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Speaker 1: You know, the best thing I've I've heard was just

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Speaker 1: build a product that people desperately want. Investors will follow suit.

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Speaker 1: Customers will follow suit too, But sometimes it takes a

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Speaker 1: little pushing customers if it's something very new. Right, people

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Speaker 1: didn't automatically want the automobile from going from a horse

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Speaker 1: and buggy. But I talked to customers on a weekly basis.

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Speaker 1: I have like an open calendar where you know, customers

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Speaker 1: can like schedule time with me. I ask them, you know,

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Speaker 1: what is it that they're experiencing, So we're I'm constantly

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Speaker 1: like looking at the product from their perspective. I'm Will

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Speaker 1: Lucas and this is black tech, green money. I'm gonna

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Speaker 1: answer you. This you to some of the biggest names,

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Speaker 1: some of the brightest minds and brilliant ideas. If you're black,

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Speaker 1: in building, or simply using tech to secure your back.

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Speaker 1: Its podcast is for you Tomorrow. Blewest, founder and CEO

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Speaker 1: at Mental Happy, a mental health platform which helps individuals

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Speaker 1: overcome challenging why events via professionally led peer support groups.

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Speaker 1: The start up recently came through White Combinator, arguably the

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Speaker 1: most admired startup accelerator. It's mental health month, and historically

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Speaker 1: mental health was not a conversation in our community. And

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Speaker 1: I do the opposite of a conversation a stigma, a

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Speaker 1: reflection of weakness. So I asked tomorrow, can she talk

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Speaker 1: about how at least the conversation that's changed in our

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Speaker 1: community and what might be behind the openness to have

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Speaker 1: the discussion about mental health. Yeah, that's that's a very

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Speaker 1: great question. We started Mental Happy six years ago and

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Speaker 1: it doesn't sound like a long time, but I feel

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Speaker 1: like progress mental health is made. It feels like twenty

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Speaker 1: years in the six years, because it just it wasn't

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Speaker 1: a thing, and it definitely wasn't a thing about amongst

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Speaker 1: people of color. I have a Caribbean background, my co

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Speaker 1: founder UM is from you know, Ghana, West Africa, and

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Speaker 1: we were the ones kind of pushing the charge like

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Speaker 1: in our families and our friend friend groups to talk

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Speaker 1: about it UM, especially like amongst even men right men

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Speaker 1: of color. It wasn't a conversation. And I think now

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Speaker 1: the reason why it is becoming UM such a hot topic.

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Speaker 1: I think people are just worn out. We're just we're

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Speaker 1: just worn We're fed up with everything that is happening

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Speaker 1: in society. I mean you have work stressors, you have

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Speaker 1: life stressors, you have um just really horrific things that

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Speaker 1: are seeing UM and experience collectively through social media online.

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Speaker 1: And I think we're just as a society just at

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Speaker 1: our absolute breaking point mentally and emotionally, UM and and

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Speaker 1: we want real solutions for ourselves and for our loved ones.

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Speaker 1: What's important is that you have faith in people that

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Speaker 1: they're basically good and smart and if you give them

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Speaker 1: the tools, they'll do wonderful things with them. And how

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Speaker 1: does technology fit in the scope of you know, helping

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Speaker 1: people both protect their mental health and repair their mental health. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: we we battle with that being a tech company to

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Speaker 1: write because we're a platform that brings people together. But

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Speaker 1: we're not necessarily bringing people together to just you know,

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Speaker 1: do a dance or you know something else that could

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Speaker 1: be healing to the soul. Right, But we're just not

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Speaker 1: that platform. UM and I do believe that we are

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Speaker 1: a tool. But I agree with him and that we

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Speaker 1: are nothing without the providers on the platform who want

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Speaker 1: to share their expertise. Were nothing without the survivors. Even

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Speaker 1: on the platform, you don't have to just be a

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Speaker 1: licensed professional to really help facilitate these groups. So it's

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Speaker 1: a tool that we entrust in people who have experiences,

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Speaker 1: who have expertise, and just who really have a heart

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Speaker 1: to do this type of work. So did I hear

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Speaker 1: you know this internal battle that you you battle being

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Speaker 1: a tech company? Did I hear that in your voice?

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Speaker 1: Just now? Yeah? Yeah, you know it's you don't you

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Speaker 1: don't want people to to to to you don't want

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Speaker 1: to heal, right, Like as a healer, you just that

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Speaker 1: means people need to be sick in order for you

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Speaker 1: to exist as a healer. Like it's it doesn't feel good.

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Speaker 1: I don't feel good knowing that a problem needs to

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Speaker 1: exist in order, um for me to like keep solving.

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Speaker 1: So I I internally battle with that a lot. Um.

