| How a year of unimaginable stress prepared two founders for 2020 |
| | Good morning,
A few days after San Francisco's shelter-in-place order began on March 17, Mathilde Collin awoke to an anxiety attack.
As co-founder and CEO of the software startup Front, Collin was responsible for 180 employees across three offices. Her company, which had raised $138 million in venture capital, brought in $34 million in revenue last year, as estimated by research firm PrivCo--and in the early days of the pandemic, business was cratering. In that moment, she wasn't alone: The pandemic quickly sent startup founders across the country into panic mode. In an April Inc. survey of more than 250 U.S. small-business leaders, 74 percent of respondents reported higher levels of stress than usual--including nearly a third who said they felt "extremely distressed."
That's a mindset that can lead to serious problems rippling across personal and professional life: Studies have linked poor decision-making, procrastination, insomnia, migraines, and even irritable bowel syndrome to high stress. Left unchecked, extreme stress in an entrepreneur can sink her ability to lead. It can even sink a company.
Collin knows this all too well: Beginning in late 2016, she and her co-founder, Laurent Perrin, battled more stress in a year than most people do in a lifetime. A cancer diagnosis, a severe mental breakdown, and a fast-growing startup suddenly without its leaders--Front could have become unmoored so easily.
Instead, they emerged stronger than ever. Read our story to learn the tools Collin and Perrin used to survive--and how that prepared them for this year's crazy unpredictability. |
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