Introduction

The User Manual for Founder Psychology is a guide for startup founders written by Amy Buechler, licensed psychotherapist and YC’s first Batch Director and in-house Founder Coach (me!). I’ve worked with thousands of founders, and this is a living library that chronicles the patterns and themes I’ve discovered in my work with founders. Your startup will always evolve. So will you - growth is an inevitable output of change. This User Manual guides your growth through every challenge your startup brings you.

In Silicon Valley, success is only achieved by outliers, yet I’ve found that all founders grow along the same developmental trajectory. This means that as your startups grow, you are all experiencing the same challenges to your mental and emotional well-being - you’re feeling similar things as you struggle to find PMF, then you’re similarly crushed by the pressure, volume of work, and changed expectations when your growth scales, then you wrestle with your identity as your role changes (or you experience burnout), and you come to grips with what’s next (even if it’s a good thing like an IPO!).

Building a startup isn’t just about building a product. It’s also about creating yourself - how you feel, how you think, and who you choose to become in the face of the challenges your startup brings you. You are the most important creation of your startup.

I hope that this guide helps you create a version of yourself that matches the transformational, world-shaking vision you have for your startup. My dream is that the new version of you created in partnership with your startup is infinitely more valuable to the world than however big your company gets.