Founder Load

Why look at founder load?

Because carrying every decision alone isn’t commitment; it’s a single point of failure. Founders carry decisions nobody else can make, often with nobody to talk them through with, and the work reaches into evenings and weekends. It builds slowly, so it’s easy not to notice how much it has grown. Looking at it plainly is the first step to sharing it.

Founder Load is a reflection tool, not a medical or psychological assessment. Take Founder Load: twelve questions, about four minutes. Answer for the last month.

What does the test look at?

Four areas, three questions each:

• Decisions carried alone. Whether the big calls rest on you, with no one to think them through with.
• Isolation. Whether you can be honest with anyone about how it’s going.
• Recovery time. Whether you get time off, and come back rested.
• Work spilling into everything. Whether work reaches into evenings, weekends and the people closest to you.

What do I get at the end?

A load gauge from light to very heavy, and the two areas to lighten first, each with one small step, such as booking an hour with someone outside the company to talk honestly about how it’s going. The bands are “A load you’re carrying well”, “A heavy load” and “A very heavy load”.

If your load comes out heavy, please talk to someone you trust, and think about speaking to a professional, such as a coach, a counsellor or your doctor. You don’t have to carry it alone.

How is it worked out?

Each answer runs from 1 (never) to 5 (always). Four of the twelve questions describe something that lightens the load, such as “I come back from time off feeling rested”, and are flipped before scoring. The average becomes a load from 0 (light) to 100 (very heavy): up to 30 reads as a load you’re carrying well, 31 to 60 as heavy, and above 60 as very heavy.

The questions, areas and advice are a draft written with AI and are waiting for a coach’s review. It is a reflection tool, not a diagnosis.

What should I read or take next?

Read is being a founder lonely, and what actually helps?, and what founder load means. If decisions wait on you, Two Weeks Away shows which ones to hand over first. Every tool for this stage is on the Founders page.