Stigma Podcast - Mental Health

What is the future of legal cannabis from a retail / e-commerce perspective?  Today's guest, Socrates Rosenfeld, Co-Founder and CEO of Jane Technologies explains.  Jane is an e-commerce solution for the Cannabis space that supports nearly 3,000 dispensaries and handles more than 20% of the legal Cannabis transactions in the U.S. each year. 

Prior to founding Jane, Soc was a consultant at McKinsey and Company.  Before that, he served in the US Army as an Apache Helicopter Pilot from 2004-2011.  Soc earned an MBA from MIT Sloan School of Management and his undergrad degree my alma mater, West Point.

Soc has a very personal reason for building Jane, that he’s going to share with us in a few minutes.  He’s one of the most impressive founders I’ve ever met and we at What If Ventures have had the chance to get to know him in 2021 as we were a small part of their most recent funding round and have been able to witness first-hand what an amazing operator he is. 

You can connect with Soc here:  LinkedIn

What If Fellowship: https://whatif.vc/fellowship

HERE ARE SOME OF THE THINGS WE TALKED ABOUT:

1. Soc shares his journey from the Army to eventually founding a Canmnabis retail tech platform beacuase of his own personal experience struggling with mental heatlh after the Army.
2. We discuss Jane’s platform and how Jane is not only revolutionizing the Cannabis retail world, but how Jane's novel approach to e-commerce will transform broader e-commerce which hasn't seen real disruption since the creation of decades old platforms like Amazon.
3. Soc shares what it was like to face the stigma around Cannabis and the challenges/benefits that came with creating a company in this space.
4. We discuss the legistlative environment around Cannabis, false information about the plant (and industry) that has been spread over the years, and the effect it has had on people finding and using this solution.
5. Soc talks about what Jane is focused on today while they await legislative changes and a more broad based acceptance of cannabis usage in the U.S. 
6. Soc tells us about the biggest challenges that come with being an entrepreneur and the importance of believing in yourself.
7. We discuss tips for entrepreneurs who are wanting to get into the Cannabis space and what advice Soc wishes he would have received when he first started.

Connect with the Stigma Podcast in the following ways: What If Fellowship, Website, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Email

Connect with host Stephen Hays here: Stephen Hays Personal Website, Twitter, LinkedIn, What If Ventures (Mental Health Venture Fund)

Alyson Watson is CEO and co-founder of Modern Health, a mental health unicorn!  Modern Health is a global mental health benefits solution for employers that covers the spectrum of mental wellbeing needs from tech enabled solutions to professional support solutions on one platform.

You can connect with Alyson here:  LinkedIn

What If Fellowship: https://whatif.vc/fellowship

HERE ARE SOME OF THE THINGS WE TALKED ABOUT:

1. Alyson shares her background with mental health, her education, and how it led her to the mental health space. She also shares about Modern Health and what their mission is.
2. Alyson talks about Y Combinator, what the process looks like as a startup who applies, the benefits from it and the difference it made for her when starting up Modern Health.
3. We discuss the stigma and lack of access that used to surround mental health support from employers and how Modern Health is helping to solve these issues.
4. We talk about how mental health problems limit productivity and how this is a societal problem, not only in the workplace but in personal lives as well.
5. Alyson shares what more she thinks companies can do to promote mental wellness with their employees.
6. We discuss the vision for Modern Health and where she sees the company going in the future.
7. Alyson shares her advice for those who are wishing to start up their own company and what she wishes she knew when she started.

Connect with the Stigma Podcast in the following ways: What If Fellowship, Website, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Email

Connect with host Stephen Hays here: Stephen Hays Personal Website, Twitter, LinkedIn, What If Ventures (Mental Health Venture Fund)

April Koh is the youngest female founder to ever take a startup from just an idea to unicorn status.  We are so excited that she’s accomplished this in the mental health space, and we are excited for you to meet her and learn more about her Company, Spring Health!  For those who may not be familiar, Spring Health is a provider of mental health benefits to employers for their employees, and their employees’ families. 

Spring Health’s product is a "precision mental healthcare" platform that matches a company’s employees to the most effective care for each employee. These care solutions that employees are matched to include (but are not limited to) mindfulness and meditation applications, care navigation tools, access to coaching services, therapy, and medication management.

