After Suicide of Jody Sherman, A Call to Talk About the Emotional Strain of Life at Startups

Patrick Clark — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 17:25:51 -0400

This week, the startup community mourned the death of Jody Sherman, the Ecomom founder and CEO who was found dead on Monday. In the days that followed, Mr. Sherman's friends and colleagues remembered his drive and generosity and sense of humor in a series of blog posts—posts that largely left out the cause of Mr. Sherman's death, which the Clark County Coroner's Office determined to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

In a post today, blogger and entrepreneur Jason Calacanis wondered whether, in the aftermath of Mr. Sherman's death, and the recent suicide of Aaron Swartz—as well as the suicide in 2011 of Diaspora co-founder Ilya Zhitomirskiy—whether it's time to talk about the emotional strain of launching and operating a startup:

Perhaps we owe it to these three amazing humans to examine if the pressures of being a founder, the pressure of our community's relentless pursuit of greatness, in some way contributed to their deaths?

I've always believed that being a founder is an unhealthy pursuit at times, and few have disagreed -- certainly not those who have done it. Read any biography of a successful founder and you'll find collateral damage around -- and certainly in -- those individuals.

It's not the first time that Mr. Calcanis has written about depression. In a widely-read email, Mr. Calacanis discussed "confused, paralyzed and anxious" feelings in the startup community following the onset of the financial crisis in 2008.

Mr. Calacanis isn't the only one to advocate for more openess around the stresses faced by startup founders. Yesterday, 50Kings founder Francisco Dao ruminated on what he called "the show," the entrepreneur's tendency to display "all the charm and the energy and the friendliness that hides the knot in our stomach and the sadness in our heart."

And after the death of Mr. Zhitomirskiy, New York entrepreneurs and investors talked to Betabeat about maintaining equilibrium while riding the startup roller coaster.

What Dave Tisch, the former managing director of TechStars New York, told us at the time is probably just as true today. “I don’t think [these issues] are getting brushed under the rug, but,” Mr. Tisch told us. “It’s probably something we can all do better in exposing.”

Diaspora Cofounder Ilya Zhitomirskiy’s Death Sparks Talk of Depression Among Founders

Adrianne Jeffries — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 14:56:00 -0400

TechCrunch broke the sad news last night that one of the four cofounders of Diaspora, the open-source, pro-privacy social network that started at NYU as a Kickstarter campaign that was funded 20 times over, has died just after turning 22. The cause of death won't be public record until the case is closed, according to the San Francisco Medical Examiner's office, which will take at least two weeks. The office has to process a toxicology report, a clerk at the medical examiner told Betabeat, which will likely take until 2012.

CNN Money is reporting the death was a suicide according to "a source close to the company." Rumors of suicide inspired those in the startup community to speculate that the pressure of building a high-profile company that was facing struggles caused Mr. Zhitomirskiy to end his life. Diaspora recently ran out of money and had to ask donors for more and CEO Yosem Companys stepped down for personal reasons.

That speculation led to a greater discussion about the prevalence of depression among startup founders, a gig that by nature vacillates between extreme highs and lows. "The biggest risk in doing a startup is not the financial risk per se. It's the psychological risk of knowing you really, really tried—and still failed," one commenter on Hacker News wrote.

UPDATE: Official statement from Diaspora below.

We're incredibly sad to say that our close friend and co-founder Ilya Zhitomirskiy has passed away.

Ilya was a great friend and a brilliant person, a visionary whose work for a better future online brought hope to many people.

Our hearts, thoughts, and prayers are with Ilya's family as they cope with this incredibly painful loss.

Public memorial services for Ilya are tentatively planned for this Friday November 18th in San Francisco and Sunday in Philadelphia. In life, Ilya brought people together. In death, he would have wanted the same thing.

We'll post further details soon when final arrangements are made.

We'll all miss Ilya, more than we can say.

Betabeat » ilya zhitomirskiy

After Suicide of Jody Sherman, A Call to Talk About the Emotional Strain of Life at Startups

Diaspora Cofounder Ilya Zhitomirskiy’s Death Sparks Talk of Depression Among Founders