There is virtually no mental health safety net for entrepreneurs, and the few services that exist are reactive — responding to a crisis after it has happened.
Econa's mission is different. We take a proactive, population-based approach while meeting each individual entrepreneur where they are, with personalized, positive solutions.
In this way we endeavor to shift the entire distribution of entrepreneur resilience, wellbeing and mental health — from distress toward vitality and thriving — before the crisis arrives.
Innovation is a social, emotional, cognitive and behavioral practice. Advancing regional innovation economies means advancing the people who innovate — especially entrepreneurs. FounderScreen delivers the outcomes this requires at no cost to business builders and job creators.
Our behavioral healthcare system does not work for entrepreneurs. Insurance restrictions, provider shortages, long wait times and a reactive care model are useless for fast-paced, mobile, results-oriented entrepreneurs. ADHD, bipolar spectrum conditions, OCPD, behavioral addiction and anxiety are more common among entrepreneurs than others, and are expressed in different ways. And for many, the stress is greater, the loneliness is more pervasive, and the emotions are more extreme. Yet all of the available mental health frameworks were designed for other populations. Econa exists to correct that.
The same cognitive and emotional traits that drive entrepreneur performance — pattern recognition, risk tolerance, innovativeness, persistence, emotional intensity and the ability to hyperfocus — also create unique vulnerabilities. Understanding this is step one.
Within any population, entrepreneur wellbeing follows a distribution. Most entrepreneurs sit somewhere in the middle — not in crisis, not thriving. Econa's goal is to shift the entire curve to the right.
Econa's framework operates at every level — individual entrepreneurs, investor portfolios, and entire innovation ecosystems.
The Entrepreneur Wellbeing Check (EWC) — 7 peer-reviewed questions, scored /28 — gives every entrepreneur a validated baseline in about 3 minutes. Free, confidential, and built specifically for entrepreneurs.
Early identification and proactive engagement is the difference between a rough quarter and a derailed company. Econa's FounderScreen initiative extends EWC screening to thousands of entrepreneurs through ecosystem partnerships — before problems compound.
Reactive support is not enough. Econa's programs — keynotes, workshops, retreats, and investor education — build proactive resilience into the culture of entrepreneurship itself.
"The same traits that make entrepreneurs exceptional — the intensity, the pattern recognition, the willingness to take on risk — are not separable from their vulnerabilities. We can't treat one without honoring the other."
Dr. Freeman's landmark studies found that entrepreneurs exhibit significantly higher rates of ADHD, depression, bipolar tendencies, and anxiety — and these traits correlate both with performance, and against it.
Standard clinical frameworks are reactive and were designed for different populations. Econa's tools and programs are proactive and are developed and validated with entrepreneurs — not adapted from models designed for someone else.
Individual resilience and performance optimization compounds into ecosystem health and results. VCs, accelerators, universities, ecosystems and governments that adopt Econa's framework shift the curve not for one entrepreneur — but for an entire generation.
Seven questions. Instant, confidential results. Your EWC score tells you exactly which performance band you're in — and what Econa solutions match your moment.
Econa's mission isn't to react when there's a crisis — it's to move the entire distribution of entrepreneur wellbeing from distress toward vitality, through early screening, detection, and proactive engagement.
Survivors (0–9), Strivers (10–13), Drivers (14–19) and Thrivers (20–28) — your Entrepreneur Wellbeing Check score out of 28 places you in one of four bands.
Our behavioral healthcare system does not work for entrepreneurs. Insurance restrictions, provider shortages, long wait times and a reactive care model are useless for fast-paced, mobile, results-oriented entrepreneurs. Econa's tools and programs are proactive, developed and validated with entrepreneurs.
Screening — know where you stand with the EWC; Detection — catch it early through the FounderScreen initiative; Engagement — build for the long game with programs that create proactive resilience.