Moonshot Momentum: Mental Health & Happiness

Meet the entrepreneurs and investors working to connect mind, body and spirit in the pursuit of wellbeing

A critical piece of our work with health innovators is recognizing trends that are shaping the future of the health and healthcare delivery. Each quarter, we publish our findings in the StartUp Health Insights Report. Here, we’ve combined these market insights with the specific progress being made by Health Transformers, creating a global Health Moonshot Momentum update. This week, we’re zooming in on the Mental Health Moonshot.

Mental Health Moonshot

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (the DSM-5) tells us that there are approximately 300 mental disorders. In 1952, when this tome was first introduced, that number was a quaint 106.Of course, society isn’t three times sicker than it was in the 50s. Rather, advances in mental health research have shown us deeper and more nuanced ways of understanding how our chemistry and environments affect our brains and our behavior.

But we’ve only scratched the surface. We still live in a world where 600 million people suffer from depression and an epidemic of loneliness threatens our elderly population. Let’s embrace a Mental Health and Happiness Moonshot that finally reimagines what it means to thrive, feeling whole inside and out. It means using telemedicine and smartphones to expand the reach of mental health services. It means gamifying healthy habits in a community of peers. And it means expanding our definition of happiness in ways that we can’t even fathom yet.

Learn more about our Mental Health Moonshot on StartUp Health HQ.

Moonshot Progress — 2019 Midyear

The Mental Health & Happiness Moonshot is one of extremes. Poor mental health saps billions of dollars from income growth each year — $53 billion annually in the U.S. alone — yet deals in this moonshot have a relatively low $4M median deal size. That said, while many of the deals being funded are early-stage raises (61%) and a majority fall under $5M, we saw the first mental health unicorn at the beginning of the year when Calm raised $88M, valuing the company at $1B. Here’s the rub: Companies like Calm boost wellness and patient empowerment, but there’s a lack of funding-focus on population health, clinical workflows, and research. Moving the needle on mental health will require market stability, and a build-up of administrative support systems so that the patient isn’t shouldering the burden of their own improvement.

Download the full 2019 Midyear StartUp Health Insights Report.

2019 YTD Quick Stats (as of June 2019)

• Top Deal: Calm — $88M
• 29 Deals
• $4M Median Deal Size
• 81 Investors

Health Transformer Spotlight

Thomas Tsang, MD

Co-founder & CEO, Valera Health

25 million Americans have untreated behavioral healthcare needs. With Valera Health, Tsang wants to take care of all of them. Valera Health is an analytics and technology-enabled behavioral health service company that delivers team-based care for patients with health conditions, such as depression and schizophrenia. The Valera team has partnered with various payers and provider organizations, including Montefiore Health System, Northwell Health, Carisk Partners, and Group Health Eau Claire, to reach 1.2M lives covered. With Valera, organizations and plans can scale impact, empower self-care, and connect to patients when it matters.

Message Dr. Thomas Tsang on StartUp Health HQ or email valerahealth@startuphealth.com.

Kevin Dedner, MPH

Founder & CEO, Henry Health

At Henry Health, Dedner is on a mission to increase the life expectancy of black men by ten years, within the next 25 years. For the black male population of the United States, Henry Health provides culturally sensitive self-care support and mental health services to achieve optimal wellness. The company uses proprietary algorithms to analyze patient data to match them with the appropriate therapist for their needs. Unlike other digital mental health applications, Henry Health tailors its branding and messaging services exclusively to black men, and the company equips clinicians and therapists with the correct tools to support users through cultural sensitivity training. The company has cultivated several strategic partnerships, including one with the nation’s largest black Greek fraternity (300,000 members) on a national minority mental health awareness digital campaign that reached over 500,000 people.

Message Kevin Dedner, MPH on StartUp Health HQ or email henryhealth@startuphealth.com.

JC Adams & Elizabeth Truong, MD

Co-founders, Cloud 9

The co-founders of Cloud 9, are on a mission to provide mental health care to those who need it most, before they land in ERs, jails, or on the streets. For community healthcare agencies and first responders, Cloud 9 is the first mobile app that empowers police, sheriff, EMS, and clinical care teams to properly treat a mental crisis at the scene with the virtual assistance of a live mental health professional. Unlike other behavioral health mobile application, Cloud 9 is specifically tailored to address the needs of first responders and citizens at the time and place of crisis. The platform launched with two large customers: Integral Care, a leader in community mental health clinic innovation, and Harris County Sheriff’s Office, 3rd most populous county in the U.S. Currently, Cloud 9 has partnerships with licensed behavioral health clinician networks across 32 states.

Message JC Adams and Elizabeth Troung, MD, on StartUp Health HQ or email cloud9@startuphealth.com.

David Haddick

CEO, PSYCHeANALYTICS

At PSYCHeANALYTICS, Haddick sees untapped potential in the ability for primary care to support behavioral health. For primary care clinics serving Medicaid populations, PSYCHeANALYTICS supports the treatment of behavioral health complications and reduces the extremely high cost of comorbid mental and medical illness. With PSYCHeANALYTICS, providers are able to better treat patients, and the time-saved enables clinics to expand their behavioral healthcare services to increase monthly revenue by $200,000, or more. The company is developing a second generation of products based on customer feedback, which will include screening for adolescent well-care and a Spanish language version of the assessment.

Message David Haddick on StartUp Health HQ or email psycheanalytics@startuphealth.com.

Sarah Iranpour

Founder & CEO, PerSoN Clinic

Iranpour is on a moonshot mission to give all patients with chronic disease a voice in treating their own disease. For patients with chronic conditions, PerSoN is a social and personal care management platform that houses their clinical and outcomes data, tracks their treatment progress, collaborates with their care team, and aggregates information via a peer network. Currently, Iranpour has established partnerships with a number of world-renowned hospitals including Johns Hopkins University, McGill & Howard University, Perthera, a cancer precision medicine company; and with the University of Florida on opioid addiction. Unlike personal health records or PRO collection solutions, PerSoN is interoperable across different EMRs, enables patients to connect with others, connects patients with credible educational resources on their condition, and, importantly, focuses on outcome data rather than clinical data. This means, patients can share how treatments and medications are affecting disease progress and quality of life.

Send Sarah Iranpour a message on StartUp Health HQ or email personclinic@startuphealth.com.

Chris Cutter

Co-founder & CEO, LifeDojo

For Cutter, corporate wellness is just the beginning. LifeDojo wants to improve the physical and mental health of millions of employees, patients, students and consumers around the world, one healthy habit at a time. For corporations, healthcare organizations, and schools struggling with wellness programs, LifeDojo is an employee wellbeing platform that combines 1:1 coaching with ongoing habit-building programs to help companies engage their entire workforce, sustain long-term behavior change and reduce overall healthcare costs. For high tech companies, LifeDojo has consistently reduced reported stress of participating end users by 31% within three months. On the business side, employees using LifeDojo report job satisfaction improving by 17% within 120 days. Absenteeism was reduced by 9% and employee engagement improved by 23% over the same period. LifeDojo currently has 40 coaches but is slated to increase that number to 250 in the next 18 months as they rapidly expand the company’s reach.

Message Chris Cutter on StartUp Health HQ or email lifedojo@startuphealth.com.

Learn more about StartUp Health Moonshot Academy and the Mental Health Moonshot.

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