Most Startups Die by Suicide, Not Murder — Jake Bornstein on Coaching Founders Through Chaos

What actually kills startups? It’s rarely the competition. It’s self-inflicted.

Jake Bornstein has coached over 150 founders and execs through hypergrowth, brutal pivots, messy exits, and all the personal chaos behind it. Before that, he worked directly with Ray Dalio at Bridgewater, until a total health collapse forced him to rethink everything.

In this episode, Jake gets brutally honest about why most startups die by suicide, not murder. We dig into how founders sabotage themselves, what a truly great coach actually does (and doesn’t do), and why you can’t outsource the hard clarity work that scaling demands.

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