To date, Spring Health has raised $300mm of capital and April and her team are truly pioneers in the mental health benefits space.  Their recent funding round valued the company at $2 billion and April herself, is now the youngest female founder to lead a unicorn startup!  She’s truly amazing and I’m excited to share our conversation!

You can connect with April on LinkedIn: April’s LinkedIn Page Spring Health Website:  https://www.springhealth.com/ What If Fellowship: https://whatif.vc/fellowship

HERE ARE SOME OF THE THINGS WE TALKED ABOUT:

1. April shares the founding story of Spring Health with us. She explains how she came up with the idea and tells the impressive story about how she put a minimum viable product (MVP) together in short order, impressed her soon to be co-founder to join her team, and brought a business to life at lighting speed.
2. April is the youngest female founder to grow a startup to unicorn status, EVER! We talked with her about what this accomplishment means for her, for female founders and for the mental health space in general.
3. April shares about her journey to realize there was a problem worth solving in this space, coming up with an idea, deciding to start a business and the path that she and the business took in the early days.
4. April talks with us about what Spring Health looked like in those early days including how she recruited her co-founder, which is quite an interesting and inspiring story.
5. We talked further about exactly what Spring Health is from a business point of view, how they win customers, what exactly they provide, and how they get paid.
6. April shared her vision for the future of the business and more broadly, the future of the mental health care landscape.
7. We always love to ask pioneers in the mental health space where they view the biggest opportunities in our space (of course, outside of what they are currently building) and April’s answers there were certainly insightful for anyone looking to build a mental health startup.
8. Finally, April provides advice and “lessons learned” that she wished she had known in the early days. I found her answers to be so helpful I believe every founder in this space could learn from April. 

Connect with the Stigma Podcast in the following ways: Website, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Email

Connect with host Stephen Hays here: Stephen Hays Personal Website, Twitter, LinkedIn, What If Ventures (Mental Health Venture Fund)

Dr. Amit Etkin is pioneering a revolution in the way mental health medications are designed, developed, prescribed, and brought to market.  Precision psychiatry is the future of mental health treatment and Dr. Etkin is leading the way with his drug development platform, Alto Neuroscience.  In this episode, Dr. Etkin explains why psychiatric drugs have failed, what he is doing about it and why it will work. 

Prior to Alto Neuroscience, Dr. Etkin was a tenured professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University and a member of the Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute. Dr. Etkin has received multiple awards, most notably the NIH Director’s Pioneer Award in 2017. He is trained as both a psychiatrist and neuroscientist.

The overarching aim of his work in this field for the last 10 years is to understand the neural basis of emotional disorders and their treatment, and to leverage this knowledge to better understand how the brain works and to develop novel treatment interventions. In support of this goal, Dr. Etkin also collaborates with neuroscientists, engineers, psychologists, physicians, and others to establish a new intellectual, scientific, and clinical paradigm for understanding and manipulating human brain circuits in healthy individuals and for treating psychiatric disease.

You can connect with Amit here:  LinkedIn

Alto Neuroscience Website: https://www.altoneuroscience.com/

What If Fellowship: https://whatif.vc/fellowship

HERE ARE SOME OF THE THINGS WE TALKED ABOUT:

1. Etkin shares his background, why he got into the field of neuroscience, and why he is building Alto Neuroscience.
2. We discuss the biggest needs in the clinical psychology world is and how Alto Neuroscience will solve some of the greatest needs in the mental health space.
3. We talk about measurement & testing, as well as biomarkers in the mental health space at large and why we are so far behind other healthcare verticals when it comes to measurement and testing in the mental health space.
4. Etkin explains that one of the primary reasons bio-pharma companies haven’t focused as much as they should on Central Nervous System (CNS) drug development in the last couple of decades is because we can’t effectively measure how the drugs are working. All of that has changed now with the creation of Alto Neuroscience. 
5. Amit talks about the concept of “precision psychiatry”, how precision is utilized in other fields of medicine, and the importance of using it in the mental health space to improve treatment options.
6. We discuss how the combination of measurement and precision psychiatry can change psychiatry, drug development, and treatment of mental health disorders both broadly on a macro level and specifically with respect to his work at Alto Neuroscience.
7. Amit shares about what Alto Neuroscience is currently working on, the drugs they currently developing, and their vision for the future of psychiatric medication.

