Helanah Warren | Recovering from burnout with Thrive by Design
An interview with Helanah Warren (NYU SPS, MS ’26), Founder of Thrive by Design | Email: ha3187@nyu.edu
What problem does Thrive by Design aim to solve?
Burnout is costing U.S. companies over $300 billion a year in lost productivity, absenteeism, and turnover. Replacing a single executive can cost up to 213% of their salary, and burned-out leaders are 2.6x more likely to be actively seeking another role. Yet most leadership development programs ignore the reality that sustainable performance requires sustained wellbeing.
Thrive by Design is a holistic leadership training program for women who lead. We equip high-performing women—especially Black women—to recover from burnout, reconnect with their purpose, and develop long-term strategies to sustain their impact in the world.
Our 9-week accelerator blends culturally relevant wellness practices, leadership development, and measurable outcomes. Through live coaching, AI-supported tools, and community as accountability, we guide women to strengthen resilience, regulate stress, and lead without sacrificing their health or values.
We’re building an “anti-grind” culture movement — where sustainable leadership isn’t the exception, it’s the standard.
What inspired you to take this step into entrepreneurship?
I became an entrepreneur as a child, watching my mom solve hard problems with creativity and love. My first business? A hot dog stand. Funny to say it now, because I’m vegan, but it’s the truth.
My mom, grandma, sister, and I sold hot dogs, cookies, and bottled water in front of an Advance Auto Parts to raise money for a school scholarship trip. Every Saturday, we stood on the corner selling to folks fixing broken cars and buying replacement parts—and ironically, they were all pretty hungry and very happy to see us there. We built a truly unique repeat-customer model over 12-weeks before I even knew what the term meant. In the process of reaching my fundraising goal, I also learned the rhythm of service, resilience, and sales-womanship.
What I do now is a new version of that same spirit. Helping people at the intersection of problem and possibility. Making myself visible so those who need help can find me in the pitstops of life. I never planned for this entrepreneurial life—it called me forward. As it turns out, entrepreneurship is in my heart and pumping through my blood. Thrive by Design is many years and many iterations removed from that hot dog stand—but at its core, it’s still about offering care, wellness, and transformation to people navigating real challenges.
What sets your venture apart from what’s on the market right now?
Our platform delivers a curated blend of live coaching, AI-assisted infrastructure, expert facilitator-led cohorts, and a robust methodology grounded in data-driven outcomes. Inside Thrive by Design, participants experience intimate, high-impact cohorts; intentional accountability systems; and anywhere-access to live sessions, tools, and transformational content.
The experience is supported by on-demand training, high-level masterminds to refine leadership skills, and asynchronous learning modules delivered directly for integration between sessions. Each cohort receives a world-class leadership assessment with a private 90-minute debrief led by ICF Professional Certified Coaches, group coaching to address real-time challenges, and guided AI-enhanced reflective journaling for support between sessions—even outside business hours.
Our secured learning environment ensures privacy and connection, while exclusive access to wellness retreats and off-site experiences deepens transformation beyond the screen.
We also operate with a 1:1 woman-to-woman gifting model—for every seat filled, we gift one to a woman who would not otherwise have access. We’re actively seeking partners to help scale this initiative, amplifying both leadership development and social impact across industries.
What motivated you to apply to the Stern Venture Fellows program?
I didn’t apply to SVF with questions—I applied with vision. I wanted to build Thrive by Design alongside other digital health founders in a space that understood the nuance and urgency of my work.
SVF’s focus on digital-first, impact-driven health tech ventures was rare and exactly what I needed. The opportunity to be in a room with service-minded, mission-led founders was invaluable. I hadn’t—and still haven’t—seen anything like it.
SVF gave me space to dream bigger. Cynthia once asked me, “What’s your wishlist of partnerships?” and I was stopped in my tracks. Not because I wasn’t dreaming—but because no one had asked me that before, then waited to hear the answers, ready to make warm introductions. That moment unlocked something special for me.
SVF doesn’t just help you create your KPIs and set your milestone markers along the way, the team here is truly invested in your success, with what I would call a “founder-first” mindset. What’s best for you and your venture, truly best – is what they encourage. No pressure to follow the trends in startup land, downright honest accountability and tons of support along the way to move at your pace and make the necessary hard business decisions that will serve you and your venture for the long haul.
