A month ago I wrote a post about the worst year of my life.

42,000 of you read it. 934 reacted. 184 commented. Several DM'd me to say they were going through the exact same thing - right now - and hadn't told anyone.

That hit hard, honestly.

Because I knew exactly what that silence felt like. And I knew that when I was in it, a LinkedIn like or comment wouldn't have saved me - but a phone call from someone who'd already been through the fire might have 🔥

So I built the thing.

Today I'm launching Fortitude Foundation - a charitable foundation to support entrepreneurs in crisis.

Not "mindset coaching." Not a webinar about resilience. Not a LinkedIn support group where everyone pretends they're learning when they're actually drowning.

Actual help. Fast. From people who've been there.

  • Triage calls with founders who've already survived the worst - not therapists reading from a script, but people who know what "the HMRC letter" feels like.
  • A vetted referral network — insolvency, legal, tax, mental health — so you're not Googling "what happens when my company can't pay its debts" at 3am.
  • Peer-led support. Crisis toolkits. The stuff I wish someone had handed me when everything went dark.

I'm building this because nobody built it for me. And because those DMs made it clear - hundreds of founders are going through this alone, right now, convinced it's a personal failure rather than a systemic one.

The site is live - register and help → FortitudeFoundation.com

Three things you can do right now:

  1. If you're a founder in crisis - or you have been - register. No judgement. No pitching. Just support.
  2. If you want to back this - we're raising launch funding to cover charity setup, the first pilot programmes, and the crisis toolkit.
  3. If you've been through it and come out the other side - we need you as a volunteer. Founders trust founders. That's the whole model.

And if none of the above applies to you - share this.

Because someone in your network is currently "crushing it" while quietly wondering how to tell their family it's over.

Or worse - and there is worse.

You probably won't know who they are.
They're very good at hiding it. We all were. 💔