Coa & Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) Announce Emotionally Fit Leadership Program for Startup Founders

Interested in joining? Apply to the next emotionally fit leadership cohort here.

A Path to a More Mentally Healthy World

Our mission at Coa is to create a world where emotional fitness is as prioritized, celebrated, and accessible as physical fitness. With technology shaping more and more of our culture, it’s essential that tech founders and leaders prioritize their mental well-being.

Today we’re so excited to announce our collaboration with Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) on the launch of the Emotionally Fit Leadership program for startup founders.

Why Emotional Fitness for Founders Matters

We’ve seen that founders will go above and beyond what’s necessary for their company’s bottom line, but that they often stop short in fulfilling this same commitment to themselves and their team. Failing to invest in mental health leads to burn-out, toxic work cultures, startups imploding, co-founder conflicts, and leadership challenges.

With COVID-19 and the encouraging recent progress of the anti-racist movement, we’ve seen an increase in critical founder challenges including leading through uncertainty, navigating a “new normal,” and building inclusive and psychologically safe company cultures.

Starting this June, twenty founders from the SVB community will embark on a seven-week mental health & emotional fitness journey led virtually by Coa to build leadership abilities, improve diversity & inclusion, and bolster resilience.

The program will be facilitated by Dr. Emily Anhalt, Co-Founder and Chief Clinical Officer of Coa, and Clinical Psychologist, Dr. Leslie Carr. Jennifer Kim, a leading advisor in Silicon Valley and Inclusion At Work columnist, will co-lead sessions on Diversity & Inclusion.

The program kicks off with founders participating in a workshop covering the seven traits of emotionally fit leadership. The workshop will be followed by weekly therapist-led group sessions dedicated to helping founders improve their ability to handle top-of-mind challenges such as:

• Leading through uncertainty
• Maintaining an emotional runway
• Remote communication
• Navigating the impact of COVID-19 on mental health
• Building psychological safety and diversity into company culture

We know first-hand that the founder journey is a lonely one. A group format allows for founders to connect and learn from others experiencing similar challenges while cultivating a strong community.

“We have always known that resilience and mental fortitude can be the difference between success and failure. Dealing with an exogenous shock in industry and society, with acute levels of uncertainty, trauma and loss — requires a critical focus on emotional fitness. We started exploring the theme of mental health in January 2020 and discovered our SVB client Coa designed a program specifically for founders. During what is a very tumultuous time in tech, we are thrilled to collaborate with Coa to deliver this emotional fitness program. ”

— Claire Lee, Global Brand Ambassador at SVB Capital.

Coa’s program for SVB is built on Dr. Anhalt’s experience working with some of the fastest-growing technology companies and VC firms in the world including Google, Asana, TEDx, Github, NASDAQ, Unilever, Bloomberg, First Round Capital, True Ventures, Harrison Metal, Alpha Bridge, Lerer Hippeau, Red Sea Ventures, and Corigin Ventures.

If you’re a founder interested in participating in the future you can fill out the application here.

Alongside the in-depth program for SVB entrepreneurs, Coa is also offering therapist-led mini-sessions on emotional fitness for founders and leaders online. These classes explore the seven traits of emotional fitness, outlined by Dr. Anhalt in a recent piece in First Round Review. In response to COVID-19, class offerings have been expanded to be available online and completely free.

We at Coa are grateful to be supporting thousands of people across the country with their emotional fitness. Join us to build skills and community around leadership, parenting, managing anxiety, becoming a better ally, building a routine, improving romantic partnerships, and more.

For a full list of classes go to www.joincoa.com/classes. We hope to meet you soon!

Apply to the next emotionally fit leadership cohort here.

Written by Alexa & Emily, Coa’s Co-Founders