Connect with the Stigma Podcast in the following ways: Website, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Email

Connect with host Stephen Hays here: Stephen Hays Personal Website, Twitter, LinkedIn, What If Ventures (Mental Health Venture Fund)

Amanda Eilian, Founding Partner of _able Partners joins us to talk all things mental health startup investing. _able Partners is an early-stage VC firm supporting visionary founders in the positive living space. Their investments focus on companies that improve the daily lives of people, making them healthier, happier, and making their lives more meaningful. Some specific investment areas include mental health, addiction, women’s health, sexual wellness, wellness broadly, coaching and continued learning, child care, and self-expression. Amanda has led incredible early stage investments in companies like Spring Health, Compass Pathways, ATAI Life Sciences, Alma, Alto Neuroscience, and many others.

You can connect with Amanda here:  _able Partners Website, LinkedIn

What If Fellowship: https://whatif.vc/fellowship

HERE ARE SOME OF THE THINGS WE TALKED ABOUT:

1. Amanda shares her background that led her to venture investing, creating _able Partners, and the focus of _able Partners.
2. We discuss the areas and companies where _able has focused on which have been stigmatized in the past including mental health and addiction.
3. Amanda shares about her team, how they are non-traditional, and what that looks like in terms of their professional interactions as a company.
4. We discuss current themes in the mental health space and where investors should be looking to get involved in this space including accessibility, personalized care, and measurement and monitoring.
5. Amanda shares what type of funding _able is interested in, their focus in early stage investing, and what criteria they look for when choosing who to work with.
6. We talk about why stigma is starting to decrease and the possible causes for this wave of de-stigmatization.
7. We discuss the lack of access, the shortage of psychiatrists across the country, and more issues surrounding mental health care and Amanda shares her ideas for what needs to happen to address these issues.

Connect with the Stigma Podcast in the following ways: What If Fellowship, Website, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Email

Connect with host Stephen Hays here: Stephen Hays Personal Website, Twitter, LinkedIn, What If Ventures (Mental Health Venture Fund)

Today’s guest is John Donoghue. He is well known for his groundbreaking work developing Brain Computer Interfaces (BCIs) to restore movement for people with paralysis, known as ‘BrainGate’. BrainGate was the original BCI system created by a company called Cyberkinetics, of which John was a co-founder.

In this episode, John gives us a primer on BCIs.  What are they? How do they work? When will they be widely adopted?  Are they safe?  How do we know?  We cover these questions and much more.

Many people consider John to be the founder of the entire discipline of neuroprosthetics which is the combination of neuroscience and biomedical engineering. He was a member of the U.S. B.R.A.I.N. initiative’s first NIH Working Group and is a fellow of the National Academy of Medicine, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, as well as several other academies. His awards include the German Zülch Prize (2007), the Roche-Nature Medicine Prize (2010), the Schrödinger Prize (Germany, 2012), and the first Israeli Brain Technology Prize in 2013.

Links Mentioned:  BrainGate Website, John’s email

What If Fellowship: https://whatif.vc/fellowship

HERE ARE SOME OF THE THINGS WE TALKED ABOUT:

1. John shares his background in biology, his fascination with the way our brains control and plan movement which ultmiately led him to explore how we can use computers to restore that functionality via Brain Computer Interfaces (BCIs) one day.
2. John has spent more than 30 years focused on the potential of using BCIs to solve some of the most debilitating physical ailments that humans face.
3. In this conversation, John gives an in-depth explanation of what a BCI is, how it works, the different types that are available, and the variety of uses that can come from each type.
4. We discuss where BCIs started in the early 2000’s in human trials, the advancement of the technology since then and where we are today.
5. John shares how he sees this technology being used on a larger scale, what is currently holding it back, and what it will take to get it to be used in more humans in the coming years.
6. John shares where he thinks the opportunities are for entrepreneurs in this space and how to get involved in this technology and transform it for more uses.
7. We discuss the ethical considerations around reading brain signals and using computers to send signals back to the brain telling it how to move the body and eventually, adjusting how people think and feel.