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Speaker 1: And yeah, as a as a tech company, UM, we're

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Speaker 1: always thinking about like are we truly solving something? And

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Speaker 1: how do we keep people safe? You know? Um, when

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Speaker 1: we started Mental Happy, we had over a hundred thousand

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Speaker 1: people in a Facebook group that we were running these

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Speaker 1: peer support groups through and it was tough, Like it

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Speaker 1: was tough to keep people safe from trolling and and

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Speaker 1: bullying and things of that nature. So we're always top

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Speaker 1: of mind of like how impactful, Um, is our work

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Speaker 1: and is it is it adding any value versus like

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Speaker 1: creating one more thing that people have to like log

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Speaker 1: onto and manage and things of that nature. So I've

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Speaker 1: read a story, Um, another interview you were on and

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Speaker 1: you were talking about how the company started and you

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Speaker 1: started like giving away or maybe not giving away, but

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Speaker 1: you know, distributing like actual product or maybe it was

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Speaker 1: care packages or whatever it was. And I'm hearing you

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Speaker 1: talk about now like you're a healer and you know

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Speaker 1: you started it with a Facebook group. But I imagine

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Speaker 1: and I'm going to speak. I don't want to speak

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Speaker 1: for you, but I'm gonna I'm gonna say what I'm

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Speaker 1: assuming is happening, and then I want you to give

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Speaker 1: me clarity if you could. And so what I'm hearing

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Speaker 1: is that you know you want to do the good work,

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Speaker 1: but you might recognize that there has to be a

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Speaker 1: market opportunity in order to do that work more fully

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Speaker 1: and scale impact. Is that what I'm hearing you nailed it? So, Uh,

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Speaker 1: giving is a is a good word. Um, It's accurate.

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Speaker 1: We started off really creating these uh we call them

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Speaker 1: wellness kids at the time, and we did give them

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Speaker 1: away and we gave him away to just a few

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Speaker 1: people that we had admired, and only the few people

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Speaker 1: at the time. Um, in the in the text stas

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Speaker 1: and just people of color talking about mental health. They

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Speaker 1: shared it on their social media. Um, so social media

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Speaker 1: can be good. I'm not saying it's bad. But they

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Speaker 1: shared it on their social media, and the product immediately

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Speaker 1: just went viral. Like we had people requesting to buy

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Speaker 1: a product that we didn't actually even have at the time.

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Speaker 1: We just made a few batches of this thing, and uh,

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Speaker 1: my co founder looked at me and was like, well,

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Speaker 1: I guess you know this is a business. We have

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Speaker 1: to do this now. And so the product has evolved

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Speaker 1: from us doing these wellness kids selling them to consumers

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Speaker 1: who were gifting it to like friends, family member. We

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Speaker 1: always get asked what's in the wellness What was in

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Speaker 1: the wellness kids? At the time, it was a long

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Speaker 1: time ago, so I'm gonna try to remember, but um,

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Speaker 1: it was just a way to At the time, there

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Speaker 1: was like this box craves right, like everything was a

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Speaker 1: subscription box, and um, I just kind of joked with

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Speaker 1: my co founder like, you know, there should be a

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Speaker 1: box that you know, there were all these like beauty

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Speaker 1: kit boxes, like there should be a box to help you, um,

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Speaker 1: you know, focus on the beauty on the inside. So

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Speaker 1: when we made these wellness kids, they had things like

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Speaker 1: meaningful journals, but we also broke down like how to

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Speaker 1: journal right, Like, remember, we're talking to a group of

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Speaker 1: people who don't know what these tools are. And UM,

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Speaker 1: I just kind of collectively took all my experience that

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Speaker 1: I learned from therapy, you know, practicing gratitude, practicing mindfulness,

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Speaker 1: like how to journal, UM, using positive affirmation, ends and UM,

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Speaker 1: positive self talk and thinks just so were we took

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Speaker 1: physical products that represented those things and UM we put

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Speaker 1: them in this kit and the kid kind of walked

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Speaker 1: everyone through how to UM A self care or what

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Speaker 1: it's known professionally is is self activation self management UM.

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Speaker 1: And people really loved it, and we started doing that

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Speaker 1: back in two UM. It was a wonderful product. We

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Speaker 1: actually got accepted into a y combinator because of it.

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Speaker 1: We grew to selling it to very large corporations that

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Speaker 1: had you know, thousands, like five thousands about employees that

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Speaker 1: they were purchasing the kids for and and giving them to.