Now, I’m focused on scaling with integrity. Deepening partnerships, refining our B2B engine, and building out our facilitator certification so this work lives beyond me. SVF has been both the business support and identity shift I needed at this building stage. I’m not just a founder—I’m a CEO building the future of leadership + well-being.
What has been the biggest turning point for you in your startup journey?
Realizing that Thrive by Design could scale through an integrated B2B strategy—and then making the pivot to build the infrastructure to support it—was a game-changer.
The turning point was less about a feature or product update, and more about identity. I went from founder-as-service-provider to CEO-as-system-builder. We’re investing in AI-assisted backend tools, redesigning our platform delivery for scalability, and developing a certification path for future facilitators – another quantum leap in scalability.
That shift took courage, clarity, and the kind of strategic feedback SVF is known for. The biggest unlock wasn’t just operational—it was emotional. Leading a company that centers sustainable leadership, for me, means I have to live the values, not just market them. The platform now reflects what I wish I had when I was in corporate struggling to manage it all.
We’re designing for the future of leadership—rooted in health, equity, and performance. And we’re ready operationally for the next wave of partnerships that will bring this work to the forefront of the women-in-leadership conversation. The time is now.
What have been the biggest challenges you’ve faced so far in building your startup?
One of the biggest challenges has been helping organizations see that investing in their top female talent isn’t a luxury — it’s a strategic necessity. Burned-out executives alone cost companies an estimated $20,683 per person each year (Gallup, 2020). Disengaged employees add another $550 billion in annual losses (Gallup, 2021).
The upside is equally clear: companies with wellness programs see a 3:1 return in reduced healthcare costs (Harvard Business Review, 2019), meaning for every $1 invested in mental health treatment returns $4 in improved health and productivity (World Health Organization). That’s major! But you don’t know what you don’t know. And our women leaders, by way of their organizations, are suffering due to a simple lack of education, access and plug-and-play solutions that don’t cost them extra resources.
We also find that “wellness” is a complicated word—some women distrust it because it’s been commercialized or doesn’t reflect their lived experience. Others wonder how they can ever truly thrive amongst competing high-stakes priorities. Figuring out your personal pathway in a world full of noisy trends can be very overwhelming. That’s why we create space for them to redefine it on their own terms while tying it directly to leadership outcomes, making the work personalized and actionable.
Another challenge we don’t hear talked about much: the leadership skills needed now are changing rapidly. AI is transforming the workplace, and leaders need to be equipped to navigate change, lead through uncertainty, and maintain humanity in an increasingly digital environment. We call it “AI-enhanced leadership” and our curriculum is evolving now to explicitly address these essential qualities. The tools are tech-enabled, but the transformation? Profoundly human.
What are some recent milestones you have achieved?
Leaders with integrated wellbeing practices have 58% higher resilience during organizational change and lead teams with 21% greater productivity (McKinsey, 2023). Every $1 invested in leadership wellbeing can yield $2.71 in productivity gains, $2.73 in reduced absenteeism, and up to 25% cost savings. That’s the performance and ROI we’re building toward with our next phase.
This year, we’ve focused on visibility, outreach, partnership building, pilot commitments, and securing social impact sponsors. Thrive by Design has evolved from a founder-led program into a scalable, digital-first leadership platform with measurable organizational impact.
Key wins include:
- Platform launch: Our digital platform delivers our flagship 9-week Holistic Leadership Accelerator for women who lead on-demand with anywhere-access.
- Scale-ready model: Finalizing our facilitator certification, allowing trained practitioners to deliver Thrive by Design within organizations nationwide.
- High-visibility stages: Acceptance in 2025 to speak at the International Leadership Association, Columbia University, and National Urban League, just to name a few.
- Enterprise traction: In active talks with globally-renowned organizations to pilot Thrive by Design as a sponsored leadership experience.
- Equity-driven access: Introducing a 1:1 seat-gifting sponsorship model for organizations to fund access for women in need of resource support.
