According to Inc, Ariela Safira’s mental health startup Zeera was preparing to launch a brick-and-mortar concept in New York with an opening scheduled for April 2020 when the pandemic hit. Despite this catastrophic timing, Safira managed to navigate her company through the crisis, execute a complete rebrand, and ultimately guide Zeera to a successful acquisition. She shared her experience alongside two other founders on the Founder Group Chat podcast: Fany Gerson of Mexican sweets brand La Newyorkina and Sarah LaFleur of women’s clothing company M.M. LaFleur. The conversation focused specifically on how these entrepreneurs coped with extreme business challenges while maintaining their personal well-being during the process.
The pandemic pivot
Here’s the thing about launching a physical business in April 2020 – it basically meant your entire business model evaporated overnight. And that’s exactly what happened to Zeera. But what’s fascinating is how many companies that should have failed during COVID actually found better paths. A mental health practice going virtual? In hindsight, that seems obvious. But at the time, it must have felt like everything was collapsing.
I think we’re seeing this pattern repeat across industries now. The companies that survive aren’t necessarily the ones with perfect plans – they’re the ones who can adapt when their original plan becomes impossible. Look at what happened with remote work, e-commerce, digital health. The pandemic accelerated trends that were already happening, but it took resilient leadership to recognize the opportunity in the crisis.
Founder mental health matters
What really stands out in this story is the explicit focus on founder well-being during crisis. That’s still pretty rare in business coverage. We usually hear about the pivots and the revenue numbers, but not about how the person leading the company managed to stay functional. And let’s be honest – running a company through a global pandemic while your original vision collapses? That’s brutal.
So how do you maintain mental health when your business is in freefall? The fact that these founders are talking openly about this is significant. It suggests we’re finally moving past the “suffer in silence” founder mythology. Basically, if you’re not taking care of yourself during a crisis, you’re probably making worse decisions for your company.
Beyond the acquisition headline
Everyone loves an acquisition story, right? But what happens before that “successful exit” headline is usually messy, painful, and far from the polished narrative we eventually hear. Safira’s journey through rebranding and ultimately selling her company during a global crisis? That’s the real story.
The truth is, most successful founders have multiple “this might be the end” moments before they reach any kind of victory. And the companies that make it aren’t necessarily the ones with the most funding or the best connections – they’re often just the ones that refused to quit when everything suggested they should. Makes you wonder how many great companies we’ve lost because founders didn’t have the support systems to push through the darkest moments.
