Fireroad: Using Human Flourishing to Support Founder Wellbeing

1. The Challenge

Burnout is one of the leading causes of startup failure, but most investors have little visibility into the wellbeing of their founders. Fireroad wanted to go beyond financial metrics and track the holistic health of its portfolio founders. They identified the Harvard Human Flourishing Program and its variables as the right framework for measuring wellbeing, but needed a way to adapt this academic model into a simple, mobile-first format that their founders would actually use.

2. The Solution

The Simba team sat down with Fireroad to align on a survey strategy. Together, we translated the Human Flourishing Program’s variables into concise, accessible questions that could be delivered via WhatsApp surveys. This approach allowed Fireroad to capture nuanced data about wellbeing - covering areas such as purpose, relationships, and mental health - while keeping the experience fast and lightweight for busy founders. Monthly surveys now run automatically, producing a stream of longitudinal data on the status and well-being of Fireroad’s portfolio of founders.

3. The Outcome

With Simba, Fireroad consistently achieves high response rates and richer data than traditional web forms ever produced. The portfolio-wide check-ins help identify early warning signs of burnout, track patterns of wellbeing over time, and enable timely interventions - from small gestures of appreciation to targeted support for founders in need. This data-driven yet empathetic approach strengthens Fireroad’s portfolio by safeguarding its most valuable asset: the founders themselves.

Fireroad uses Simba to adapt the Harvard Human Flourishing framework into simple mobile surveys for their portfolio, tracking founder wellbeing and reducing risk of burnout.