Connect with the Stigma Podcast in the following ways: What If Fellowship, Website, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Email

Connect with host Stephen Hays here: Stephen Hays Personal Website, Twitter, LinkedIn, What If Ventures (Mental Health Venture Fund)

Today’s guest is Elyse Cohen, VP of Social Impact and Inclusion at Rare Beauty by Selena Gomez and a mental health advocate.  Elyse is an expert on purpose driven brands, social impact, and has been hand selected by Selena Gomez to lead the impact efforts at Rare Beauty and the Rare Impact Fund addressing mental health. Previously Elyse has worked at the White House for First Lady Michelle Obama as Deputy Director of the former first lady’s legacy Let’s Move initiative, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation, and various marketing agencies leading social impact initiatives and leveraging business and celebrity assets to create change on critical issues.

You can connect with Elyse here:  LinkedIn

Links mentioned in the show: GoFundMe, Rare Beauty Website

What If Fellowship: https://whatif.vc/fellowship

HERE ARE SOME OF THE THINGS WE TALKED ABOUT:

1. We talk about Rare Beauty as a purpose driven brand, The Rare Impact Fund which addresses access and gaps in mental health, and the growth of the brand over time. We also discuss ways for people to get involved with the growth of the Rare Impact Fund.
2. Elyse shares her background, both personal and professional, and why mental health is so personally important to her and her family.
3. As part of her work, Elyse has mapped out who is doing what, and who is being impactful in the mental health space for the purpose of knowing where to deploy Rare Impact Fund capital. Elyse shares some of the insights she gained by doing that work including which companies are doing great work in the mental health space and where she wants to see capital deployed.
4. We discuss barriers to mental health care including stigma, cost of care and access in our current system, and what we need to do to address the issue of stigma around mental health.
5. Elyse shares about what the Rare Impact Fund plans to do with the capital that is raised and what benefits will come from these actions.
6. We discuss the lack of practitioners, why there is such a deficit in this field, and what changes could be made to fill the gap.
7. Elyse talks about the white space that still exists in mental health especially in education and technology, and why filling these spaces with more support will be beneficial in the long term.

Connect with the Stigma Podcast in the following ways: Website, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Email, What If Fellowship

Connect with host Stephen Hays here: Stephen Hays Personal Website, Twitter, LinkedIn, What If Ventures (Mental Health Venture Fund)

You can’t fix what you don’t measure.  Measurement and testing of our mental health lags the same capabilities in physical health care.  Dr. Nick Allen, our guest today, is building a mental health measurement solution for clinical use.  Today we talk to him about the challenges, and opportunity for his startup, Ksana Health. Nick is leveraging the tools and technologies that he developed as the Director of University of Oregon’s Center for Digital Mental Health into products and services that are transforming mental health care.

Nick is a clinical psychologist and social neuroscientist who investigates the interaction between biological, psychological, and environmental risk factors during adolescent development and measures these factors to focus on prevention of mental health problems.

You can connect with Nick here on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nick-allen-42256218a/

Ksana Health website:  https://ksanahealth.com/

What If Fellowship: https://whatif.vc/fellowship

HERE ARE SOME OF THE THINGS WE TALKED ABOUT:

1. Nick shares his background in psychology, his focus on adolescent mental health, and about his decision to build Ksana Health starting in 2019.
2. We talk in depth about Ksana Health, how the technology effectively measures mental wellbeing on a continuous basis, and where they are with the platform today.
3. Nick talks about the type of data that is being collected through Ksana Health, what this data is indicative of in terms of mental health, and what clinicians can do with this data to further treat their patients.
4. We talk about what is coming next for Ksana Health post fundraising, two big projects that they are currently pursuing, and what benefits will come from these expansions to the company.
5. Nick shares about which groups they are most interested in working with, why these groups fit with their current business model, and how it will lead to less crisis in mental health overall.
6. We discuss the previous attempts at digital phenotyping, why it did not work as well in the past, and how Ksana Health is doing it more efficiently.
7. Nick gives advice for those who are just starting to explore this space as investors and entrepreneurs, and what other opportunities are out there for people to get involved in who are interested in this space.