We’ve also set ambitious, partner-ready goals:
- 3 enterprise-sponsored pilots by January 2026
- 100 high-touch outreach attempts and 10 warm intros by Q4 2025
- 7 social impact sponsorships secured this year
- Expand our modular offerings including corporate lunch-and-learns, executive wellness workshops, and half-day retreats.
Our next chapter is about partnering with forward-thinking organizations ready to invest in sustainable leadership performance. The ROI is clear: when we invest in our women leaders, they perform better, increase personal well-being and sustain their impact longer. We’re looking for the partners who want to capture those gains—and change lives in the process.
What’s one trend in your space that you’re excited about?
We’re at an inflection point in leadership development. Companies are realizing that wellness isn’t a perk—it’s performance infrastructure.
The data is undeniable: McKinsey reports leaders with integrated wellbeing practices are 58% more resilient during organizational change. Presenteeism costs U.S. companies billions annually, and organizations with robust wellness strategies see up to $250M in healthcare savings over a decade.
Major players like BetterUp, Headspace for Work, and Modern Health have proven the demand for workplace wellbeing. Now, the opportunity lies in specialized, culturally relevant programs that align directly with organizational outcomes. Thrive by Design is built for that space—holistic, leadership-rooted, and designed specifically for women navigating high-performance roles.
The next frontier is AI-enhanced leadership—developing leaders who can regulate their nervous systems, make high-stakes decisions, and lead teams in an increasingly hybrid and automated world—but still be deeply human.
Neuroscience shows that executives in a state of flow are up to 500% more productive (McKinsey, 2013), with neurochemistry that boosts focus, creativity, resilience, and overall wellbeing. On the contrary, leadership performance can drop by 30% when executives are chronically sleep-deprived and stressed (Harvard Business Review, 2019). That’s stark.
Social connection is just as critical: we know that strong bonds lower cortisol (Hostinar et al., 2014), positive interactions release oxytocin to build trust (Kosfeld et al., 2005), and social engagement preserves gray matter in the brain (James et al., 2019). That’s impressive.
These aren’t “soft” factors—they’re critical performance drivers. Thrive by Design integrates these principles into our programming so women leaders can navigate chaos, change, and conflict with clarity, resilience, and sustainable impact.
The market is ready. The need is urgent. Thrive by Design is positioned to deliver both human and financial ROI at scale.
What advice would you give to aspiring entrepreneurs, especially those just starting out?
The most powerful work you’ll ever do isn’t the most structured—it’s the work that brings you back to yourself. You could do anything with your life. Literally anything! Why did you choose this?
Let that question guide you. Stay anchored in purpose, not perfection.
Your strategy will evolve. Your brand will change. You will pivot. But if you stay close to your “why,” the alignment will come.
You’ll also grow more than you ever imagined. Being a founder is a spiritual workout. It will stretch you—but it will also show you who you are. That’s the gift. Don’t miss it.
And remember: 15% of Google searches every day have never been searched before. So your idea? Your voice? It’s worth putting in the world. You were born to create something we’ve never seen. Go do it!
At the end of the day: Done is better than perfect.
To conclude: What’s a quote you live by?
“You don’t have to set yourself on fire to keep others warm.”– Unknown
I don’t recall where I heard it, but the visual here has stayed with me. This quote lives at the heart of my why at Thrive by Design. We teach high-performing women to stop burning out in service of everyone else. Our leadership is powerful—but it doesn’t have to come at the cost of our bodies, boundaries, or peace.
And one more oldie, but goodie for the road:
“The journey of 10,000 miles begins with a single step.” — Lao Tzu
Sustainable success is built one choice at a time. You can talk about problems and ideas all day, but those who have the bravery and courage to make something, fail at it and keep going – those are who will change the world. And of course the brave and courageous people we find to work with us that make our visions become real tools and tech everyday people can use, we can’t do it without you either.
The old world rewards women who burn themselves out to keep everyone else warm. I’m building something different.
At Thrive by Design, we model a leadership path where sustainability is the strategy—where high performance is fueled by health, and where a single aligned step forward can change everything.
If you’re wondering whether to leap, pivot, or pause—trust the season you’re in. Your work, your calling, and your impact will be waiting when you arrive. All you have to do is keep moving toward it.
