What happens to exited founders? Many experience PTSD (Post Traumatic Sale Disorder) How can you avoid it?

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Every Founder looks forward to the day they exit their business but what happens to Founders after they exit? Adjusting to life after the chaos, stress and adrenaline of a startup can be hard. It's not all smooth sailing and gin and tonics. Most exited Founders go through some form of Post Traumatic Sale Disorder (PTSD)!

Pressure in a business is cranked up several notches during the exit. Founders have normal operational stress, added stress of making sure numbers don't slip during negotiations and pressure to ensure exit terms are good. After this pressure build up the deal is signed, if the deal is clean, the Founder exits, and all the stress stops, seemingly overnight.

After the sale and the Founder exits the business ego death is virtually instant. Founders move from a high-pressure, high-paced adrenaline-fueled environment, being the CEO, people manager, problem solver, the person everybody needs to talk to being a 'nice person to have a cup of coffee' within a couple of weeks.

The five stages of grieving; denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance have parallel stages for Founders when they exit. Founders grieve for the life they have lost whilst rejoicing in their newfound freedom but are often unsure what shape this freedom will take. They have to rediscover the meaning of life when the answer is no longer 42.

The Founder Exit PTSD stages are

• Shell Shock
• The Big Thing
• Acceptance
• Discovery
• Execution

Founders move through the stages over one or several years, depending on the length of their startup journey.

Shell Shock

The Founder enters a shell shock stage immediately after exiting when everything suddenly stops, like being in a hurricane and stepping in the eye of the storm and suddenly everything is quiet.

They realise the stress, trauma, adrenaline and demands of start-up life are over. If they don't have the next thing lined up Shell Shock can last 12 to 18 months. Founders tend to do The Big Thing during Shell Shock.

The Big Thing

Founders often do a 'big thing' to reset the vision they had of themselves back to what it was before they lost themselves to the business. The Big Thing is both a reward for the sacrifices made and a personal reset. We have seen cycling the length of Africa, competing in the Iron Man, riding the Cape Epic, travelling around Asia, swimming the English Channel, changing countries, building a house, a year at Harvard, competing in a sport they used to play at a senior level and a three-month European sabbatical. Mine was Cape to Cairo on my motorbike. The Big Thing is a reboot and can be any substantial undertaking that is not work-related.

Acceptance

After Shell Shock and The Big Thing Founders move to Acceptance. This is where the Founder comes to terms with the new normal post-exit. What this is depends on their life stage and on the type of Founder they were.

If the Founder is 'done' then fishing, golf, travelling, paddling or mountain biking will fill the schedule with some angel or property investments, board advisory and deal structuring thrown in to ensure they are not too bored.

If Founders feel they still have more to give - what then? The working world has changed enormously, people are living longer healthier lives and the best thing for psychological well-being is a sense of purpose. More Founders are re-engaging post-exit but finding out where they fit in is no easy task. Founders like everybody else, will have several careers in their working life. Exited Founders pass through the Acceptance stage when they realise they have to make a significant effort to find a new career.

Discovery

The longest, hardest stage is when Exited Founders return to the market to Discover their new career. This can take anywhere from one to three years or longer. They have a huge amount to offer but don't want to repeat the stresses and mistakes of the past. They can do anything from launching or joining a fund, becoming a full-time Angel, joining a business at an advisory level or starting another startup.

This is an uncomfortable, unsettling confidence-shifting journey, not in the least because of their market credentials. They have high expectations of themselves and market expectations are equally high. They need to start a new career but how do you start at the top? If it's too close to what they did previously they may not be challenged or drawn to repeat the process, if it's too different they need ego death to start on the bottom rung of the new ladder.

If we score Founder skills and experience on a scale of 1 to 100 each Founder's score will differ based on the journey their business went on, their specific role and the role they seek

• As a Founder of {this kind of business} in {this market sector} with {this role} Score 85
• As an Angel investor, Score 20
• As a Board Advisor where they need influencing skills, Score 15
• As a VC Funder, Score 25
• As a Product Advisor, Score 50
• M & A Advisor, Score 40

Exited Founders are very experienced at the career they are leaving behind and relatively inexperienced at the career they are starting.

Experience does count, but context is everything. Exited Founders are by definition overachievers, they are forced to re-examine how they see themselves.

Getting Discovery right means the next ten years should be more rewarding than the last ten. This is the meaning of life. Being intentional is essential.

Founders exit the Discovery phase when they figure out how they want to spend their day, with whom and what they want to spend it doing. The new career goal is important but the quality of their daily experience is usually more so.

Execution

Once Founders lock in on their next career they move from Discovery to Execution. Execution will typically be seven years or longer. If Founders 'go again' and do another startup the bad news is that it's not that much easier the second time. Second-time Founders avoid the pitfalls of their first business but are smart enough to want to build a better business. This can often make this journey as hard or harder than the first one.

What surprises many Founders is how quickly experience goes stale. What will be equally surprising is how unconsciously competent they are in many business areas they never realised.

It's not all smooth sailing for exited Founders! The exit is the end of one career and the start of another.

If you have not exited but are thinking of it, delaying the exit to figure out your post-exit career to reduce PTSD will be time well invested!