We are currently fundraising.

If you have ever done this, you know the drill. You talk to everyone. I have spoken to investors, industry experts, "gurus," and other founders.

Some conversations are great. But many make me feel like my brain is fried.

I had a meeting last week where one investor told me to focus entirely on product launch. "You have to validate it first," he said. Two hours later, another investor told me to focus on fundraising. "Closing the round is your number 1 priority," she said.

I went home and stared at the wall.

I started questioning everything. Was my strategy wrong? Was my story wrong? etc.

I felt like I was losing my mind.

Then I spoke to Chris Howard. Chris is a 6-time founder, MIT researcher, and psychologist. I told him about my brain-fry.

He laughed. "That is not you being stupid", he said. "That is Mentor Whiplash".

It turns out, this is a real psychological phenomenon. And it is dangerous.

I want to share what I learned from him, and some research I did afterwards. Because if you are a founder, you need to know this.

See below to continue…

Your inbox is flooded with newsletters. Your feed is chaos. Somewhere in that noise are the insights that could transform your work—but who has time to find them?

The Deep View solves this. We read everything, analyze what matters, and deliver only the intelligence you need. No duplicate stories, no filler content, no wasted time. Just the essential AI developments that impact your industry, explained clearly and concisely.

Replace hours of scattered reading with five focused minutes. While others scramble to keep up, you'll stay ahead of developments that matter. 600,000+ professionals at top companies have already made this switch.

Join them today, for free.

Continue…

Mentor Whiplash is what happens when you get bombarded with advice from high-calibre individuals.

It leaves you in a confused, messy state.

This happens a lot in accelerators or during fundraising. You meet smart people. They all have strong opinions. They all want to help (mostly).

But their advice conflicts.

I used to think I needed to "suck it up." Chris told me that is nonsense. You cannot just "tough out" biology.

Mentor Whiplash comes from two specific glitches in how our brains work: Cognitive Overload and Authority Bias.

Your brain is not a supercomputer. It is more like a very tired office worker with a small desk.

There is a concept called "Miller's Law" in psychology. It says our working memory can only hold about 7 pieces of information at once.

When you go over that limit, your brain crashes.

During fundraising, you are dealing with way more than 7 things. You are thinking about your pitch, your numbers, the investor's body language, and the answer to their difficult question.

Then they give you advice.

Chris explained that when we hear information about an emotionally important topic (like our startup), our brain unconsciously tries to reorganize that information into a story.

Your brain is trying to do two things at once:

This creates a traffic jam in your head.

Here is the best example of this. I see this all the time.

Investor A says: "You need to grow fast. Spend money to acquire customers. If you don't, a competitor will kill you.".

Investor B says: "Markets are bad. You need to be profitable. Cut costs. Extend your runway.".

Both sound smart. Both sound urgent.

Your brain tries to write a story where both are true. But they are not compatible.

Research shows that when you are in this state of overload, you slip into a "freeze, fight, or flight" mode. You stop making decisions. You get "analysis paralysis".

You leave the meeting feeling exhausted. You say, "I can't stop thinking about this."

That is because the inner part of your brain - the part without language - is acting like Steven Spielberg. It is still trying to edit the movie. It is rewriting the scenes to make them fit.

It is a demanding mental task. It burns energy.

This is the second reason we feel crazy.

Authority Bias is a product of social evolution. Back in the tribal days, we needed a hierarchy to survive. If the tribe leader said "Run," you ran. You did not stop to debate the data.

We still have this hardware.

When you feel you are not the authority in a conversation, you put significantly more weight on someone else's judgment than your own.

Investors are "Authority Figures." They have money. They have status. They have nice vests.

So when an investor says, "I wouldn't do it that way," your brain panics. It overrides your own judgment.

Investors suffer from biases too. They have "FOMO" (Fear Of Missing Out) or "Overconfidence Bias".

They might give you advice based on a completely different company they missed out on five years ago. They are pattern-matching.

But because of Authority Bias, you take their pattern-matching as gospel.

Chris pointed out a dangerous phrase: "If I were you.".

When an authority says "If I were you," it throws you into a spin.

The problem is, they are not you. They do not have your data. They do not know your customers like you do.

But your biology tells you to listen to the tribe leader.

So, my brain is overloaded, and I am biologically programmed to listen to rich people even when they are wrong.

Great.

But Chris gave me a system to handle this. It has saved my sanity these last few weeks.

Do not walk into a meeting blind. Write down exactly what you want to know.

If you go in passive, you will get bombarded. If you go in with an agenda, you stay in control.

When an investor gives you strong advice, do not just nod. Challenge it politely.

Ask them: "What perspective are you answering from?".

There are usually two buckets:

You need to know which one it is.

Chris also suggested asking this killer final question: "What do you feel I do not know... that could be important to my startup success?".

This forces them to be specific, rather than general.

Do not try to solve the problem in the meeting.

Take notes. Then, at the end of the day, look for commonalities.

If five investors say your pricing is too low, that is a signal. Synthesize it.

But be careful: Just because everyone says it, does not make it correct.

This is the most important part.

Never make a big decision on the day of the meeting.

There is real biology here.

Your brain uses a fuel called glycogen to function. Research shows that exhaustive brain work (like fundraising) depletes glycogen levels in the brain, although not fully.

When your energy drops, your decision-making gets worse.

Sleep does two magical things:

Sleep allows your brain to "forget" the useless details and reorganize the important information. It is like a nightly software update.

Chris told me that one of the reasons we dream is to sort information into stories.

If you sleep on a decision, the cognitive work of "storytelling" gets done while you are unconscious.

When you wake up, the answer is often obvious.

I used to think that if I was confused, I was a bad founder.

Now I know it is just my caveman brain trying to process 2026 problems.

We are all dealing with this. The market is loud. The advice is endless.

If you feel the "whiplash," stop.

The decision is yours. Not theirs.

And trust me, you are smarter than you think in the morning.

Summary Checklist for your next investor meeting:

✅ If this was useful, pass it on. You know a founder who is drowning in conflicting advice. Send this to them. Show them they aren’t broken - it’s just biology.

(👉 Vote now — we’ll share the results in next week’s issue. All votes are anonymous.)

(Last week’s poll results)