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Speaker 1: And those always had a significant life event UM. But

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Speaker 1: you know, just being obsessed with the work that we're doing,

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Speaker 1: we just kept on thinking, like how do we reach

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Speaker 1: more people? Like how do we you know, sell a

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Speaker 1: product that's you know, even less in expense and less

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Speaker 1: in uh um roadblocks and shipping and you know, just

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Speaker 1: all of this stuff and like what if you speak

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Speaker 1: another language, like how do we reach more people? Um?

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Speaker 1: And that's how we made the transition from that physical

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Speaker 1: product to UM the SaaS platform that we have that

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Speaker 1: we have. Now, did you go into this thinking you

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Speaker 1: were going to have to build something that scales or

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Speaker 1: did when you started doing the wellness kits so care packages?

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Speaker 1: Was that idea what we were going to do? Now?

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Speaker 1: You know, I'm a big believer that you know, you

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Speaker 1: can't get from here to there. You can only get

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Speaker 1: from like right here to like right there. You know,

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Speaker 1: just like these small, these small steps right because there

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Speaker 1: to they're just feels like a big jump and you

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Speaker 1: probably wouldn't do it because it feels too big. But

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Speaker 1: at the time, we were just focused on the here.

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Speaker 1: And then when we were focused on the here and

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Speaker 1: then more things started showing up, more things started showing up,

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Speaker 1: and someone introduced us to y Combinator and we were like, Okay,

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Speaker 1: well you know, we'll we'll try to apply and see

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Speaker 1: if we can if we can be this physical product

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Speaker 1: company getting into this huge tech company, right um or

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Speaker 1: this huge tech accelerator that has spawned all these great

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Speaker 1: tech companies. So UM, it just really kept on snowballing.

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Speaker 1: What do you think it was that it gets a

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Speaker 1: Y combinators attention and what you were doing. Then I

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Speaker 1: get what you're doing now why they would be interested.

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Speaker 1: But if you were them, you know six years ago

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Speaker 1: he said, or when or whenever that you know period

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Speaker 1: of time was what was it about what you were

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Speaker 1: building in your from your perspective that says to them,

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Speaker 1: this is interesting? Yeah? You know, UM, if I had

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Speaker 1: to look at it from their perspective, not putting words

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Speaker 1: in their mouths, but their perspective is that, um, you

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Speaker 1: know it. I think a lot of people have really

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Speaker 1: great ideas. It's another thing to um figure out you're

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Speaker 1: going to bring that idea into fruition on Zorow resources,

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Speaker 1: like I started Mental Happy with like literally the last

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Speaker 1: two hundred and fifty dollars I had on my American

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Speaker 1: Express card. So um, and then we had to kind

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Speaker 1: of figure out, like, how are we going to get

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Speaker 1: money for the product from there? Um? And I think

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Speaker 1: that what they find interests in founders is founders who

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Speaker 1: are people who seem relentless and seem like they're not

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Speaker 1: going to give up no matter what the obstacles. Um.

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Speaker 1: And then also people who say like I've built this product,

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Speaker 1: like I've built this company, and you should give me

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Speaker 1: money to make it expand versus people coming and saying, oh,

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Speaker 1: I have all of these ideas, you should give me

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Speaker 1: money and let me figure out my idea. And and

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Speaker 1: we we already had a business, um, we were selling

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Speaker 1: to you know, really top companies in the country UM

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Speaker 1: and and hospitals and so it was just kind of,

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Speaker 1: I guess a no brainer for them at that point.

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Speaker 1: And then when you think of our perspective, right, um,

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Speaker 1: as people of color, like we're so resilient as a people,

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Speaker 1: Like we were coming to y Combinator, no IVY league background,

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Speaker 1: no parent connections, no, um, you know, our family helped

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Speaker 1: us raise a hundred thousand dollars for our friends and

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Speaker 1: family around. They probably looked at us like, who who

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Speaker 1: left the door open to let these people walk in here?

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Speaker 1: You know, like who left the window open? Like, how

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Speaker 1: did you guys sneak in here? Because that's, honest to god,

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Speaker 1: how I felt like, I felt like we snuck our

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Speaker 1: way through. But um, we overcame a lot of ospitles

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Speaker 1: to talk about that, because I've talked to somebody before

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Speaker 1: who went through y C. And you know, you're a

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Speaker 1: black woman and you're interesting, you're building something for mental health,

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Speaker 1: and you're also in the same room with guys who

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Speaker 1: are trying to implant your brain into somebody else's body,

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Speaker 1: Like how does it how does it feel to be

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Speaker 1: in that space? Yeah? Yeah, you know, Um, I just truthfully,

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Speaker 1: I didn't know much about why comedy are going in.

