Just some suggestions through the tough times:

  - Talk to friends and family who understand
  - See if there are ways that the work done can be absorbed into another company
  - Drop a note to mentors/ advisors when you are professionally ready
  - Do some small projects for companies in your network who can pay on time, and hopefully also let you slowly ease into a different team and environment
  - Cut down on expenses
  - Plan your project portfolio and resume
  - Try to do at least some light exercise regularly (e.g. 3 times weekly)
  - Try to see how you close the loose ends (tough, but take as much time as you need and take into account your mental state)
  - Don't force yourself to go all out socially
  - Write down thoughts about why you think the startup failed, organize it later when you can look at it calmly
  - Don't try to over-analyse the situation
  - May want to explore meditation
  - May want to explore religion as a way of thinking about life's meaning and putting things in perspective

Great suggestions.

Last year, I went through the same thing. We had a great idea. We had a solid client. We build a platform that worked, and produced products that were high quality, that the end user loved.

Due to miscalculations on our behalf, and due to the client's company disintegrating, we were left in the horrible situation of having to kill the company.

We were worked to the bone. I was emotionally and mentally drained. We felt we'd let ourselves down, and let our staff down. It hit both myself and my partner very hard. But, we paid our bills, and paid our staff out of personal savings, and gracefully closed the company.

I 'forced' myself to take the time off required to get mentally and emotionally stable. For me, this involved riding my motorbike solo from Europe to Iraq (You will have other ways to decompress).

The final step in getting closure was to watch the delight of a friend's kid playing with one of our products. We had succeeded.

- Be gentle to yourself. This is really important.

- Don't force yourself into new projects.

- Take time to look at your startup, and highlight what you achieved. You probably paid your staff. Your code was probably solid. Your servers maybe never went down. Your final product made people happy. These are all successes - and it's very important that you congratulate yourself/yourselves for these successes.

- If you can afford it, take some time off and travel. Change your physical and mental environment. - Spend time reconnecting with your family, friends and contacts. The relationships have probably suffered during your crunch periods. These people will help you back onto your feet, so reach out to them.

- If you need to get a job to pay the bills, contemplate taking a job in a totally different domain. Flip burgers (or whatever your personal equivalent might be). This will allow you to mentally build yourself up again to get back on the horse.

- When you do try again, be aware of the warning signs you probably ignored the first times (especially the 'oh no what am I committing myself to' feeling)

You'll find that over time, and only time, the points of what you did well, and what you did less well, will percolate down into clear, future actionable forms.

Incidentally, I'm back in the saddle. On my time off, I picked up a hobby to tinker with a device, learned two new languages (Python + Qt) and a few new frameworks, and circuit design - and now have my new startup, which is hitting the market in a few weeks.

Just be gentle to yourself :)

Thanks Leon, more healthcare hacking!

Hi, that's a great idea! Btw, I'm from Singapore and we do informal meetups among people working on healthcare technology. What we normally do is to take it a step further than just getting to know each other. We describe a pain point that each of us experiences without divulging sensitive information and we generate as many solutions and perspectives as possible within 1-2 hours. If anyone is based in Asia, would like to reach out.

Hi, Would you be okie with sharing some specific problems and painpoints over email (but leaving out confidential details)? ryan.teo@gmail.com

  We have a group of friends who are familiar with healthcare and have programming backgrounds.

Ryan

I'm based in Singapore, Asia. Will be happy to share too what we've learnt about building a B2B platform for private clinics to order medical supplies.

It might be because the machine is old. Hopefully, it does have the option to generate a CSV/ XML file. From the description, it does seem to have some kind of computer connected to it and a printer.

Otherwise, you might have to parse the data from the serial port.

Hi Asingh,

  I've dropped you an email. We're based in Singapore, but we're happy to work together.

  Btw, is HealthEnclave meant for wellness or do you plan to develop it along a more serious angle?

Ryan

A small group of us are interested in developing healthcare related apps. My email is ryan.teo (at) gmail.com.

Hi, I'm based in Singapore and we're also open to hiring foreign developers on a fulltime or project basis. You can drop me an email at ryanteo(at)ppc.com.sg if you are interested in security systems and working on hardware. Singapore is also a mini startup hub =] We also have pretty decent Indian food, a largely Asian culture and plenty of exposure to US&EU startups.. =]