If you’ve recently sold a company you created, congratulations. You’ve reached an entrepreneurship milestone that very few are able to achieve. What you may not have expected is the mental health fallout that arrived after the sale – what many are now calling post-sale founder depression or the “post-exit crash.”
Although we don’t have reliable research on exactly how many founders experience this phenomenon, we do know that many struggle with their mental health after an exit. The company you built is no longer yours. This is a great accomplishment. But for many founders, it can also result in feelings of emptiness and grief.
This experience may be especially relevant in New York, which has the second-largest startup ecosystem in the world. Hundreds of entrepreneurs in the city have built businesses at an extraordinary scale, and many will eventually face the difficult question of what comes after the company.
The Lieberman Center provides depression treatment for high-level executives in Manhattan and Garden City. Get in touch to schedule a free consultation.
What is the post-exit depression “crash” that so many founders face?
“Post-exit depression” is an informal term that describes the emotional crash that many founders experience after selling a business. It is not a formal mental health diagnosis, but some founders develop symptoms severe enough to warrant a diagnosis of major depressive disorder (or another mental health condition).
You may have imagined that you would feel happy, even euphoric, after reaching the goal of selling your business. But the initial relief can fade once the deal is complete and you move into “normal” life. You may find yourself feeling sad, bored, empty, or lost.
As one Reddit user described, “After selling the business, I found myself in what should have been the best position of my life: in my 30s, financially all right, healthy, and free. Yet, I felt terrible.”
Some informal reports estimate that 80 to 90% of founders experience at least mild symptoms of depression after selling their business. This number has not been confirmed through formal research, so we don’t know exactly how common post-exit depression is. But the number of founders openly discussing it suggests that it’s far from an isolated experience.
The most important thing to remember is that post-exit depression after selling your business is real, and it’s valid.
It may be difficult for other people to understand why someone who has achieved financial success would feel depressed. You may feel pressure to hide your experience because you don’t want to sound ungrateful. This stigma only makes depression worse.
How founders feel when selling their company
There is no right or wrong way to feel after selling your company. You might feel relieved one morning and overwhelmed by grief that evening. You can believe that selling was the right decision while still mourning what you lost. Opposite emotions can exist at the same time.
Here are some emotions that may come up for you.
Grief and mourning
Selling a company that you built from the ground up can be a genuine loss. On top of grieving the business itself, you may also be grieving the end of a major period in your life, even if the sale was voluntary.
Founders often spend years organizing their lives around the needs of a business. This was your “baby.” The company may have dictated your entire day, from where you went each morning to who you spoke to throughout the day. It also gave you a clear set of problems to solve.
After the sale, you lose more than your business. You may also lose your connection with former employees or the future you imagined for the company. This can bring about real grief, just like any other loss.
The fact that you received money in exchange for the business does not cancel out this grief. A decision can be financially beneficial and still involve a painful loss.
Identity crisis
You may also start to feel confused about who you are now that you’re no longer a business owner. Being a founder may have become central to the way you understood yourself. Other people may also have known you primarily through your role in the company. The validation of your self-worth may have become tied to your position.
After selling, you may struggle to answer basic questions about who you are without the business. This identity crisis can feel especially intense if you built the company over many years. Rebuilding a sense of self outside of work usually takes time.
Emptiness that money can’t fix
You may have believed that a successful exit would change everything. Financial security can reduce very real sources of stress and burnout, but it unfortunately does not automatically give your life structure or meaning. You worked so hard for so long toward this goal, but after you finally achieve it, you may end up feeling empty or lost.
One founder described this in a Reddit post:
“I can’t really grasp or describe this empty feeling. I’m able to do anything I want with my time, and I never have to worry about money again. But I just feel lost.”
Running a business probably determined how you spent most of your waking hours. Once that responsibility disappears, unlimited freedom can feel more paralyzing than liberating. You may wake up without a schedule or a clear reason to get moving. For many people, even leisure activities can feel insignificant compared with the sense of purpose you found in building your company.
Changing relationships
The demands of running a company may have left little room for close relationships. After the sale, you may realize that some outside friendships have weakened or that you don’t have a strong support system outside of work. Reconnecting with people can be difficult after years of putting the company first. The people in your life may have also become accustomed to your absence.
