Yariv Ganor // startup psychology
THE FOUNDERS' PSYCHOLOGIST
Clear minds. Better startups.
Expert Clinical & Industrial Psychologist
x 3-time CMO x 7 Startups.
I'm a startup veteran who "pivoted" to psychology after a few successes, several failures, and after experiencing the unique, hectic, overwhelming lifestyle of startups and founders.
Inspired by the driven, persistent, and intellectually demanding startup people I worked with closely, I developed an approach focused specifically on founder psychology.
At its core is protecting a founder’s most valuable asset: Mental Equity.
The capacity to think clearly, stay grounded, and lead effectively through constant change, uncertainty, and pressure.
I’ve since worked with unicorn founders, first-time solopreneurs, cofounders, CEOs, CTOs, CPOs and COOs, helping them navigate the psychological demands of building and leading a company.
About
It's a rollercoaster. Why ride it alone?
SERVICES
1:1 Founder Sessions
With everything you give to your startup, you need a place where no pitch, decision or answer are required from you.
One-to-one sessions let us step outside the noise and look at what’s really going on, both around you and within you.
Not because something has to be wrong. Because understanding yourself is part of building a company well.
Decision-making · Growth · Anxiety · Funding · Relationship management · Executive loneliness · Imposter syndrome
Co-founder Sessions
Building a company together
can test even the strongest partnership.
Cofounder sessions help you understand how you work together, tackle what’s difficult
to talk about, and deal with tensions and crises.
A strong cofounder relationship is something you build 24/7.
Roles & responsibilities · Equity · Effective communication · Conflict resolution · Changing roles · Separations
Startup Team Psychology
Startup teams work under extremely unique conditions.
Things move fast, priorities shift, roles change and uncertainty is constant. Under that kind of pressure, even great teams can struggle to communicate, make decisions and stay aligned.
I work with teams to understand what's happening beneath the surface and help them function better as they develop the company around them.
Team dynamics · Feedback · Group challenges · Pivots · Scaling & adapting · Resilience · Psychological safety
Talks & Workshops
Bring Startup Psychology into the room.
I speak at conferences, portfolio events, accelerator programs and startup gatherings,
bringing psychological insight to the realities of startup people and their lives.
From cognitive biases and cofounder dynamics to investor relationships, mental flexibility, crisis management, and coping with mental health disorders.
Keynotes · Talks · Panels · Workshops · Founder cohorts · Portfolio events · Offsites
Premium SERVICES
· Psychological Profiling
· Professional Advisory
· Target Audience Analysis
· Crisis Management
· Psychodiagnostic Assessments
Contact for more information.
Why Startup Psychology?
IT'S ABOUT YOU
not just your skills
Startup Psychology sees the person within the startup and the ecosystem: how you think, feel, relate and respond to
what you’re going through. Drawing on clinical tools and methods, it aims to help you better understand yourself.
A startup is way more than a workplace. Leveraging years of deep, intimate understanding of startup life, culture, language and pace, Startup Psychology looks at how this uniquely intense, ever-changing environment affects you.
IT HAS STARTUP DNA
not an adapted model
Sometimes you need to work through a difficult period, a rocky relationship, a personal issue, or a business problem that’s getting under your skin. Our work follows your needs and is fitted to your lifestyle, preferences, and availability.
PERSONALIZED FOCUS
not a generic approach
What
RESEARCH
Says
47
studies analyzed found that ADHD symptoms, such as hyperactivity and impulsivity, enhance entrepreneurial intentions and behaviors but pose challenges post-launch.
Tran, M. H., Wiklund, J., Antshel, K., Jhawar, N., & Montgomery, C. (2025). Entrepreneurship and ADHD: A meta-analytical assessment of the state-of-the-art and suggestions for the future. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice.
72%
of startup founders report an impact on their mental health, masking their stress and costing them in the long run.
Source: Startup Snapshot’s Seventh Edition, April 2023 report - The Untold Toll:
The Impact of Stress on the Well-Being of Startup Founders and CEOs, startup-snapshot.com
years of data showed that extended exposure to growth and episodes of business decline were similarly taxing in relation to serious health risks.
Partanen, J., Tenhiälä, A., Kautonen, T., Jokela, M., Lerner, D. A., & McKelvie, A. (2025). Knocking on Heaven’s Door? Entrepreneurship, firm growth, and health risks. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 4947.
21
Workshops
& Talks
FOUNDer: Personality or identity
A deep-dive into the specific emotional and cognitive qualities of founders.
Soft skills for tough founders
The underdeveloped skills crucial for today’s competitive startup landscape.
authenticity in fast-growth businesses
Staying true to yourself under stressful startup conditions and avoiding Imposter Syndrome.
Mental Health Help 101
Identifying and treating the most common mental health issues of startup professionals.
In the MEDIA
Get in touch
Interested in booking a session for you or your cofounder? Want to know more about workshops for your startup? Need a speaker for your next event? Looking for valuable and specialized content? Here's where to do it
It's on you
The team, the money, the product, the investors, the results. You can delegate the work, but at the end of the day you're the one responsible.
Constantly Changing
Just when you feel you’ve got a plan, things shift and you need to rethink it all.
Then again, and again.
Staying flexible without losing direction is harder than it sounds.
Uncertainty
You look at the numbers, ask for advice, run the scenarios, and still don’t have a clear answer. Ambiguity is frustrating and exhausting,
and wears your self-confidence down.
Endless Decisions
Launch or test further. Hire or wait. Pivot or push harder. Spend or save. Founders make high-stakes decisions every day, usually with too little information and not enough time.