Elite leaders actively protect mental clarity

Global leaders and top venture capitalists openly describe stillness, reflection, and mental regulation as decision-quality tools, not as recovery after failure.

• Ray Dalio has publicly credited decades of meditation as a major contributor to his ability to make clear decisions under uncertainty.

• Satya Nadella speaks about mindfulness, reflection, and inner clarity as central to Microsoft’s cultural and strategic transformation.

• Reed Hastings built a culture where judgment and clear thinking matter more than constant urgency.

This is where funds can step in — not as controllers, but as guardians of long-term performance.

What burnout actually costs

• Burnout increases turnover risk by 35–50% (Gallup, WHO)

• Replacing a senior leader costs 1.5–2× annual salary

• Founders under chronic stress show:

  • ↓ working memory

  • ↓ emotional regulation

  • ↑ risk-taking errors

• Mental health issues cost the global economy ~$1 trillion/year in lost productivity (WHO)

A single founder breakdown costs more than funding preventive support for an entire portfolio cohort.

• Every €1 invested in preventive mental health programs returns €4–€5 in productivity and reduced healthcare costs (WHO meta-analysis)

• Companies with strong wellbeing programs show:

  • 21% higher profitability

  • 41% lower absenteeism (Gallup)

Warning sign:

“No time”

Recent leadership exits increasingly cite exhaustion, overload, and mental health collapse — not as personal weakness, but as sustained pressure exceeding cognitive limits.

• Dustin Moskovitz (Meta co-founder & Asana CEO)publicly described the CEO role as exhausting before stepping down.

• Matthew Cooper (President and co-founder at EarnUp) stepped down explicitly due to mental health collapse.

• Chris Hulls (Co-founder & CEO at Life360)resigned after openly acknowledging burnout.

Prevention works only before the crash.

Pausa is

A science-based, proactive mental health program, designed for high-performing leaders operating under sustained pressure.

Phase I
Reset

Phase II
Integration

• 3-Day digital detox in nature

• Guided workshops

• Small cohorts (up to 6)

• Curated community of like-minded leaders

• Micro, evidence-based habits

• Offline monthly gatherings

Why this matters for VC fund

• CEO burnout correlates with worse firm performance (peer-reviewed).

• Mental health investment shows positive ROI (Deloitte, Reuters).

• Leadership exits increasingly cite exhaustion and burnout (Forbes).

• Avoiding one poor decision can cover proactive mental health costs for the entire portfolio.

This is not about care.
It is about protecting decision quality when pressure is highest.

Our ask
What we are exploring with a small number of funds

We are not scaling Pausa aggressively.

We are carefully testing whether funds like yours
see value in offering preventive capacity support
to founders before pressure becomes pathology.

• 15-minute exploratory conversation

• No commitment

• No rollout discussion

• Just sense-checking relevance

I am Yaro, co-founder of Pausa. I am building preventive, science-based mental health ecosystem for impact-driven leaders in Lisbon. Pausa is designed to protect clarity and resilience under sustained pressure through a high-trust reset in nature and an ongoing offline cadence.

Built inside the Unicorn Factory Lisbon ecosystem. The program is designed and ready to run; we are now selecting right now the founding Circle.

Our co-founder

Yaroslav Derevianko

Co-founder of Pausa

LinkedIn

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