The relationships you have with people you used to spend all of your time with, like your co-founder, may also change, which can bring its own feelings of grief.
Some founders also feel isolated because their loved ones can’t relate to the experience. People may assume that money has solved all of your problems, which can make it even more challenging to talk to others about how you’re feeling.
Fear about the future
Once the exit is complete, you may feel pressure to decide what comes next. The number of available options can create decision paralysis. You may worry that your next venture won’t live up to your first success. Starting over can also feel intimidating now that other people expect you to repeat what you accomplished.
If the sale didn’t provide enough money for you to stop working permanently, the future may carry additional pressure. You still need to make financial decisions, but may have no desire to return to the former pace of building a company from the ground up.
Difficulty letting go
Founders sometimes describe their companies as their babies. Even if you avoid that comparison, you probably invested a significant part of yourself in building the business. It can be painful to watch someone else make decisions about your business that you disagree with. The new owners may change the company culture or move away from the mission that originally mattered to you.
You may find yourself repeatedly checking the company’s website or asking former employees for updates. If you stayed on during an earn-out period or as part of the board, you may have the added difficulty of remaining close to the company without having the same authority.
Guilt
You may also feel guilty for being depressed after receiving an amount of money that you know most people will never have. You might tell yourself that you are more fortunate than others, and therefore have no right to struggle. But gratitude and depression can exist together. Recognizing your privileges does not cancel out what you lost.
You may also carry guilt about the effect of the sale on other people. Employees may have lost their jobs or found themselves working under leadership they didn’t choose. Even if you acted responsibly, you cannot control every consequence of an acquisition. It may take time to separate reasonable accountability from guilt for outcomes that were beyond your control.
How to navigate post-exit founder depression
Founders deal with post-exit depression in different ways. One founder might jump immediately into their next business venture, while another may decide never to work again.
The most valuable strategy is to take the time to reflect on both your financial and psychological needs so you can take the right steps for you.
- Take some time to evaluate what comes next. You may need a genuine recovery period before deciding what you want the next stage of your life to look like. Try to avoid jumping back into the grind with the next startup idea. You don’t need to make any big decisions immediately. You deserve a break.
- Find ways to rediscover meaning and build it back into your life. Consider what made building the company meaningful beyond its valuation and how you could meet those needs in a different way. Or if you experienced a lack of meaning even before you sold,
- Talk to other founders who’ve been through an exit. Other founders who have sold their companies may understand this experience in a way that the people in your personal life cannot. Look for post-exit founder groups where you can talk honestly about the parts of selling a business that rarely get discussed publicly. Online forum sites can also be a source of support.
- Build a schedule and stick to it. Without meetings or constant problems to solve, your days may suddenly feel uncomfortably open. Create some structure for yourself, even if that just means deciding when you will get up and how you want to spend the morning. Some founders even get part-time or volunteer jobs to help with structure.
- Try to stop checking up on the business unless you’re expected to. Remaining emotionally involved can make it harder to accept that the business is no longer yours to run, and can intensify feelings of regret or guilt. Consider creating a temporary boundary around company news unless you still have a formal responsibility to remain involved.
- Be careful with drugs and alcohol, and pay close attention to how much you’re using. Substances can quickly become a way to fill unstructured days or avoid painful feelings. But biologically, they make depression symptoms worse over time.
- Get involved in your community. For example, you might mentor an early-stage founder or devote time to a cause that matters to you. Contributing to something outside of your former company can help you begin rebuilding a sense of purpose.
Lastly, consider getting mental health support from a provider who understands the position you’re in. Even if you don’t feel severely depressed, and even if experiencing grief is normal and appropriate after selling a business, getting mental health care can help. This doesn’t mean you’ll need to take medication — there are many treatment options that are effective.
Concierge psychiatric care for founders and business executives in New York
Selling your company changes your life. What’s left in the aftermath can look a lot like depression, and this is valid. You deserve support that understands where you’re coming from.
The Lieberman Center for Psychotherapeutics provides discreet, concierge-style depression treatment for founders and business executives in New York and Long Island. We can help you understand what’s happening underneath the surface and develop an individualized treatment plan for the next stage of your life. A comprehensive psychiatric evaluation with us includes a mental health assessment, labwork, and more.