The Wellbeing Cost of Being ‘Uninvestable’

By Rebecca Sutherland, Investor and founder, HarbarSix Ltd

There’s a growing conversation in business circles about what it means to be “investable.” On the surface, it sounds straightforward: a neat combination of growth potential, clean financials, a compelling market, and a founder who fits the mould. But beneath that narrative lies a reality many entrepreneurs quietly carry — the emotional and wellbeing cost of being seen as “uninvestable.”

We rarely talk about that part. The toll it takes on people. The way it shapes how founders show up, not just in the boardroom but in their bodies, their relationships, their choices, their confidence. And for many women, parents, carers, people from working-class backgrounds, and those without networks built on privilege, the label of “uninvestable” isn’t just feedback. It becomes a weight.

Not because they lack ambition or ability — but because the system isn’t designed with them in mind.

The Invisible Weight of Expectation

The pressure to fit the investable archetype is relentless. Founders internalise expectations about how they should look, speak, network, lead, and even live. The unspoken rule is that credibility comes dressed in sameness: polished confidence, an unshakeable growth narrative, and a performance of certainty.

When you don’t fit that blueprint, people often assume you’re not ready. Not serious and not scalable.

And hearing that on repeat — directly or indirectly — chips away at wellbeing in ways that rarely get acknowledged. I’ve seen brilliant founders shrink themselves to fit expectations: smoothing out accents, downplaying their past, keeping lived experience at arm’s length because it doesn’t match what investors are used to seeing. That internal conflict takes a physical and emotional toll. It exhausts people before they’ve even handed over a pitch deck.

Resilience Is Not the Same as Endurance

We love talking about resilience in entrepreneurship, but we’ve distorted the concept. Resilience isn’t the ability to tolerate endless rejection or to push past exhaustion. It’s not about swallowing stress and smiling through uncertainty.

Endurance is surviving. Resilience is recovering.

When founders are routinely positioned as “uninvestable” because of their background, identity, or path, they end up operating permanently in endurance mode — long after their mind and body have signalled the need for rest. That’s when wellbeing begins to erode, burnout disguised as ambition, anxiety masked by productivity, loneliness hidden behind performance.

We should be asking tougher questions about the emotional labour demanded of underrepresented founders. How much of their resilience is genuine, and how much is forced by a system that tests them in ways others never have to endure?

The Financial Stress That Never Gets Counted

Being “uninvestable” often means self-funding as long as possible. That means personal debt, inconsistent income, unstable cash flow, and an ever-shrinking safety net. And while many founders experience financial risk, those without generational wealth or supportive networks experience something much harsher: risk without a cushion.

Money stress is one of the biggest wellbeing burdens in entrepreneurship, yet it’s treated as an expected rite of passage. It affects sleep, affects relationships, affects physical health. It chips away at creativity and decision-making. And it creates a cycle where founders feel they must push harder, faster, louder — because slowing down feels dangerous.

The irony is that the very conditions that make someone labelled “uninvestable” are the ones that intensify the wellbeing cost. You end up doing more with less, for longer, under greater scrutiny.

The Identity Tax of Not Fitting the Mould

For underrepresented founders, there is an additional layer: the identity tax.

It’s the emotional strain of being the “only” in a room — the only woman, the only person of colour, the only parent with childcare deadlines, the only person from a working-class background who isn’t fluent in the unspoken rules of pitch culture.

It’s the pressure to educate others about your lived experience while simultaneously proving that experience doesn’t make you a risk. It’s the exhaustion of carrying both your idea and the responsibility of shifting perceptions of people like you.

And it’s rarely accounted for when we talk about health and wellbeing in entrepreneurship. But it should be — because the strain of “proving yourself” over and over accumulates like any other stressor.

The Wellbeing Gap is a Structural Issue

Founders do not burn out because they lack discipline. They burn out because the system rewards performance over sustainability. Because investors often look for familiarity rather than potential. Because some people are allowed to build slowly, while others are expected to sprint.

When we label someone “uninvestable,” we’re usually reflecting a system’s limitations — not an individual’s potential. And the wellbeing fallout is significant: chronic stress, self-doubt, isolation, lost confidence, suppressed creativity, and the quiet grief of dreams delayed.

If we truly care about founder wellbeing, then the conversation cannot just be about wellness hacks, journaling prompts, or time off. It must include the structural barriers that create the wellbeing gap in the first place.

Rewriting the Narrative

The truth is, many of the founders labelled “uninvestable” are exactly the ones building the most meaningful solutions. They’re solving real problems because they’ve lived them. They understand communities and contexts that typical investment circles miss. They’re driven by purpose, not ego.

Their wellbeing shouldn’t be collateral damage.

We need a culture that values depth as much as scale, lived experience as much as spreadsheets, and sustainability as much as speed. A culture where being considered “uninvestable” is no longer a predictor of burnout.

Until then, the wellbeing cost remains, paid quietly by the people who can least afford it.