Rahul Vohra was just 27 years old when he was gearing up to sell his company to LinkedIn and add millions to his net worth. Everything looked perfect on paper: a fast-growing startup, a spot in Y Combinator, and a looming acquisition from one of Silicon Valley’s biggest companies. But just months before closing his first deal as an entrepreneur, Vohra was sent into the hospital after months of letting the stress of running a startup pile up.
It was 2011, less than two years after Vohra had cofounded Rapportive: a browser plug-in and email service. And from the outside looking in, the entrepreneur said it was the “perfect success story.” The rag-tag team of five had gone from writing its first line of code to joining Y Combinator’s summer 2010 cohort in the same year, soon building a company valuable enough to sell to LinkedIn. But in reality, the company was running out of money, and Vohra was stretching himself thin. Rapportive was ultimately acquired by LinkedIn in February 2012, with the deal reportedly valued at $15 million.
