Without Brad Feld's courage, transparency, vulnerability, and friendship, this book would have remained a wisp of a dream. Brad – you have been an entrepreneur, a full stack investor as an angel, a venture capitalist, a Fund of Funds manager. You have co-launched an accelerator – TechStars – that has changed the life of many founders and generated over $200 billion enterprise value – and authored multiple books. You continue to innovate, contribute, and support so many along this journey. Thank you, Brad, for bringing your expertise, wisdom, transparency, authenticity, innovation, and vigor into the start-up world – you have paved the way for a better tomorrow and give voice to the crazy ones, the misfits, the ones who stand tangent to the earth.

Jerry Colonna, the VC-turned magician and mensch. A sage, coach, guide, and friend to CEOs – sharing insights, wisdom and a much-needed gentle wake-up kick. Many a founder's rear has been propelled in the right direction by Jerry's kindness. He no longer counts exits and IPOs, IRR, or TVPI. All he counts is what matters – the names of people who sleep better at night, thanks to his nurturing and care. This Buddha from Brooklyn has saved many a startup founder from self-destruction. Deep gratitude to Jerry for his words, wisdom, and guidance in bringing this book to light. Even when he swears, it sounds like a blessing!

My deep debt of gratitude to the anonymous creative CEO who pitched in with intention and flare, and ate up all the avocados, for sharing her experiences – a brave soul. Brave in spirit. Brave in attempt. Thank you. Your light shines in this book, brightly. Thank you, Shally Madan, for taking the time and effort to sit down and share your journey and ideas that helped me frame this topic. I am sure a founder or three will benefit from your insights. To all the hundred plus founders and contributors, who so bravely opened up their hearts and souls, describing the gut-wrenching challenges of depression. A few of them include Yen Chat, Cristina Chipurici (Bucharest, Romania), Robert Diana (Media, PA), Juliette Eames, Judah Fish (Jerusalem, Israel), Felicity Noël Keeley (Washington, DC), Jake Kerr (Chicago, IL), Jake Knight (Truckee, CA), Shally Madan (CA), Tim Miller, William Morrison (Sun Valley, ID), Selina Troesch Munster (Los Angeles, CA), Christine Sommers (Vancouver, BC, Canada), and Ashley Theiss (Vancouver, BC, Canada).

My childhood buddies, Nitin Ahuja, Chirayu Chaphekar, Nitin Mohan, and Rajesh Tihari for their steadfast friendship over 25 years of so much madness, so much laughter. My gratitude to Paddy Deshmukh, Rakesh Joshi, and Ratan Dulani who have endured my craziness for much longer than most friends. Thank you to my dear cousins, Raj Hirwani and the design maestro Sid Hirwani for ideas and inspirations.

My family, Deepa and Aria, who sometimes believe that I have the ability to make raccoon-like noises. To Amar and Geeta, whose love and blessings have helped me become who I am.

The journey of writing this book has been rewarding – my life continues to grow rich with purpose, resilience, adventure, joy, abundance, kindness, trust, and more.

So thank you all, without whom this would not have been possible. As Salman Rushdie once wrote, “I am the sum total of everything that went before me, of all I have been seen, done, of everything done-to-me. I am everyone. Everything whose being-in-the-world affected me. And was affected by mine.”