Venture capital-backed start-up founders work an average of 64 hours a week for less pay than their previous job, almost half report feeling physically unfit and all of them are stressed, a study into entrepreneur wellbeing has found.

KPMG Australia commissioned the study of 70 venture-backed founders because it wanted a benchmark for its own work with entrepreneurs, and to start an industry-wide conversation about how mental and physical stress impacted start-up performance, according to head of high growth ventures Amanda Price.