The Founder Exhale

Real conversations with exited founders about what 'success' actually costs, and what it takes to protect your mental health along the way. I also talk with values-aligned investors and mental health leaders who are changing how the startup world treats wellbeing. Welcome to the show shattering the silence around founder mental health.

Shaler Houser: I Burned It All the Way Down 07/20/2026

Shaler Houser: I Burned It All the Way Down Shaler Houser built and sold four companies over three decades. He also lost everything more than once, not just financially, but personally. In this episode, I sit down with Shaler Houser, a 4x exited founder and Partner at Founderville VC, who has spent nearly three decades building companies, losing everything, rebuilding, and using every hard-won lesson to invest in and support the founders coming up behind him. This is the most honest conversation I've had about addiction, identity, and what it looks like to burn your life all the way down and come back from it. In this episode: Shaler takes us back to April 14, 2000, the day NuVox filed to go public, which turned out to be the very day the NASDAQ had its biggest single-day crash in history. He walks us through the merger, the recapitalization, and what it felt like to go from 2.7 million shares at $12 to $14 per share to 27,000 shares at a dollar, while carrying personal debt borrowed against those same holdings. He talks about what it felt like to be forced out of the company he founded, wrote the business plan for, and wrote the first check for, at 29 years old. He talks about how the addiction that had been quietly building through all of it finally spiraled, and what it took to get sober, including three months in a treatment facility. He talks about his mom, the promise he made her, the four and a half years of sobriety, and the relapse six weeks after she passed. And he talks about building YouTurn Health, the company he says he's most proud of, out of everything he lived through. He also shares something that reframed how I think about founder mental wellness as a VC strategy: stigma is what drives investor apathy. If the VP at a major fund hasn't addressed their own struggles, they're not going to talk about it with their portfolio founders. That insight deserves its own conversation. Timestamps: 00:00 Introduction and welcome to The Founder Exhale 02:00 Shaler's background and entrepreneurial journey including Green Cloud Technologies 03:21 The NuVox IPO filing and the day the NASDAQ crashed 08:48 The recapitalization, the identity shatter, and walking away with nothing 12:37 How addiction built quietly through the founder journey and finally spiraled 16:28 Building YouTurn Health for families navigating addiction recovery 18:41 How Shaler's experience shapes the way he invests and shows up for founders 21:35 Why stigma drives investor apathy around founder mental health 22:33 Founder mental wellness as a portfolio risk mitigation strategy 24:01 The final question: what to say to a founder sitting alone with substances right now 30:24 The dad joke segment 31:20 How to connect with Shaler and learn more about YouTurn Health Resources and links: YouTurn Health: Shaler Houser on LinkedIn: Shaler Houser on X: @shalerhouser Founderville VC: Burn Bright, Not Out: Kabila Founder Mental Health Fund: The Founder Exhale website: Support the work: The Kabila Founder Mental Health Fund has awarded nearly 90 mental therapy grants to founders who need support but can't afford it. If this episode moved you, please consider making a donation at kabilamentalhealth.com. Every dollar helps a founder get the support they deserve. Please subscribe, follow, and rate the show on your favorite podcast platform, and visit thefounderexhale.com to leave a voicemail or send a note via the contact form. I want to hear what you thought. Be well, y'all. 🤠 /episode/index/show/feb89180-f3b4-4777-85b9-dc64928ffc8a/id/42156815

Grant Winns: What Four Successful Exits Taught Him About Self-Doubt 07/01/2026

Grant Winns: What Four Successful Exits Taught Him About Self-Doubt Every founder deals with self-doubt, but most never tell anyone. In the very first episode of The Founder Exhale, I sit down with Grant Winns, an 8-time founder with 4 successful exits, including the globally recognized brand BYLT Basics, and CEO of Yuna Health, an AI-native mental health platform built to fill the gap between crisis care and traditional therapy. Grant gets real about the mental health challenges across two decades of entrepreneurship, what self-doubt actually looks like from the inside, and why he built Yuna Health for a version of himself that needed it most. In this episode: We get into self-doubt and how it showed up for Grant from the very beginning, when he dropped out of school, moved to California, and bet on himself with his first company. We talk about the difference between your startup happening because of you, of you, and through you, and why that third level changes everything for your mental wellness. Grant shares why he kept his self-doubt completely private for the first three quarters of his career, what he was afraid would happen if people found out, and why he now believes sharing it is the move. We also dig into confidence, what it means to wear it as armor versus build it as a muscle, and how, as a kid, Grant had a wrestling match while terrified and still won. And Grant shares something he says he's never said out loud on a stage or in an interview: that even after his biggest wins, he still felt like a failure. What you'll hear: Grant's framework for moving from self-doubt to action, starting with your inner circle and working outward. Why journaling your fears is one of the most underrated tools a founder has. The three levels of entrepreneurial identity, and why "this thing is coming through me" is the one that protects your mental health. Why the unspoken, unclarified fear is the dangerous one. Mike Ma's chapter in Burn Bright, Not Out, "You Are Your Startup. You Are Not Your Startup." and why it hits different after hearing Grant's story. The Gain and the Gap by Benjamin Hardy, and why Grant thinks founders spend too much time staring at what's ahead instead of how far they've come. And Grant's final message to any founder sitting alone right now, dealing with self-doubt and not telling anyone. The gift: Yuna donated 300 free licenses to the Kabila Founder Mental Health Fund for founders in my ecosystem. That's $60,000 worth of access to an AI mental health companion, at no cost to you. Go to yuna.io/founderexhale to activate yours. Timestamps: 02:05 Grant's journey and the personal story behind Yuna Health 04:05 How I use Yuna daily and what it's done for my mental wellness 05:40 Self-doubt as a founder: Grant takes us back to the beginning 08:25 Do I have what it takes? The imposter syndrome nobody talks about 11:14 The three levels: because of me, of me, and through me 12:52 Who did you tell? Grant's honest answer for the first three quarters of his career 16:06 Wearing confidence as armor vs. building it as a muscle 18:29 The wrestling match, fear, and acting as if 22:52 Succeeding on paper while feeling like a failure inside 29:40 Therapy, Yuna, and what finally moved Grant from clinical back to functional 33:15 What to do right now if you're a founder sitting alone in self-doubt 35:05 The dad joke (it's founder-specific, I'll let you decide if it lands) 37:22 How to connect with Grant and claim your free Yuna license Resources and links: Yuna Health: Grant's email: , by Benjamin Hardy Support the work: The Kabila Founder Mental Health Fund has awarded nearly 90 mental therapy grants to founders who need support but can't afford it. If this episode meant something to you, please consider being a donor at . Every dollar helps a founder get the support they deserve. Subscribe, follow, and rate the show on your favorite podcast platform, and visit the podcast to leave a voicemail or drop me a note via the contact form. I want to hear what you think. Be well, y'all. 🤠 /episode/index/show/feb89180-f3b4-4777-85b9-dc64928ffc8a/id/41922715

Trailer: Welcome to The Founder Exhale 06/12/2026

The Founder Exhale

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