Founder Support Packages
For investors and program leaders supporting founders through the pressure of building.
Provide support Before It Becomes a Crisis
Founder mental health is not a wellness topic. It is the operational infrastructure for every decision, every team culture, and every company being built inside your portfolio or program.
You see it before your founders name it. The decisions that are being made from exhaustion rather than clarity. The co-founder relationships starting to fray under sustained stress. The founders who keep building at full capacity while quietly losing the thread back to their mission.
What founders need is not more strategy or accountability. They need support that works at the biological level: nervous system regulation, mental health, and the kind of clarity that chronic pressure makes impossible. Most programs respond to founders when they are already in crisis, or leave it to founders to find their own support at precisely the moment they have the least capacity to prioritise it.
The gap between reactive crisis response and structured proactive support is not just a wellbeing gap. It is a performance gap. A retention gap. A culture gap that flows from the founder through every layer of what they are building.
Explore three partnership models, each designed to support your founders at a different level of need.
Support Packages
Three partnership models, each designed for a different level of need.
Funded Founder Coaching
Confidential one-on-one coaching for stress, clarity, and mental load
Make focused mental health coaching available to every founder in your portfolio as a program benefit. Founders opt in privately. You are billed only for those who engage. Each engagement runs for six weeks, with a clearly defined scope and no ongoing commitment.
FACILITATED GROUP EVENTS
Workshops, cohort programs, and retreats designed for your founder group
Workshops, retreats, and ongoing cohort programs that bring your founders together. Each is designed specifically for your founder group and chosen based on what you want to build into your support infrastructure.
FOUNDER TOOLKIT BOX
Mental health and regulation support, available any time
A self-paced private audio program giving every founder in your portfolio or program practical tools for stress, mental load, and regulation. No scheduling required. No sessions to attend. Available privately, on demand, whenever your founders need it most.
FUNDED FOUNDER COACHING
Confidential one-on-one coaching for stress, clarity, and mental load
Most founders are carrying more than is visible. The nervous system runs at sustained activation long before it shows up in leadership, communication, or decision-making as a named problem.
Funded Founder Coaching makes confidential coaching available to every founder in your portfolio or program as a standard benefit, not just targeted support for those visibly struggling. This model is already operating within venture mental health programs in the United States.
You make the program available. Founders opt in confidentially. You are billed only for those who engage. Scope and budget are agreed upon in the Introductory Call.
What each founder receives:
Three fortnightly 60-minute sessions on stress, mental load, clarity, and regulation Private audio support with practical micro-practices between sessions A clearly defined six-week scope with no ongoing commitment required
This is not therapy or crisis support. I am trauma-informed and have coached founders for over two decades; the work is grounded in stress physiology and nervous system science. After six weeks, founders can continue independently.
FACILITATED GROUP EVENTS
Group experiences built around mental health, stress, and sustainable performance
Individual support cannot replicate what becomes possible when founders are held in a space together. They realise they are not alone in what they are carrying. Shared language builds across the group. Peer connection creates trust that sustains well beyond the program.
Three formats are available depending on what your founder group needs.
Workshops
Education and practical tools grounded in nervous system science give your founder group a shared framework for understanding stress and tools they can apply immediately. Delivered as a single session or a series, in person or virtually, standalone or integrated into an existing program.
Founder Cohort Program
A monthly facilitated container where founders speak honestly about what they are carrying. Each two-hour session opens with thirty minutes of education, followed by ninety minutes of facilitated group coaching and peer conversation. Runs six or twelve months, meeting monthly, virtually or in person. Six months suit accelerator cycles; twelve suits ongoing portfolios.
Founder Retreat
An immersive two-to-three-day experience for your founder group to step outside the pace together, not to work on the business, but to restore, connect, and return to what matters. Custom-designed around what your group needs. Nature-based or offsite where possible. Travel and accommodation are additional.
FOUNDER TOOLKIT
Mental health and regulation support, available any time
Not every founder will be ready for individual coaching or able to commit to a monthly cohort. And the moments when regulation matters most are rarely the moments when there is time to stop and seek support.
The Founder Toolkit is education and practical regulation tools on demand, delivered through a private audio program every founder in your portfolio or program can access privately, any time. No scheduling. No sessions to attend. No requirement to be in a particular state of readiness.