Connect with the Stigma Podcast in the following ways:  Website, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Email

Connect with host Stephen Hays here: Stephen Hays Personal Website, Twitter, LinkedIn, What If Ventures (Mental Health Venture Fund)

Dr. Anthony Hassan, President and CEO of the Cohen Veterans Network (CVN) joins us today.  CVN is a network of 25 non-profit mental health clinics providing care to veterans and their families.  The facilities are located in or around historically dense veteran and active duty military communities.

Dr. Hassan is a veteran of the United States Army and Air Force with 30 years of experience in military behavioral health. He holds a Doctorate in Higher Education Administration from the University of South Florida and is an alumnus of the Harvard Business School.

You can connect with Anthony here:  Cohen Veterans Network, Email

What If Fellowship: https://whatif.vc/fellowship

HERE ARE SOME OF THE THINGS WE TALKED ABOUT:

1. Anthony Hassan talks about his 30 years of experience in the military, focusing on the mental health of active-duty service members. We discuss the unique problems military members and veterans face regarding mental health and why finding help isn’t easy.
2. We discussed the stigma around mental health specifically in the military and veteran communities and why it seems to be worse at times than in other communities.
3. Anthony explained what mental health care services are in place for veterans, and where the gaps exist today and how the Cohen Veteran Network was created to fill those gaps.
4. We talk about the workforce inside the clinics, the shortage of mental health workers in America, and how the Cohen Veterans Network fosters their network of clinicians on staff.
5. The Cohen Veterans Network is continually experimenting with new technological advances and cutting-edge treatments that they believe can help veterans with their mental health. The CVN platform has become an incubator or pilot partner of choice for many up-and-coming technologies serving the mental health space.
6. Anthony shares what the long-term goals are for the clinics and what is needed in terms of support to make those goals a reality.

Connect with the Stigma Podcast in the following ways: What If Fellowship, Website, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Email

Connect with host Stephen Hays here: Stephen Hays Personal Website, Twitter, LinkedIn, What If Ventures (Mental Health Venture Fund)

Today’s guest is Jon Kostakopoulos who was the first study participant in the NYU Psilocybin clinical trial. After years of struggling with alcoholism and after trying other options including in-patient programs, out-patient programs, AA, and pharmaceutical treatments, nothing was working for him. Finally, at age 25, Jon joined the clinical trial and underwent three different Psilocybin treatment sessions and has not craved alcohol since his first treatment session.

Jon has been interviewed on 60 minutes by Anderson Cooper regarding his Psilocybin treatments and since then has launched the Apollo Pact which is a non-profit funding medical research for mental health.

You can connect with Jon here:  Email, Apollo Pact Website

What If Fellowship: https://whatif.vc/fellowship

HERE ARE SOME OF THE THINGS WE TALKED ABOUT:

1. Jon shares about his struggles with alcoholism, early signs that showed his irregular relationship with alcohol, and how addiction impacted his life.
2. We discuss the time put into his recovery and all the different options he attempted to get sober from ages 16-25.
3. Jon shares how he learned of the clinical trial at NYU, the screening process, time leading up to the beginning of the trial and what the user experience was like for him.
4. Jon goes into depth about the process of the clinical trial, what therapy was like before and after each Psilocybin experience, and what the aftermath was like during his year in the trial.
5. We discuss the effectiveness of psilocybin in treating mental health issues and how it works by getting to the root of the problem with a wide variety of mental and behavioral health disorders.
6. Jon shares about the work he is doing in the mental health space with Apollo Pact and how to get involved with this program.
7. We talk about reasons why we think the government is not providing more support to these solutions when the efficacy is high, what needs to happen to finally get that support, and the unseen benefits for the government.
8. We discuss the potential timeline for psilocybin to be more of a mainstream treatment with Oregon leading the way.

Connect with the Stigma Podcast in the following ways: What If Fellowship, Website, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Email

Connect with host Stephen Hays here: Stephen Hays Personal Website, Twitter, LinkedIn, What If Ventures (Mental Health Venture Fund)