StartupWA Report Reveals WA Founder Mental Health Crisis, Meshpoints Opens $150,000 Wellbeing Challenge

A new report from StartupWA has quantified the mental health toll on Western Australia’s startup founders and found that few believe the innovation ecosystem is equipped to help them.

The “Mental Health and Wellbeing Roundtable Report,” released today, draws on an anonymous survey of 129 WA startup founders conducted between February 5th and March 6th, 2026.

Among the founders surveyed, the most common experiences while running their startups included:

• Financial stress: 77%
• Anxiety: 72%
• Lack of sleep: 71%
• Burnout: 70%
• Relationship stress: 57%
• Depression: 38%
• Panic attacks: 31%

Nearly half (46%) of the startups surveyed had generated no income at all.

Only 34% of respondents had seen a GP for a mental health plan, and 27% had received a formal mental health diagnosis. Just 12% of founders agreed or strongly agreed that the WA startup ecosystem supports founders in maintaining or improving their mental well-being, while 41% disagreed or strongly disagreed.

StartupWA Chair Charlie Gunningham said the findings demand a collective response. “This is not just a founder issue, or even a startup issue,” he said. “It is an ecosystem issue.”

“Instinctively and anecdotally, we understand how hard ‘startup life’ can be in Western Australia. Many of us have experienced this personally.”

“So we decided to dig into this more deeply – and we’ve been shocked by the results.”

A disconnect between support and need

The report, produced with support from Bloom and Meshpoints, follows a roundtable held on March 17th at Bloom in Crawley, attended by 32 founders, ecosystem supporters, and mental health experts. Discussions were held under Chatham House rules to encourage open sharing and discussion.

A recurring theme across both the survey and the roundtable was a mismatch between the support available and what founders actually need. Anonymous comments described founders who felt isolated, hesitant to raise business-specific concerns with family and friends, and unwilling to be open with investors for fear of jeopardising funding. Some founders described being pushed to pitch in ways that left them feeling “not heard or listened to,” and in one case, “traumatised.”

The report also highlighted particular pressures on underrepresented founders, including women, older women, regional founders, migrants, and those with disabilities.

Nine recommendations for the ecosystem

StartupWA has proposed nine recommendations to shift responsibility for founder wellbeing away from the individual and onto the broader innovation community. They include:

• Treating wellbeing as a collective ecosystem responsibility
• Setting realistic expectations with founders earlier in their journeys
• Training investors and program leads to discuss wellbeing without penalising founders for honesty
• Establishing a founder “buddy system” matching early-stage founders with experienced peers
• Building a central directory of support services
• Embedding wellbeing modules into existing accelerators and incubators, rather than adding them after problems arise
• Running awareness campaigns and regular ecosystem pulse surveys
• Developing resilience and financial counselling programs
• Paying particular attention to founders from vulnerable or underrepresented groups

The report also notes that founders themselves were wary of programs framed around mental health, and suggested language around “wellbeing,” “resilience,” and “sustainable performance” may be more effective in reaching the cohort most at risk.

Meshpoints backs response with $150,000

Alongside the report’s release, Meshpoints — the Spacecubed Foundation flagship program backed by Lotterywest — has opened applications for its Resilience and Wellbeing Challenge. The initiative will distribute $150,000 in total, with individual grants of up to $20,000 available for programs and initiatives that directly address the issues raised in the StartupWA report.

Applications close on June 11th, 2026.

Spacecubed founder Brodie McCulloch welcomed the funding response, saying, “A sustainable, innovative society requires a proactive approach to all aspects of a founder’s life.” 

“That’s why it is good to see the Meshpoints program responding, with some significant funding for ecosystem initiatives that can alleviate the situation.”

WA findings echo global and national research

The WA data aligns closely with international and national research on founder mental health. Startup Snapshot’s 2023 global report, “The Untold Toll”, surveyed more than 400 founders and found that 72% reported a negative impact on their psychological well-being, with 81% admitting they were not open about their stress. Only 10% of founders said they felt comfortable discussing mental health with their investors.

The full StartupWA report is available at startupwa.org/reports, and details of the Meshpoints Challenge are at Meshpoints.