Nobody Talks About This Part of the Founder Journey | Shona Beats on Identity, Burnout & What Comes Next
What happens after you step back? After the raise? After the exit? In Part Two of our conversation with Shona Beats — ex-Founding COO of Headspace and now a coach to high-growth founders — we explore the emotional cost of building a company… and what’s waiting on the other side.
We talk about identity loss, burnout, ego, and why even the most successful founders can feel totally unprepared when the hustle stops. If you’ve ever asked “what now?” — this one’s for you.
📍 CHAPTERS
00:00 Intro – The part of the journey no one talks about
01:10 Why stepping away is harder than people think
03:00 When success still feels empty
04:45 Coaching founders through identity collapse
06:30 Why founders struggle to rest, even after exit
08:15 Learning to detach self-worth from metrics
10:30 When ego gets in the way of growth
12:00 How to rebuild identity post-startup
13:50 The link between meaning, purpose and mental health
15:15 What real founder support looks like
17:00 Why founder journeys don’t have clean endings
18:45 Advice for anyone feeling stuck or lost
21:00 Final reflections – it’s okay not to know what’s next
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🔗 Follow Shona on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/shonamitchellbeats/
💬 Book a free 1-hour commercial advisory session with host Greg McCallum:
https://meetings-eu1.hubspot.com/meetings/gmccallum?uuid=c8f5cecd-0222-4c6e-92d1-ea9f224a60fd
From Headspace to High-Growth Coaching: Shona Beats on Startup Chaos and Calm
In this episode of Founders Unplugged, we sit down with Shona Beats, ex-Founding COO of Headspace, to talk about what really happens behind the scenes of a rocketship startup — and what founders need but rarely get as they scale.
Shona shares her journey from working with Andy Puddicombe in the earliest days of Headspace to mentoring some of the world’s most ambitious founders today. We explore burnout, founder identity, operational chaos, and the psychological cost of hypergrowth — plus what she’s learned from watching hundreds of founders go through it.
This is one of those conversations that hits deep.
📍 CHAPTERS
00:00 Welcome & introduction
01:20 How Shona met Andy and got involved in Headspace
03:30 From events to startup: the messy early years
05:10 What early traction really looks like behind the scenes
07:00 Scaling without a blueprint — growing fast while staying grounded
09:45 The pressure of being a first-time operator in a high-profile brand
12:20 When mission and scale collide
14:15 Lessons from chaos: the skill of staying calm in uncertainty
16:05 Stepping away from Headspace and finding new identity
18:40 Moving into coaching — why founders needed more than just tactics
21:00 Common patterns in founder burnout and emotional overload
23:10 Reframing success and learning to pause
25:00 What Shona wishes every founder knew
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🔗 Follow Shona on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/shonamitchellbeats/
💬 Book a free 1-hour commercial advisory session with host Greg McCallum:
https://meetings-eu1.hubspot.com/meetings/gmccallum?uuid=c8f5cecd-0222-4c6e-92d1-ea9f224a60fd
What does founder-friendly VC look like in practice? In Part 2 of our conversation with Kealan Doyle and Michael Theodosiou from Symvan Capital, we explore how they scale their portfolio without sacrificing personal support — and why their long-term, lifecycle approach to venture capital is built for both performance and relationships.
We dig into exit strategy, failure rates, the broken early-stage funding landscape, and why hands-on VCs are rare but essential.
Plus:
💬 Why most founders fail at sales (and what to do about it)
🔁 How to avoid hiring the wrong first salesperson
🏗️ The startup-to-film analogy that will reframe how you think about building
💸 How Symvan plans to scale without becoming just another big fund
📉 And why 80% failure rates at some funds are not just bad luck
If you're raising at pre-seed or seed, managing an early-stage fund, or just trying to make sense of today’s VC market — this episode is a must-watch.
📍 CHAPTERS
00:00 Intro – What’s next for Symvan Capital?
01:10 Growing their fund without losing quality
02:20 Plans for a new conventional (non-tax efficient) Series A fund
03:35 Exit strategies and tracking performance over hype
05:15 Why failure ≠ exit, and exits ≠ cash windfalls
06:45 Symvan’s lifecycle flywheel – proving the model works
08:10 Limiting portfolio failure through hands-on VC
09:45 Why most pre-seed and seed money is wasted
11:00 How they’ll scale while keeping support personalised
12:30 The real reason Symvan avoids big AUM models
13:45 Incentive misalignment in VC fee structures
15:15 The long game – why reputation and founder experience matter
16:30 How predatory term sheets and cold relationships harm early-stage founders
18:00 Founders talk – and bad actors get exposed
19:10 The “bubble years” and inflated valuations: lessons from the inside
20:25 Encouraging new portfolio companies to call existing ones
21:45 The dangers of raising at too high a valuation too early
23:10 What it really takes to work in VC today
25:00 Why “diversity of thought” beats traditional finance pedigrees
26:15 What VC analysts should really be learning
28:00 Final thoughts on founder support, pivoting, and resilience
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🔗 Follow Kealan Doyle on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/kealandoyle/
🔗 Follow Michael Theodosiou on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-theodosiou-4a9280a3/
🚀 Check out Symvan Capital:
https://www.symvancapital.com/
💬 Book a free 1-hour commercial advisory session with host Greg McCallum:
https://meetings-eu1.hubspot.com/meetings/gmccallum?uuid=c8f5cecd-0222-4c6e-92d1-ea9f224a60fd
What does hands-on VC actually look like? In this episode of Founders Unplugged, Greg sits down with Kealan Doyle and Michael Theodosiou from Symvan Capital, one of the UK’s most disciplined early-stage venture capital firms.
Kealan and Michael share what really goes into building a successful VC firm — from avoiding “spray and pray” investing to supporting founders through the toughest stages of growth.
They talk founder-led sales, the broken pre-seed market, the myth of the ‘gut feel’ VC, and why too many funds look the part but don’t do the work. If you're raising capital, running a startup, or building a fund, this episode is full of hard-earned insight you won’t get from the highlight reel.
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📍 CHAPTERS
00:00 Welcome and intros
01:30 Michael’s route from barrister to venture capital
03:35 How Kealan and Nick started Symvan Capital
05:05 The EIS market and why Symvan bet on high-risk, high-return
07:50 What drew Michael to startups and why VC felt like the perfect fit
09:55 How Symvan supports pre-revenue founders
12:00 Transitioning from investment banking to startups
13:30 Why most VCs aren't really “venture” capitalists
15:00 Rigour vs gut feel — the myth of the instinct-led investor
18:00 Is due diligence killing early-stage innovation?
21:45 Why Symvan’s DD process focuses more on founders than forecasts
23:00 Founders as evangelists — why most early salespeople fail
26:35 The case for hard skills in early-stage investing
29:00 Why technical founders often can’t sell — and how to fix it
32:45 Building a startup is more like making a film than you think
35:10 Sales MVPs and the myth of the perfect pitch
37:50 Can founders grow with their startup — or do they need to be replaced?
40:05 Why most first hires fail and how founders can avoid it
42:00 Communication, clarity, and the founder’s real job
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🔗 Follow Kealan Doyle on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/kealandoyle/
🔗 Follow Michael Theodosiou on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-theodosiou-4a9280a3/
🚀 Check out Symvan Capital:
https://www.symvancapital.com/
💬 Book a free 1-hour commercial advisory session with host Greg McCallum:
https://meetings-eu1.hubspot.com/meetings/gmccallum?uuid=c8f5cecd-0222-4c6e-92d1-ea9f224a60fd
