7cupsoftea

Thanks for trying out the service and giving us your careful feedback. I agree that we have lots to learn here. Some of this still feels clumsy. We are constantly iterating on things and hope to get the right balance sooner rather than later. I also agree that it can be so much more. It sounds like you have some real insights here. If you are open, then please shoot me an email ([email protected]) so I can better understand your thinking.

This is a good point. In short, the answer to your question is yes. Many people in America, and other countries, do not have friends/family/neighbors that they feel like they can have an honest and open conversation with in order to feel heard and understood. This trend has been happening for quite a while and it seems to be accelerating rather than reversing. The question then becomes what is the best solution for this problem? We think 7 Cups of Tea provides a very good solution to this problem. Yes, it uses the medium of the Internet, but it also provides people with a sense of real intimacy and support that can be hard to come by in their immediate surroundings.

Thanks Bryant! I appreciate the support!

I wanted to quickly chime in here and second these thoughts. Dalton and Alexis have also been very helpful to 7 Cups of Tea.

Dalton is always super fast to respond to emails. I've gone back and forth with him, asking lots of questions, and really drilling down to make sure I understand what he is suggesting. Without fail, he'll get back to me within a matter of hours and respond in-depth to my questions. I think his background in psychology and experience working with younger populations gives him very insightful perspectives. He is also very honest and supportive.

Alexis is one of the people I most admire. The guy has real integrity. I think he understands what is truly important in life and lives in a manner that holds up these values. They are implicit in how he relates to others. He is also an amazing worker. I remember asking him for a consult on a Saturday morning. I was thinking we'd connect later on that next week. He got right back to me and called me on a Saturday morning. I apologized for bugging him and he said not to worry that if I'm working he is working. Then, to take things a step further, he connected me with Ashley Dawkins (his Outreach Director). She is also awesome, quick to respond, and very helpful. The last point I'll highlight is Alexis is really hopeful. Hope is pretty damn powerful and I think he gets that in manner that few people understand.

I'm really glad these issues keep coming up. I think it shows real growth in our community. Many great points here, but I'll just highlight one:

"But whatever your particular problem is, I promise you, other people have it. People in the community have gone through it. Many people have gone through it, in fact."

The technical name for this is universality. It is one of the most helpful parts of group therapy. You hesitantly share what is on your mind and then suddenly discover that in a small group there are usually at least 1-2 other people that can really identify with what you are describing. For us, as founders or startup people in general, we can tell ourselves, "I'm really struggling with X right now. Okay, it is very likely that many other people are struggling with X right now or have struggled with X in the past. They've made it to the other side and I will as well. It is just going to take time."

X might be normal startup concerns like growth, retention, co-founder issues, employee issues, client issues, bugs, investor issues etc. Or, it might be more personal issues that are often tied to startups: pressure, unrealistic high expectations from self or others, stress, anxiety, depression etc. Whatever X is, there are many other people that are currently experiencing it or have made it through to the other side. It helps to know that we are not alone and we can keep moving forward by taking one step at a time!

This post is a stark reminder that startups are extremely challenging. There are many elements and, often times, a good bit of luck needed for big success, especially when you are doing something novel (http://mariocaropreso.com/post/62811446044/nonlinearities-an...).

Nassim Taleb talks about entrepreneurs as people who should be championed when they fail. They take on projects with very long odds. It is a tough life with little upside if you don't make it big. These entrepreneurs teach us a lot. We all get to learn from the path they traveled down. Dalton tried something new and it didn't work out as planned. Someone else will build on what he started and we'll all be better for it. Failure is part of our ecosystem. These situations are good reminders that those that make it big have learned from others and have often had a few lucky breaks to help them out.

I respect Sam a lot. I had the good fortune of meeting with him a few times and he invested in my company. I found him to be very smart, honest, and real. If I had to capture one of his strengths, I'd say he understands how systems operate (technology, people, and cultural systems).

