In partnership with Shannon Sparks
Time-lapse photo of lights on a city street
It’s no secret that being an entrepreneur has its difficulties. While a wealth of resources exist to simplify the journey, finding the right ones is a task in itself, often devolving into unproductive scrolling through social media and Youtube without any tangible outcome. Entrepreneurs face a multitude of challenges, including the responsibility of sustaining employees’ livelihoods, as the brand’s failure could result in job losses. Finances add significant stress, as the average startup requires an investment of around $250,000 just to establish itself. Entrepreneurs’ relationships often suffer when the businesses they’re building become their central focus, consuming their time and attention and sometimes overshadowing their personal connections. Add to that the actual elbow grease of bringing an idea to market as a product with public appeal, and that’s a lot to balance on one plate.
Entrepreneurs encounter excessive stress and mental health challenges, which can surpass the level observed in many other professions, and constitute the highest proportion of suicides across all professional fields. The higher burden of stress-related challenges makes their mental health a critical concern. Taking this issue to heart, Charlie Lass, a serial entrepreneur and MIT alum, founded Humble Inc. to offer a solution.
“There are more entrepreneurs than ever, and finding the right information seems impossible,” Lass says. “Humble isn’t a mental health resource; however, we are making it possible for people to talk about these issues. We are providing entrepreneurial resources in a way that is supportive of their and their founders’ mental health.”
“Rather than the content being about mental health, it’s the tone, the community we’re building, and the improved mental health that comes from having these resources all in one place,” he continues. “We want to democratize the information available to people, making it available to anyone anywhere. The information needed to launch a successful startup is difficult to find; for instance, many entrepreneurs don’t know what a cap table is. With Humble, all of the information, education, and resources are available, greatly reducing the stress that comes from building a company.”
Charlie Lass, Founder and CEO of Humble Inc.
Humble, Lass explains, focuses on how an entrepreneur’s confidence in their direction and resources can build mental strength.
“It’s more than taking a break and being nice to yourself,” he says. “It’s being realistic with yourself, your investors, your family and team. (It helps you) set the pace. It doesn’t have to be all-consuming and take up your entire life. Entrepreneurship will take up a significantly greater part of your life if you’re searching YouTube, social media, and Google for each piece of information or process that you need to launch your business.”
As a one-stop shop for information, Humble’s founder says any founder or aspiring founder can watch, listen to, read, and learn from fellow entrepreneurs. The platform’s purpose is to offer valuable insights, experiences, resources, and knowledge tailored to each person’s individual needs, echoing its mantra, “Everything a startup needs and nothing else.”
A big part of Humble’s value proposition, Lass says, is how it hopes to democratize the startup space.
“Statistically, if you are an entrepreneur you’re intelligent, affluent, white, and male, because those are the people historically who’ve had the most access to these resources,” he says. “What we’re doing with Humble is making these resources available to everyone, in seven languages.”
Humble has officially launched July 2023 and will continuously curate content from vetted creators who are paid well for their contributions.
“Being an entrepreneur is hard and social media is toxic,” Lass says. “Humble is here to make it easier—a place where entrepreneurs are part of a community, where there is equity without ego.”
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