work every day at a set time, spend time with my family, put my kids to bed, spend time with my wife, and then I'm usually back to work in the evening. With this dedicated family block, I'm a hundred percent comfortable putting my phone down, turning off notifications and focusing on my family. One of my personal rules is"vote with your dollars, invest with your hours." Where you spend your time is how you invest yourself. It's apropos that I'm releasing this episode today because Wednesdays are my GSD days. My Get Shit Done day. Taking time boxing to its logical extreme is the GSD day. No scheduled meetings are allowed on GSD days. None. It's a day dedicated to deep work, focused effort on big projects or clearing out the 1 million little to do's that accumulate all week long. As I'm writing the script, I'm doing it on a GSD day. It's so easy to get swept up into a regular cadence of meetings. But when do you have time to get actual work done? Nights? Weekends? The 30 minutes in between random meetings is not enough. Try blocking off a whole day and jealously guard this time. Tell your team that this is your GSD day and scheduled meetings are not allowed. I've managed to create space for GSD days in companies both large and small. If someone put a call on my calendar on my GSD day, I would politely explain how important this whole block was for my mental health. It's sacred to me because as work piles up, whether it's a big project or a million little ones that weighs me down. I start to get anxious. I start to get stressed and it affects my relationships; it affects my mental health. But when I have a day that I know I can sit down, knock out those projects and clear those things out, it feels amazing. That is why GSD days are sacred. One nuance I want to highlight is the concept of scheduled meetings versus collaboration. This is not about isolation. It's about getting shit done. And if you need to get something done with someone, then go collaborate and work on that together. I've worked remotely since 2014, and so for me, that means virtually meeting with somebody in order to get something done. Try it out. And if it works for you, could it work for your whole company? A company-wide deep-work GSD day sounds like heaven to me. And thank you GSD day for helping me bring back the VC minute. As we were building SpringTime, the first fund was too small to pay for salaries so I had a full-time job. I worked for a consulting firm in the startup ecosystem, you've probably heard me talk about them before, called Established. They're the folks that run the Startup of the Year program among a lot of other wonderful work. As happens at a small company. my role was sales account management, project management, AirTable guru, startup sourcing, mentoring, event assistant, whatever was needed. And then I would have to fit SpringTime work in the in-betweens. I did this for four years. One of my touchstones that kept me sane during this time was"relentless reprioritization." This is not to say that I was chasing shiny objects every day. It's about understanding the priorities of the business, pointing in that direction, and then having the clarity to stay on target. Stay on target. To put it another way, prioritization is knowing the destination. Relentless reprioritization is continually navigating along the way to the destination. The other side of the reprioritization coin is saying"no." The best CEOs in our portfolio are very good at saying no. They know what their priorities are and if something doesn't align with that direction, they politely say, no. They deeply respect their time, their priorities and their focus. If you feel like you're going crazy because you're being pulled in a thousand directions every day, set your priorities for the long run, relentlessly reprioritize within the day, and say no to everything else. Why is it so hard to ask for help? Asking for help is important for everyone, doubly so for founders. We live in a society that values independence and self-sufficiency so many of us still struggle to ask for help, especially for our most vexing problems. I'm here to tell you that asking for help is a sign of strength, not weakness. And by asking for help, I'm not talking about the"ask" you put in your monthly update to send your candidates or make referrals, and I'm not talking about the ask to share a post. I'm talking about asking for help for the really hard thing you're facing. Should I try to expand my market horizontally or add features to grow average contract value? Should I fire this person? How do I negotiate for this critical piece in a contract? Why aren't you asking for help for the hard things? Are you afraid of being a burden to someone? Are you afraid of looking weak or incapable? Or did you just not think about it? Let's turn this around. Think about the last time someone from your network asked you for help. Did you help them? How did it make you feel Probably pretty good. You did not feel like they were burdening you, but you may have felt a little flattered that they thought to ask you. And you probably felt good after you were able to give them some guidance and some council. Think about that big thing you're struggling with right now. Who can you talk to about it? By asking for advice on a specific topic, you come across as curious and open-minded. And you probably make that person feel good that you sought them for advice. Being a founder can feel lonely. But it doesn't need to be. Acknowledging that we don't know everything and that we need assistance is a vital step towards personal growth. And as my Grandma always said,"you never know unless you ask." Thanks for joining me for another great week of VC minute. We're going to continue next week with founder mental health focusing on some intrinsic tips. And the following week, we're going to get back to fundraising. Happy Friday and have a great weekend. Welcome back to another week of VC minute. This week, I'm going to be focusing on. Intrinsic tips to help you focus on your mental health. I don't know who needs to hear this, but you do not need to wake up at 4:00 AM and have a 20-step morning routine to be successful. Morning, people love to tell you how they've been up since 3:45 AM and all the things they've already accomplished. And if you believe the hype, and then it may seem like every successful person has some sort of an early start routine. I'm here to tell you that what's more important than the time of the day when you wake up is"know thyself." I'm a night owl. I love jamming late into the night. Interestingly, my low point when I struggle the most is from 4:00 to 7:00 PM. But after 8:00 PM, it's like someone flipped a switch and no matter how exhausted I was 20 minutes ago, I am ready to rock. I know these things about myself and I build my schedule accordingly. This is my chronotype. There are some inputs in your life that you can control such as food, drink and exercise. And there are some things that you can't control, like your chronotype. And if you fight against this, you're just going to make yourself tired and miserable. You don't need to change something that you can't control to be who you are and be successful. And that I think is the real lesson here. 1) know thyself. 