Sonia Ouarti unveils series of free talks on the risks of burnout to entrepreneurs and the startup ecosystem
Neuroscience-trained performance expert Sonia Ouarti is launching a free series of ‘burnout sessions’ aimed at helping entrepreneurs understand what chronic stress is doing to their brains and how to reverse it before it damages performance.
The event follows a workshop delivered last month at Google’s King’s Cross headquarters for 25 startup founders, where Ouarti examined burnout not as a mindset issue, but as a measurable biological state.
“Burnout is still widely treated as a motivation problem,” says Ouarti. “It is not. It is a physiological shift driven by chronic uncertainty, over-responsibility and continuous cognitive load. When founders understand the biology, they can intervene before clarity, creativity and strategic thinking are compromised.”
Recent studies suggest that more than half of startup founders experience burnout, reporting chronic stress, anxiety and impaired cognitive performance.
With tens of thousands of new businesses launching each quarter in the UK, Ouarti warns that founder burnout will rise in parallel unless it is addressed early and systematically.
The first session will take place on March 3rd, hosted by Enterprise Nation, where Ouarti will deliver a session for startup founders titled The Biology of Burnout: What Happens When You Overwork.
Her Enterprise Nation session will explore:
• What chronic stress actually does to the brain
• Why burnout narrows decision-making and reduces creativity
• Why the exhausted brain is adapting, not failing
• The evidence-based pathways that make recovery possible
• Why burnout narrows decision-making and reduces creativity
• Why the exhausted brain is adapting, not failing
• The evidence-based pathways that make recovery possible
Ouarti holds a Master’s degree in Neuroscience and Psychology from King’s College London. A former senior leader at Amazon Web Services, she spent more than a decade operating in high-growth environments and leading large-scale initiatives including AWS GetIT, a global programme encouraging girls and women into technology careers.
Alongside the Enterprise Nation event, Ouarti is hosting two complimentary 30-minute webinars titled The Biology of Burnout, open to founders and leaders who want to understand the science behind performance decline.
In these sessions, she will break down:
→ The burnout cascade and what chronic stress does to your brain
→ How to recognise early warning signs before they become a crisis
→ Interventions grounded in neuroscience rather than generic wellbeing advice
→ How to recognise early warning signs before they become a crisis
→ Interventions grounded in neuroscience rather than generic wellbeing advice
The free webinars will take place on:
“Prevention is not about working less,” Ouarti explains. “It is about working with your biology rather than against it. When founders protect cognitive bandwidth and regulate their stress response, they regain clarity, innovation and leadership capacity.”
With investor scrutiny intensifying and startup funding conditions tightening, Ouarti argues that founder brain health must be treated as a strategic asset rather than an afterthought.
“In early-stage companies, the founder’s brain is the business,” she says. “If we ignore what chronic stress does to that asset, we ignore a material risk to performance.”
For event registration please sign up here.