What it provides:
Short education grounded in nervous system science and stress management Practical regulation tools founders can use in the middle of a demanding day Private access with no reporting back on who is using it or when
Every toolkit is curated specifically for your founder group based on what they are navigating. Book an Introductory Call to discuss what is right for your program.
The Founder Toolkit works well as a standalone resource, the floor of your founder support infrastructure, accessible to everyone regardless of stage or readiness. It also works alongside Funded Founder Coaching and Facilitated Group Events, giving founders individual touchpoints between sessions that keep the work alive in the ordinary texture of their weeks.
FUNDED FOUNDER COACHING
Confidential one-on-one coaching for stress, clarity, and mental load
Most founders are carrying more than is visible. The nervous system runs at sustained activation long before it shows up in leadership, communication, or decision-making as a named problem.
Funded Founder Coaching makes confidential coaching available to every founder in your portfolio or program as a standard benefit, not just targeted support for those visibly struggling. This model is already operating within venture mental health programs in the United States.
You make the program available. Founders opt in confidentially. You are billed only for those who engage. Scope and budget are agreed upon in the Introductory Call.
What each founder receives:
Three fortnightly 60-minute sessions on stress, mental load, clarity, and regulation Private audio support with practical micro-practices between sessions A clearly defined six-week scope with no ongoing commitment required
This is not therapy or crisis support. I am trauma-informed and have coached founders for over two decades; the work is grounded in stress physiology and nervous system science. After six weeks, founders can continue independently.
FACILITATED GROUP EVENTS
Group experiences built around mental health, stress, and sustainable performance
Individual support cannot replicate what becomes possible when founders are held in a space together. They realise they are not alone in what they are carrying. Shared language builds across the group. Peer connection creates trust that sustains well beyond the program.
Three formats are available depending on what your founder group needs.
Workshops
Education and practical tools grounded in nervous system science give your founder group a shared framework for understanding stress and tools they can apply immediately. Delivered as a single session or a series, in person or virtually, standalone or integrated into an existing program.
Founder Cohort Program
A monthly facilitated container where founders speak honestly about what they are carrying. Each two-hour session opens with thirty minutes of education, followed by ninety minutes of facilitated group coaching and peer conversation. Runs six or twelve months, meeting monthly, virtually or in person. Six months suit accelerator cycles; twelve suits ongoing portfolios.
Founder Retreat
An immersive two-to-three-day experience for your founder group to step outside the pace together, not to work on the business, but to restore, connect, and return to what matters. Custom-designed around what your group needs. Nature-based or offsite where possible. Travel and accommodation are additional.
FOUNDER TOOLKIT
Mental health and regulation support, available any time
Not every founder will be ready for individual coaching or able to commit to a monthly cohort. And the moments when regulation matters most are rarely the moments when there is time to stop and seek support.
The Founder Toolkit is education and practical regulation tools on demand, delivered through a private audio program that every founder in your portfolio or program can access privately, any time. No scheduling. No sessions to attend. No requirement to be in a particular state of readiness.
What it provides:
Short education grounded in nervous system science and stress management Practical regulation tools founders can use in the middle of a demanding day Private access with no reporting back on who is using it or when
Every toolkit is curated specifically for your founder group based on what they are navigating. Book an Introductory Call to discuss what is right for your program.
The Founder Toolkit works well as a standalone resource, the floor of your founder support infrastructure, accessible to everyone regardless of stage or readiness. It also works alongside Funded Founder Coaching and Facilitated Group Events, giving founders individual touchpoints between sessions that keep the work alive in the ordinary texture of their weeks.
What makes my founder support different?
Regulation First
The nervous system is the foundation. Everything else builds from there.
Founder Specific
Not adapted from generic coaching. Built for founders from the inside.
Prevention Not Crisis
Proactive support is more effective and less costly than crisis response.
Clear Scope
Defined timeframes, clear deliverables, and no open-ended commitment.
Frequently Asked Questions
Everything you need to know about founder support packages
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Which model is right for our founder group?
—> Start with what your founders need and what you want to build. The Founder Toolkit is the most accessible starting point, available to every founder privately, with no scheduling or commitment required.