I'd have to disagree with you on lack of concrete achievements. He has a lot of concrete achievements that you can point to. Starting and selling a company that was before its time. Also, helping many startups succeed. Either one of these alone would count, in my book, as being significant. I think the fact that other people perceive him so positively is a good indication that perhaps he is considerably more talented than even his current concrete achievements suggest. Think about it. Thiel, Graham, etc. These guys evaluate the best of the best on a regular basis. Having been through YC and seeing the deliberate and enormous amount of analysis that they put into each founder, I can't even begin to think through all the thought that they have put into asking Sam to be President of YC.

If you'd like an opportunity to practice empathic listening, we'd welcome you to join us as a listener at www.7cupsoftea.com/listener. We provide training in active listening and a community of listeners to provide additional feedback and support. We have many people each day that come to us looking for a listening ear.

Another potential positive of empathic caring for another person is an increase in your own personal happiness. It doesn't come directly, but indirectly through helping another person.

sure. basically, 7 cups is a site you go to when you need someone to talk to or someone to listen to you.

This is really awesome! Fantastic idea. I'm a listener on 7 cups of tea and would have loved to share a meal and a beer with you. I'll be listening on 7 cups for another hour or so if anyone is struggling and needs a bit of extra support.

We use Plivo at 7 Cups of Tea. They are great and I highly recommend them.

These guys are from the future.

Thank you!

I appreciate that. Thank you!

Thank you for the feedback. We have the messages tool available so you can message a listener to set up a time to connect if they are currently unavailable.

I understand your perspective. We are not trying to portray listeners as licensed mental health professionals. We use the word trained to suggest that active listening is different from the normal kind of listening that most of us experience in our regular lives. ie, active listening is different from having a normal conversation. People normally don't use summarizing, paraphrasing and empathy regularly. Also, pointing to the licensed people on the site is not meant to equate active listeners with mental health professionals, but to simply highlight that there are a good number of licensed mental health professionals on the site.

This is a good point. We have a hypothesis that there is a care surplus (like Shirky's idea of a cognitive surplus) where there are lots of people that want to give back, but they can only give back on their own terms (i.e., when they are available and want to). We are very careful to not pressure folks into doing too much. Long-term this has to be sustainable. We are developing a strong listener community and that is helping people feel a real sense of pride in what they do and like they are a part of something larger.

Glad you tried it out and experienced a sense of relief! That is exactly what we are aiming for!

I think the support on this community is actually a huge strength. People in general really try to help people when they post about feeling depressed or suicidal. It is always great to read an update post several months later when the person is through it and doing better. Our site can further help by taking things a step further.

We will! Thanks :)

Excellent point. Thank you.

Thanks Michael. We have some bitcoin experts in our batch. I'll talk more with them.

Thanks!

Thanks! We actually just formalized a partnership with the International Bipolar Foundation.

Jonas, thank you for your interest. Please stay tuned.

My sense is that YC and the partners have always been about making peoples lives better. It might just be that entrepreneurs applying for YC are beginning to realize that YC can be a great avenue to accomplish a lot of good and also create a real business.

Thanks. Ideally, I think you have both peer specialists and mental health practitioners working together. We have plenty to do, but are thinking hard about how to best work with clinicians. Insurance companies in MD, TX and CA are now processing insurance payments for online therapy, so this is definitely an option for us to expand into. If you are passionate about this space, then shoot us an email. Currently, we actually already have a # of licensed mental health professionals serving as listeners.

Thank you! I appreciate you taking the step to create an account and let us know. That means a lot. Also, if you are interested in becoming a listener, then we'd love to have you : ). www.7cupsoftea.com/listener

Clicks want to send me an email to further discuss? info at 7 cups of tea dot com.

Joseph, you are welcome. Right now we are a bit overwhelmed, so it might be hard to get through. Things should quiet down. Please let me know how it goes for you. You can send me an email at info at 7cupsoftea dot com.

We are creating a marketplace where some people will volunteer, some will have a pay what you want option, and then others will have a set rate for 30 minutes.