Campbell called this the monomyth. You may know it as the Hero’s Journey. George Lucas used it to structure Star Wars. Pixar uses it in almost every film. This journey maps, stage by stage, what it actually feels like for founders to build a company.

For founders, the company can become a key part of personal identity. Failures feel personal. Stress at work spills over into mood at home.

There is a conversation that rarely happens in the startup ecosystem. When a founder is struggling, what happens to the company?