Funded Founder Coaching goes deeper, giving individual founders a focused six-week engagement they can opt into confidentially.
Facilitated Group Events bring your founders together: workshops for education and practical tools, the cohort program for sustained peer connection and facilitated support over six or twelve months, retreats for something more immersive.
Most programs benefit from running more than one model. Bring what you are observing about your founders to the Introductory Call, and we will design the right combination.
Is this suitable if our founders are not in crisis?
—> Yes. Most founders who engage with this work are not in crisis. They are under sustained, significant pressure, carrying decision fatigue, leadership isolation, and the accumulated weight of building something. This work is designed precisely for that terrain.
This is not clinical or crisis support. If a founder is experiencing a mental health crisis that requires therapeutic or medical intervention, this is not the right fit, and I will let them know in our initial call. But for the vast majority of founders, navigating the sustained pressure of building something: the exhaustion, the decision fatigue, the weight of responsibility. This work is designed precisely for that terrain.
How is this different from therapy or clinical mental health support?
—> This is coaching, not therapy. I do not diagnose, treat, or process trauma. I work at the biological level, helping founders understand what their nervous system is responding to, building practical regulation tools, and creating the conditions for clearer thinking and steadier decision-making.
I have been coaching founders and business owners for over two decades and hold a trauma-informed certification, which means the work is grounded in stress physiology and delivered within a clearly defined professional scope. If a founder needs deeper therapeutic support, I will say so and refer accordingly.
How does confidentiality work?
—> For Funded Founder Coaching, founders opt in privately. You are billed for those who engage, but what happens inside the sessions stays between the founder and me. There is no reporting back on content, progress, or what individual founders are working through.
For the Founder Toolkit, access is entirely private; you make it available, founders use it in their own time, and no usage data is shared.
For the cohort program, sessions are held in a confidential space. What is shared inside the group stays inside the group. That confidentiality is established clearly at the start of every cohort and is foundational to how the container works.
Can we combine more than one model?
—> Yes, and many programs are most effective when more than one model is running simultaneously.
The Founder Toolkit works as the foundation, accessible to every founder regardless of readiness. Funded Founder Coaching provides deeper individual support for founders who want it. Facilitated Group Events build shared language, peer connection, and collective regulation across the group.
Each model addresses a different level of need. Together, they create a layered support infrastructure rather than a single intervention. Book an Introductory Call to discuss how to design the right combination for your program.
Is this available for programs outside Australia?
—> Yes. Funded Founder Coaching and the Founder Toolkit are available to founder programs anywhere in the world.
Facilitated Group Events: workshops and the cohort program are delivered virtually as a default, which means geography is not a barrier.
In-person delivery is available in Adelaide and across Australia, with travel expenses agreed in advance for engagements elsewhere.
Founder retreats are always in person and can be designed anywhere in Australia or internationally.
One practical consideration for international programs: I am based in South Australia, which means virtual sessions with US-based founders typically run in the evening for them and the morning for me. For some programs and founders, that works well. For others, the time difference is a genuine barrier. It is worth raising in the Introductory Call so we can assess the fit honestly before any commitment is made.
Hello! I am Sonya
Over more than two decades, I have accumulated over ten thousand hours of direct coaching work with founders, business owners, and their teams across Australia and the United States. I have delivered hundreds of workshops, facilitated sessions, and group programs, in person and virtually, from startup teams to corporate stages. I am currently partnering with venture mental health programs in the United States to make this support more accessible to founders globally.
I hold a trauma-informed certification and have spent years studying how human beings actually function under sustained pressure, not as a theory but as a lived practice I apply every day. I understand the founder terrain from the inside: the investor pressure, the isolation of leadership, the way mission gets buried under execution, and the specific cost of building something that matters in conditions that are rarely forgiving.
The founders in your portfolio or program are not fuel for a mission. They are the mission. Investing in their mental health is not a nice-to-have. For the investors and program leaders who understand that, this work exists.
Ready to support your founders?
The Introductory Call is a thirty-minute conversation to explore what your founder group is navigating and which model is the right fit for your program. Nothing to prepare. No obligation. Just an honest conversation about what your founders need and whether this work can genuinely provide it.