Recently, a few extremely talented budding entrepreneurs and students at MIT Sloan School visited LeadGenius to learn what it’s like to found and work for a startup. We had an hour-long session, and at the end, they asked for the No. 1 piece of advice I give to aspiring entrepreneurs looking to establish their own startups. My advice to them: Don’t ever start a startup — not if you want to lead to a mentally healthy lifestyle.

In the high-pressure world of venture-backed tech startups, no one wants to talk about the stress that’s burning out young founders and executives, leading to disillusionment and preventing young companies from reaching their full potential. That must change.

Stress-induced mental health challenges affect the founders of more venture-backed tech startups than anyone will admit. They don’t sleep for days and suffer from depression, and that spills into their professional and personal performance. The personal toll is tremendous and so is the potential damage to the bottom line. When leaders are not at their peak, they make poor decisions. And stress is contagious, spreading from the top down.

I’ve been through several ups and downs throughout my journey as the founder and CEO of LeadGenius. We have pivoted our business models, hired and had to part ways with hundreds of smart professionals, all while building a team and raising more than $23 million in four rounds of funding. The tech culture might pretend that entrepreneurs/CEOs are maniacal beings immune to stress, but it’s not true. My goal in this article is to share some experiences when I felt so stressed out that I couldn’t sleep for days, when I doubted myself and felt incredibly lonely and depressed. I want to share a few of these challenges and what I learned.