Key Sentence:
- When Forbes held its under-30s gathering in Detroit, Rachel Beniola, founder of Kova in AnneeLondon, showed off her bicycle helmet that folds like origami.
He went on stage, put it on, and took it off to demonstrate how the design works. Which is still being tested. It was a shocking surprise during the production phase. “I remember everyone praising me when I said I would build it in the United States,” he recalls.
But entrepreneurship isn’t easy, and Beniola, now 33, closed his business last year. And sold parts after struggling to raise funds and continue during the pandemic. The decision, she said now, was painful but essential to her mental health. He decided to share his own story because he believed he could help other founders facing similar problems.
“I don’t take time off or take care of myself, and I’m a bit late when I’m struggling with chronic migraines and can’t get out of bed,” she says. “The company didn’t work because I was unemployed.”
“There’s a toxic positive in startup culture. People say, ‘Don’t give up, keep going. It’s a bit dangerous.”
In 2016, Benyola, a bachelor’s degree from Rutgers, Mental Health was motivated to start a Philadelphia-based company by meeting friends. Who refused to wear helmets because they were heavy and uncomfortable. Biola, an avid motorcyclist, has had an accident. A friend is blinded.
The helmet design, named Kova, is packed and comfortable. It has hinged lines and is folded in origami style. Bunyola filed a patent for it and raised about $500,000 to fund the seed from investors. The design is beautiful and eye-catching when it hit our radar in 2017 for the 2018 Forbes 30 Under 30 list.
But making a new bicycle helmet is difficult. It must be certified for all weather conditions and then manufactured on a large scale. He invested everything he owned in the company, added debt to his credit card, and even sold personal items to raise money. When he creat the Forbes 30 Under 30 production list in 2018, he ran into serious trouble. “The day I received the letter that I was under 30 on the Forbes list was the same day I was select for food stamps,” he recalls. “I’m excited about both of them.”
mental health In 2019, he began offering to investors in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Portland.
He said some (whose names he did not want to reveal) had shown interest, but they calmed down. When the pandemic broke out in the spring. “Two weeks later, I get a call or an email from this mutual fund saying, ‘This is nothing personal. But we’re going to stop mental health investing in anything new shortly,'” he said. “I was desperate, but I thought, ‘Let’s see what we can do.’
Then, at the end of March, he felt sick. She and her boyfriend (now her husband) were immediately diagnosed with Covid-19. “During the months that I was at home, I had to deal with something I didn’t want to deal with. Was it something I wanted to continue, the hard struggle to get this product out on the market?
It took him months to healthy from the illness and accept his decision. He was careful to remain calm, but the pressure of a lack of funds or health insurance weighed heavily on him. “Stress doesn’t describe it properly. I was about to start the show, and one guy told me he lived in his car. And another said he lived in his friend’s office closet. He says. “Everyone is in debt, but we are publicly expected to be very charismatic, super positive, and successful. There was a poison of positivity in early culture. People said, ‘Don’t give up, keep going.’ It’s kind of dangerous.”