Welcome toĀ On The Mind, a collection of stories, news, and analyses on the startups, investors, and thought leaders in mental health and wellness.
Took a break over the holidays, but Iām excited to be back. Looking forward to documenting how the mental health landscape continues to evolve this year.
Hereās whatās included in issue No. 4:
A Canadian startup approaching mental health for men
Taking a closer look at the benefits of and evidence for peer support
Looking back at your 2020, and planning for your 2021
šļø Interview with Matt Zerker, Founder and CEO of tethr
Conversations with founders, investors, and thought leaders in mental health and wellness.
One of the fundamental problems in the mental health space is the imbalance of mental health professionals and patients. The demand for mental health services far exceeds the supply of those trained to provide sufficient care. Another fundamental problem is the excessive cost inherent in delivering mental health care. Patients require personalized care via relationships that take time to build up and get right.
While there are many approaches to solving these problems, peer support and group-based therapy startups have gained a lot of traction lately. These models reduce the need for as many mental health professionals by enabling them to serve more patients at the same time and by shifting some of the care responsibilities to patientsā peers.
Iāve seen a variety of peer- and group-based models popping up, each with unique approaches and many targeting subsets of the broader population. Shimmer matches you with a group of peers going through similar circumstances. Violet provides queer-competent mental healthcare for the LGBTQ+ population, incorporating community connections. Real provides specific pathways to help tackle mental health goals, often embedding groups as part of the process. And a number of startups are tackling menās mental health, including Sail, EVRYMAN, and todayās feature, tethr.
I spoke with Matt Zerker, Co-Founder and CEO of Canada-based tethr, to learn more about their approach.
What motivated you to start tethr?
A few years ago I went on a menās retreat and had a really profound experience that made me reevaluate what I was doing with my life. I came home on a Monday, quit my job on a Wednesday without a plan, and spent a few months trying to find my footing. I wanted to recreate the experience I had at the retreat for others, but found there were no effective digital solutions that gave men access to that type of experience.
I knew this was something I had to do to help other men heal. I decided to sell my home to finance the business and officially started tethr with my co-founder Addison Brasil in November 2019.
What is the tethr product?
tethr is a peer enabled mental health and well-being platform for anyone that identifies as a man. While the idea was inspired by my time at a menās retreat, weāre not trying to be retreat guys. The margins donāt work ā you need a lot of space, people, and logistics figured out.
Instead, weāre reimagining what a support community can look like for men within a digital framework. Weāve started off pretty bare bones - an iPhone and Android app with a forum of threads, the ability to chat 1-on-1 or in groups, and some targeted content.
We recently launched a beta for tethr pods, which puts men together on a team so that theyāre able to go through the self-improvement journey with support. We know that accountability is a great way to form better bonds and connections within our community, and pods will help us mitigate the drop-off thatās so common with more traditional self-help programs.
Weāre really focusing heavily on customer discovery right now and making product iterations aligned with our findings.
Why the specific focus on men?
Weāre looking to disrupt the way men receive mental healthcare and how masculinity is defined in society. If you look at masculinity as a construct, weāre very much programmed from a young age to believe thereās an archetype of masculinity weāre meant to live up to. A man is unemotional, doesnāt rely on others for support, and solves his own problems. This idea is reinforced through pop culture, movies, all over really ā you hear āboys donāt cryā and āman up.ā Thereās a general feeling that guys need to live up to these standards to get their man card stamped, and itās bullshit.
Besides our own familiarity with the male experience, weāre focused on men because thereās a deep need. We donāt really think of it as a gender thing, just a problem we understand that needs to be solved. Most guys deeply crave a way to get in touch with their emotions and strengthen their relatioships, and are looking for permission to be able to do so.
From a healthcare standpoint, the view is grim. Nearly 80% of men struggle with stress, anxiety, or depression, yet 40% of men who do struggle donāt seek help until they develop suicidal thoughts or inflict self-harm. 75% of all suicides are committed by men - we need to reach them earlier. Men drastically underutilize mental health services - therapy is talking about your feelings, and many men donāt know how to. In fact, for teletherapy services like BetterHelp and Talkspace, the vast majority of the users are women.
Beyond the focus on men, can you talk more about your user base?
tethr is for all male-identifying people, but weāre certainly targeting those most in need of help. Weāre for the guys who know deep down they wish they could talk with their friends or family about more of the things happening in their lives, but donāt think they can or donāt know how.
We have a wide range of conversations happening on the app - everything from relationships and divorces, to general feelings of sadness or isolation, to not measuring up to what it means to be a man. Weāve got 3,000+ men on our platform, and our users span a variety of backgrounds and orientations. We have users as young as 18 and others in their 70s, but the majority fall in the 35-50 range. It makes a lot of sense - thereās a trough of happiness that tends to occur then. Itās the age bracket with some of the highest incidences of suicide for men.
Youāve got a very masculine approach to your branding. One of the taglines you use is āwe fuck with feelings.ā Why have you marketed tethr this way?
Itās very much a similar approach to the āFuck Cancerā campaign. Itās emotional and resonant. Itās meant to be empowering, but also meant to be playful.
tethr is meant to be your friend, the guy you can hang out with and grab a beer with. We think itās important to distinguish yourself in this landscape, and for us itās a strong brand statement. Weāre here to say that struggling doesnāt make you less of a man, that itās just what makes you human. One of the manliest things you can do is fuck with your feelings. Some of the strongest men I know personally are also some of the most deeply emotionally introspective.
We also want to be an approachable option for men who may be resistant to mental health care. By creating a brand with more familiar, masculine language, we hope we can draw in more men to proactively manage their mental health.
How does tethr compare to competing menās focused mental health startups?
