Nine years ago, Beau Lewis created an unusual weekly therapy group for struggling tech founders. Instead of sitting in a circle of folding chairs, participants freestyled — as in hip-hop.

“There was a pressure for us to keep up an external veneer of success and not actually be open and vulnerable about all of the challenges and fears that we had,” recalled Lewis, who co-founded toy company GoldieBlox and serves as CEO of media company and would-be musical theater disruptor Rhyme Combinator. Those feelings, he continued, came out in “whatever your subconscious brain bled out over this beat.”

All the angst released during those rap sessions has now evolved into “Co-Founders,” a musical about Bay Area startup culture whose world premiere run began Thursday, May 29, at American Conservatory Theater’s Strand Theater. But it’s no longer just Lewis’ baby.

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