Emmalyn Shaw on Building Healthy Relationships Between Investors and Founders

The last few episodes of NAKED have been supported by Flourish Ventures and we are lucky to be talking to founding partner Emmalyn Shaw today about their perspective on mental health and entrepreneurship and the role of the investor.

Emmalyn Shaw has been a VC for 23 years and has firsthand experience of the ups and downs of the founder journey. She strongly believes that healthier CEOs lead to more successful companies and talks about mental wellbeing as a continuum with potential points of breakage.

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Mission

Creating a better and safer world for entrepreneurs and leaders to build their dreams  

The Future Farm is a global organisation and community dedicated to healthier entrepreneurship.

At The Future Farm, we see entrepreneurs and leaders as a driving force for positive change in society and around the world. However, we know the personal costs of this life are often very high. The image of an entrepreneur has been glorified by the media and the vulnerability and openness about an entrepreneur’s struggles discouraged. We strongly believe in a different vision for entrepreneurship - a healthier, more balanced and resilient vision.

With mental, emotional and psychological health and wellbeing of entrepreneurs and leaders at its core, The Future Farm is focused on moving from fixing the problem to prevention. It is a place for entrepreneurs and leaders to talk about their raw stories, improve resilience and help others within the entrepreneurial ecosystem, to change the society at large for the better.

Gallery of testimonials

Emma Obanye

Founder & CEO at Mindful Team, EiR at Capital Enterprise, Spain

Around 95% startups fail. We need to hear those stories. By hearing those stories it helps people to accept that this is the truth. And I think that’s fundamental. I think what The Future Farm is doing is really important as we know that the real success comes through resilience that comes from failure.

Markus Gnirck

Co-Founder, Tryb, Singapore

Founders go through good times and through challenging times. I can only share from my experience that the key to long term success is to continuously build up emotional and intellectual resilience and to be, as much as possible, focused on the present moment. The Future Farm does exactly that. Helps you strip away all the non-essentials, to be honest to yourself and work with your emotions is powerful and unique.

Asma Khan

Chef, Owner of Darjeeling Express, United Kingdom

The work of The Future Farm is essential. Too many people talk about the fun side of being an entrepreneur but a lot of it is blood and sweat. It’s a very isolating process when you are trying to set up a business. I think it’s really important to know that the hardships that are ahead of you, someone else has also experienced, and it’s not just you alone.

Simon Cant

Managing Partner, Reinventure, Australia

So many of our life choices, in fact so many of our moment to moment decisions, are automatic and unexamined. Yet we are surprised when we find ourselves in crises or just dissatisfied with life. The call to lead a conscious or mindful life has never been louder and Future Farm are working to help us chart this unknown territory.

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About

Entrepreneurship stripped to its vulnerable core

NAKED by The Future Farm is one of the first business podcasts dedicated to sharing open and vulnerable stories of company builders, leaders, and the ways they have coped with some of the toughest challenges when building a business. It has been created in reaction to the current global health crisis in entrepreneurship, as recognised by the World Economic Forum and the great need to raise awareness about this topic.

NAKED aims to normalise and destigmatise a public discussion about the physical, emotional and mental health of entrepreneurs and leaders through their stories and to promote prevention, by sharing practical insights on how to improve resilience capability. Subscribe to NAKED on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your chosen podcast listening platform.