Eighty-six per cent of African tech founders report a significant impact on their wellbeing, with many experiencing high levels of stress, burnout, and anxiety, yet 81 per cent say they enjoy the founder journey and nearly two-thirds would prefer to start a new venture over taking a job if their business were to fail.
This is according to a wide-scale survey of founder wellbeing in Africa conducted by early-stage VC firm Flourish Ventures, in partnership with Endeavor, Launch Africa, Madica, and research firms Econa and Startup Snapshot.
Entitled “Passion and Perseverance: Voices from the African Founder Journey”, the research includes responses from more than 160 startup founders across 13 African countries, diving deeply into the stresses and challenges they navigate on their startup journeys and how they cultivate resilience.
The survey revealed that 86 per cent of founders report an impact on their wellbeing, with 60 per cent reporting anxiety, 58 per cent high stress, 52 per cent exhaustion and burnout, and 20 per cent depression. Furthermore, no one is immune to these effects; even high-performing founders feel the pressure, with more than seven in 10 founders who say their startups are “thriving” reporting an impact on their wellbeing.
Yet it also revealed that entrepreneurs are passionate and love what they do – 81 per cent say they enjoy the journey of being a founder, and nearly two-thirds would rather start a new company than take a job if their business fails.
Yet building a startup is gruelling. Most founders reported feeling lonely, stressed, and burned out, and too few are talking about it, highlighting the urgent need for greater support of founder wellbeing in the startup ecosystem.
“Prioritising founder wellbeing not only has a positive impact on founders’ lives, but also on the long-term success of their business,” said Ameya Upadhyay, venture partner at Flourish Ventures. “We hope that by sharing these early learnings, we can jumpstart a broader conversation about the state of founder wellbeing and how founders, and their funders, can better navigate it – in Africa and beyond.”
The survey found that the primary drivers of stress come from the external, macroeconomic environment. Facing global economic shifts and local volatility, founders are navigating an unpredictable landscape, with African entrepreneurs reporting the top three sources of stress as fundraising (59%), inflation (44%), and other macroeconomic challenges (40%).
Founders are under immense pressure and bear immense responsibility, and know they must develop coping mechanisms that enable them to maintain resilience. To cope, founders focus on exercise (59%), personal relationships (49%), sleep (45%), and healthy eating (42%). Relying on other people is also critical for support, as founders who lean on personal relationships to cope with stress showed 13% higher wellbeing on average. The founders who break the silence and address their wellbeing concerns are better equipped to navigate the demands of their roles, and to foster a healthier, more resilient startup culture overall.
In the competitive startup scene, however, openness can be a challenge, as founders often hesitate to share their struggles or show vulnerability and weakness. Seventy-eight per cent agreed that being a founder is a lonely job, while only 14 per cent said they were fully open with others about their stress and just 42 per cent reported talking to other founders. Therapy and coaching can be valuable, but many respondents said they face barriers to seeking support, and few turn to these types of resources.
With this survey, Flourish also wanted to dig into the role of investors and understand how they make founders’ lives easier, or more difficult. The founder-funder relationship is complicated, and instead of alleviating stress, the data revealed that many founders find themselves in situations where investors become a significant source of it. According to the survey, only 17 per cent of founders are completely comfortable having open conversations with their investors, and only 11 per cent are sure their investors care about their wellbeing. Around 40 per cent said they wanted investors to get to know them as people and pay attention to the challenges they face.
“While data is powerful, it is ultimately just a starting point for ongoing and open dialogue,” said Efayomi Carr, principal at Flourish Ventures. “Our hope is that this research helps start a conversation, among both founders and funders, about how to build a stronger ecosystem where everyone is set up for success now and in the future.”
The full findings can be found here.