2) change what you can control. And 3) adapt your surroundings and your schedule to the rest. When was the last time that you gave yourself permission to spend time on yourself? It's not enough to just spend time doing something that you want-- to take a break one night and then fret all about the things that you could be doing or should be doing. This is completely counterproductive. Giving yourself permission is the critical part of this. Years ago I was mentoring a local founder. He was working on a really cool idea in an industry I love, but it was really hard to monetize. He called me one day in a panic as a few awful things happened simultaneously, and combined, they were the death knell of his business. He was an absolute wreck, understandably so. There was nothing more he could do that day to try and resolve the issues. In a state like that very little good can come from trying to work through problems. I suggested he leave the office and go for a hike. It's Colorado and hikes are usually pretty accessible, but he had to first give himself permission to put it all down and walk out the door, even just for that day. He called me later and was in a completely different state of mind. He gave himself permission to leave, called his fiance, and they went for a long hike. He was able to reset emotionally and approach the impending closure of his startup with a clear head. It was a sad situation, but he was able to handle it better because he gave himself permission to step away and spend some time on himself. Don't wait until the world is crumbling around you to do this for yourself. Schedule it, give yourself permission and do it. One of my rules and you've probably heard me say this before is vote with your dollars. Invest with your hours. Go invest in yourself. One of the things that I love about the startup community. Is that when we see a problem, the community dives in head first to solve it. I love that startups have been far out in front of the mental health wave, one that really only caught on in the rest of America during COVID. While I've spent the last week and a half talking to you about tips and tricks for mental health, I'm not a trained professional, but I know the benefit of having one. I strongly encourage all founders to find a great therapist. It's not enough to talk to your friend or your significant other. Working with a trained therapist can bring real, positive change to your life. I know this from personal experience. When I moved to Boulder in 2011, I was broken. And that's a story for another time, but I found a therapist who saved my life. And I've been a huge proponent of it ever since. Fast forward a dozen years and I still make working with a therapist a priority. The therapist I work with now, I found through SonderMind and yes, this is a shameless plug for a SpringTime portfolio company. At SpringTime, we believe in mental health so deeply that we've made three investments in this sector. SonderMind is great for finding the right therapist for you for one-on-one. Manatee is great for families. And Most Days is an awesome app for daily group support. And of course there are a ton of other resources out there. The point here is to find a trained therapist because you'll get more out of it. You can work through things that are holding you back and free yourself to live to your fullest potential. It doesn't have to be something forever. And, you know, what. And the startup community, there's no stigma around it. Go find that great therapist. Do that for yourself. I mentioned this last week about chronotypes and how I love to work late into the night. And I've certainly bragged to others in the past about pulling all nighters, but when it comes to mental health and self care sleep must be the number one priority. There's a great book called why we sleep by Matthew Walker that talks about this in depth, and of course there's a Ted talk for it too. That book really changed my perception of sleep, opened my eyes to the benefits of good sleep, and the dangers of poor sleep. Lack of good deep sleep impacts your physical health, your mental health, your mental acuity, and even your reaction times. One study showed that driving while sleep deprived is worse than drunk driving. Poor sleep or not enough sleep also negatively impacts your mental health. I used to believe that I could store sleep up and spend my reserves throughout the week. And so I would sleep less during the week and then sleep more during the weekend. It turns out that's just not how it works. Sleep is not a bank account. You can't accumulate it and then draw down your reserves. To keep your productivity high and your mental health strong, create a sleep routine and get good sleep. There's a great quote I heard somewhere along the way. If you think you hate everything, you're hungry. If you think everyone hates you, you're tired." But more impactful is this quote from Matthew Walker. The shorter, your sleep, the shorter your life. I'm not trying to be a downer with this. I just want to be sure that you are performing at your peak capacity. And to do that, you need to have enough high quality sleep. I want to perform my best every day. I want to be present for my family. I want to be present for the founders that I'm meeting. I want to do the best that I can do from my partners and for the startup community. And to do that I need to have a good night of sleep. And so do you. I strongly encourage you to do some digging on sleep, the benefits of good sleep, the dangers of bad sleep, and to get a good night of sleep tonight. Thanks for sticking with me all the way to this final episode on founder self-care. All of these tips come from a very personal place and I hope they've been valuable for you. If they have, I have one ask. Share the VC Minute with someone. Thank you. I saved the best for last and it's possibly the hardest. The number one thing you can do for yourself is practice self compassion. In our high achieving culture, there is a myth that success requires self-criticism. The myth that you can only improve if you're hard on yourself. I used to believe this. I used to practice self-awareness through criticism. The myth is if I accept who I am, haven't I given up on growing into a better person? How else could I improve if I didn't know what I needed to improve on? The paradox is that we can only grow through acceptance and self compassion. There are a lot of great people who cover this, Kristin Neff among my favorites. Link in the show notes to some great YouTube videos from her. Without self-compassion accepting mistakes becomes personal blame, bad self-talk and ultimately damages you. But you're the one causing the damage. To yourself. My therapist called it,"tying myself to the whipping post." The true path to a growth mindset is through self-compassion. Part of self-compassion is forgiving yourself. When you've forgiven yourself, you're able to accept your mistakes without that psychological damage. And when you do that you can actually see yourself clearly. With that clarity, then you can grow. When you show yourself the compassion that you deserve, you free yourself to achieve your highest potential. I want you to do that. I appreciate you sticking with me on this journey. It was something that I needed and maybe you did too. Let me know what you thought about these past two weeks on founder self-care. What else have you found that's been helpful for you? Share it with the community, share it on LinkedIn, share it on Twitter. I'd love to hear from you there. Next week, yeah, we'll get back to fundraising. In the meantime, have a wonderful weekend.