There are a lot of menās focused mental health companies, but I donāt see the space as competitive right now. Itās more of a blue ocean. Itās the first inning of menās mental health right now, and weāre all still figuring the space out and where we can be of service.
Iām friends with a lot of the players in the space - Iāve spoken with Lucas Krump, the CEO of EVRYMAN and Johnny Chen, the CEO of Sail. Thereās Sacred Sons, Guy Talk, and the Modern Renaissance Man. At the end of the day, thereās not going to be just one winner. Weāre a different flavor, and each of us attracts our own type of men with a unique approach. For example, Sail is taking more of a coaching program approach, and weāre focused more on the peer support aspect.
At the end of the day, we come at it from a strong service mindset - weāre building the best products to help men better themselves, and support anyone else working toward that same mission.
Whatās been your fundraising journey? Are you currently raising?
We ran a successul Kickstarter campaign that closed in September of last year and exceeded our CA$25,000 goal. Weāre not currently raising. Weāre really focused heads-down on customer discovery, growing our user base, and refining our offerings at the moment.
We do have some exciting announcements on the horizon, but nothing we can announce at the moment - youāll have to keep an eye out for those in the coming months.
Any other mental health companies youāre a fan of?
Iām into the digital therapy apps like Talkspace, 7 Cups, and BetterHelp. Iām a fan of the meditation apps like Headspace and Insight Timer, just for the breadth of content they offer. I like mental health platforms that are working to gamify the experience, making mental health more fun and a bit easier to engage with. Wisdo is a good example of a gamified peer support model, and Happify is another gamified platform for happiness. In the psychedelics space, Iāve been keeping an eye on Novamind.
š©ŗ Clinical Coverage
Discussion of clinical concepts, studies, or perspectives on mental health and wellbeing.
Peer support is not a new addition to the behavioral health space - itās been around for decades, and has a robust set of evidence for its efficacy documented by Mental Health America. Peer support is practiced in all 50 states and is reimbursable by Medicaid in 35 states.
Peer support is typically complementary to rather than substitutive for other mental health services. Still, incorporating it has been proven to provide major benefits:
Both Mental Health America and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) provide a long list of resources to learn more about peer support and its benefits.
š° Recent Investments and IPOs
Rundown of recent investment news in mental health and wellness companies.
Atalanta Therapeutics, a biotechnology company pioneering new treatment options for neurodegenerative diseases, raised $110M between a Series A led by F-Prime Capital and two partnerships with Biogen and Genentech (Link)
Frankie Health, a Dublin-based mental health platform for employees, raised a $1.25M Seed round led by E15 VC (Link)
Monument, an online alcohol use disorder treatment platform, raised a $10.3M Series A led by VMG Catalyst (Link)
NeuroFlow, a maker of solutions supporting technology-enabled behavioral health integration, raised a $20M Series B led by Magellan Health (Link)
Numinus Wellness, a mental health and wellnessĀ company creating an ecosystem of health solutions for psychedelic-assisted psychotherapies, closed a $17M bought deal public offering (Link)
Spill, a British startup that provides mental health support to employees through Slack, raised a $2.7M Seed round led by Ada Ventures (Link)
Talkspace, the teletherapy app, will go public via a merger with the Hudson Executive Investment Corp. SPAC. The transaction values Talkspace at an EV of $1.4B (Link)
š Interesting Reads
Sometimes mental health-related. Sometimes just things I find interesting.
Another great piece from What If Ventures surveying mental health investors on their 2021 outlook (Link)
Apple teams up with Biogen to launch a study on cognitive decline (Link)
Drive-thru salads are coming to a suburb near you (Link)
Great (and entertaining) list of 100 ways to live better (Link)
It wonāt replace live music, but itāll look good in your room (Link)
Fred Wilson reflects on 2020 (Link)
Another reason to go to New Zealand, if theyāll take you (Link)
How to deal with the self-chatter in your head (Link)
The NYT covers male support networks, featuring tethr (Link)
2020 ended with 146 deals amounting to $1.6B of venture investments in the mental health space, according to Pitchbook (Link)
Dr. Robin Carhart-Harris discusses whatās in store for psychedelics in 2021 (Link)
A look at the (in)effectiveness of chat-based therapy apps (Link)
12 women contributing to the mental health space this year (Link)
How billionaires see themselves (Link)
Nostalgia, and why we need it (Link)
š§ Mindfulness Tip of the Week
Tips to improve your mental health and wellbeing.
Despite being an arbitrary date on the calendar, the new year presents an opportunity to practice mindfulness and reflect on the changes we want to make moving forward.
Looking to the future: This guide provides a simple framework for goal-setting, laying out the S.M.A.R.T. approach. This WSJ article digs deeper into building self-discipline and finding motivation. Iāve personally found it easier to start with 1-2 achievable habits and perform them consistently for at least 2 weeks before adding more.
Reflecting on the past: For another approach to mindfulness as it relates to the new year, itās not too late to reflect on 2020 and extract insights for how you live in 2021. Focusing on reflection over goal-setting has grown in popularity (itās a method Tim Ferris applies). This year, Patricia Mou, who writes a great newsletter called Wellness Wisdom, documented her approach to reflecting on 2020 and provided a template for others to do the same.
A friend of mine, Juvoni Beckford, has done a really incredible job auditing his life with year-end reviews as well. His posts provide extremely thorough and thoughtful examples Iāve drawn on to inspire my own review.
On Your Mind
Iād love your feedback - feel free to email me at tarockoff@berkeley.edu.
If youāre working on something in mental health and wellness, letās talk. You can book some time with meĀ here.
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Written byĀ Daniel Tarockoff, an MBA student at UC Berkeley and former healthcare strategy consultant exploring the future of mental health. Born in Michigan. Based in Berkeley, CA.