From Headspace to High-Growth Coaching: Shona Beats on Startup Chaos and Calm

From Headspace to High-Growth Coaching: Shona Beats on Startup Chaos and Calm

In this episode of Founders Unplugged, we sit down with Shona Beats, ex-Founding COO of Headspace, to talk about what really happens behind the scenes of a rocketship startup — and what founders need but rarely get as they scale.

Shona shares her journey from working with Andy Puddicombe in the earliest days of Headspace to mentoring some of the world’s most ambitious founders today. We explore burnout, founder identity, operational chaos, and the psychological cost of hypergrowth — plus what she’s learned from watching hundreds of founders go through it.

This is one of those conversations that hits deep.

📍 CHAPTERS

00:00 Welcome & introduction

01:20 How Shona met Andy and got involved in Headspace

03:30 From events to startup: the messy early years

05:10 What early traction really looks like behind the scenes

07:00 Scaling without a blueprint — growing fast while staying grounded

09:45 The pressure of being a first-time operator in a high-profile brand

12:20 When mission and scale collide

14:15 Lessons from chaos: the skill of staying calm in uncertainty

16:05 Stepping away from Headspace and finding new identity

18:40 Moving into coaching — why founders needed more than just tactics

21:00 Common patterns in founder burnout and emotional overload

23:10 Reframing success and learning to pause

25:00 What Shona wishes every founder knew

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🔗 Follow Shona on LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/shonamitchellbeats/

💬 Book a free 1-hour commercial advisory session with host Greg McCallum:

https://meetings-eu1.hubspot.com/meetings/gmccallum?uuid=c8f5cecd-0222-4c6e-92d1-ea9f224a60fd