VEST Her Podcast: Emotional Runway, the Hidden Currency of Entrepreneurship
- VEST
- Sep 3
- 3 min read
Updated: Sep 4
When we talk about startup runway, we obsess over finances, how many months until the money runs out. But what about the founder's emotional runway? That invisible reservoir of energy, resilience, and motivation that keeps a company alive even when the path forward seems impossible?
In this deeply personal and practical conversation, Claudia Naim Burt, Co-founder and COO of Keep Company, shares how she discovered the concept of emotional runway through her own struggle to sustain herself while building a venture-backed startup. As one of only 250 Latinas to raise over $1 million in venture capital, Claudia brings a unique perspective to the challenges of entrepreneurship, motherhood, and maintaining wellbeing when everything feels urgent.
The emotional runway framework offers a strategic way to think about personal sustainability. Just as financial runway helps you make business decisions, emotional runway helps you make intentional choices about your time and energy before hitting burnout. Claudia shares her process of conducting an "energy audit" to identify activities that drain versus replenish her, and how making seemingly indulgent choices (like taking hour-long walks) became non-negotiable investments in herself as a key business asset.
Throughout our conversation, we explore powerful frameworks for extending your emotional runway:
Reframing choices through values rather than guilt
Recognizing the spectrum of burnout rather than viewing it as binary
Making needs explicit rather than implicit
Finding connection with peers as the ultimate antidote to isolation.
We also dive into how these principles apply differently across various seasons of business and life, and the importance of regularly renegotiating your contract with yourself about what matters most.
Ready to extend your emotional runway? Listen now and discover practical strategies to protect your wellbeing while leading through challenging times.
Your business and the people who depend on you will thank you for it.Whether you’re running a business or building a career in corporate America, if you’re ready to extend your emotional runway, 🎧 Listen now.
About Claudia Naim Burt
Claudia Naím-Burt is the co-founder and COO of Keep Company. Offered exclusively through employers, Keep Company’s unique group coaching model creates a “Third Space” between therapy and happy hour. Together, employees build strategies to meet the demands of work and home. With its patented technology, Keep Company leaves 95% of members feeling more connected and caregivers seeing 3x less attrition. Founded in 2022, Keep Company is a VEST Her Ventures Portfolio Company, and has been recognized by Techstars and Melinda French Gates’ Pivotal Ventures as a leader in workplace innovation. Claudia is one of only 150 Latinas to raise over $1M in venture capital, with Keep Company securing $2.3M. Claudia previously led Brand and Communications at Framebridge, which she helped grow to hundreds of employees and past $82M in funding. She has also held marketing and communications roles at AmEx and Edelman. Originally from Venezuela, Claudia lives in DC with her husband and two boys. Connect with Claudia on LinkedIn
If you enjoy the episode share it with a friend, leave us a review and don't forget to hit the subscribe button.If you are ready to take your career and business to the next level, apply to join our community of professional women, all eager to help you get there and stay there. Learn more at www.VESTHer.co