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Speaker 1: I know, when they see this video, they're gonna laugh,

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Speaker 1: But I didn't know much about why comedy are going in,

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Speaker 1: So I had like zero intimidation on like who they were,

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Speaker 1: you know what. It was only until like I had

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Speaker 1: gotten to the interview that I realized, oh my goodness,

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Speaker 1: they spun up Airbnb, they spun up like door Dash

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Speaker 1: and Stripe and just like all these companies, And it

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Speaker 1: just kind of felt a little overwhelming in the interview.

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Speaker 1: But um, I really think for for me, personally. I

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Speaker 1: don't know about my my co founder. At the time,

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Speaker 1: it just kind of felt like validation, Like I felt

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Speaker 1: like I had been doing all these things all my

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Speaker 1: life and for the first time, you know, aside from color,

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Speaker 1: aside from you know, being a woman, someone was just

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Speaker 1: saying you were you're a bright, smart human being UM

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Speaker 1: and and we're not. We don't get that privilege ever

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Speaker 1: or at all as people of color to just be

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Speaker 1: smart human beings. You know. I love that often all

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Speaker 1: too often technology can be the vehicle that things that

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Speaker 1: want to attack our mental health right in and can

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Speaker 1: you talk about how technology can be helpful to positive

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Speaker 1: mental health? What we battle with right is like how

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Speaker 1: especially on our platform with Mental Happy, we talk amongst

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Speaker 1: ourselves all the time like how much of outside influence

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Speaker 1: should we allow on the platform within the peer support groups.

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Speaker 1: So one of the things that we mindfully do is

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Speaker 1: that we don't allow other social media links to be

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Speaker 1: shared on the platform. Will allow like video hosting links UM,

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Speaker 1: so like the YouTube's the videos, because that's a medium

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Speaker 1: for like sharing education and information at UM. News articles

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Speaker 1: and social articles we don't allow on the platform. UM.

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Speaker 1: We also are mindful about not allowing uh direct messaging

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Speaker 1: like gams. So social media isn't bad, it's just taking it,

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Speaker 1: just taking the best parts of it right. Like social

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Speaker 1: media is great in that I wouldn't know what's happening

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Speaker 1: out in Ukraine if it was like sometimes the truth, right,

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Speaker 1: like the real videos of what's happening out and from

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Speaker 1: like a perspective of someone who's you know, eighteen or

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Speaker 1: sixteen who has to fight a war, or parents who

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Speaker 1: have to be separated from their children. UM. So there

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Speaker 1: there is a lot of valid information that can come

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Speaker 1: from social media. I think what we've done UM, at

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Speaker 1: least I hope what we're continuing to do is really

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Speaker 1: taking the best parts of what makes UM a digital

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Speaker 1: platform and technology meaningful for human beings and taking out

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Speaker 1: UM or leaving out some of the harmful parts. You know.

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Speaker 1: I say this and some people might, you know, raising eyebrows.

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Speaker 1: I'm like, I don't watch the news. I don't read

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Speaker 1: a lot of news. I'm very mindful of, you know,

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Speaker 1: my own mental health, because I could find myself I

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Speaker 1: can say I'm just watching news. I haven't watching news

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Speaker 1: maybe nightline or whatever in a long time, or it

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Speaker 1: might be interesting. Let me watch and then I find

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Speaker 1: myself like having trouble going to sleep that night or

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Speaker 1: the next day, being anxious or and I'm like, why

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Speaker 1: am I so anxious? And I didn't realize that that

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Speaker 1: gateway just watching a news program where it's you know,

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Speaker 1: good news and bad news, but you don't realize what

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Speaker 1: it's doing to you. And I wonder, what are some

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Speaker 1: other maybe unknown drivers that may have that may be mainstream,

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Speaker 1: may be pervasive, that we may not recognize as inputs

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Speaker 1: of negative you know, inspiration to bad mental health. Yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 1: you know, um, just taking it off. I'm completely here.

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Speaker 1: You'm the same way, and UM, you know, I think

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Speaker 1: the feedback people would give people like you and me

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Speaker 1: is that, well, how do you stay on top of

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Speaker 1: what's happening in the world, Like how are you? Um?

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Speaker 1: You know, you can be an impactful human being if

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Speaker 1: you know what's happening and you can't know what's happening,

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Speaker 1: But you know, I don't have to listen to hours

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Speaker 1: and hours or watch hours and hours of the news,

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Speaker 1: or have that be like the first thing that pops

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Speaker 1: up on my phone, like whether it's a shooting, a bombing,

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Speaker 1: and then that's like the piece of canet. I watched

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Speaker 1: people and I sitting next to people and they have

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Speaker 1: their phone and like news alerts will go off all

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Speaker 1: day long. Yeah yeah, right right, right, yeah, a hundred percent,

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Speaker 1: just like I don't know, I just I couldn't And

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Speaker 1: then you become it's like watching a car accident, like

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Speaker 1: you just you can't look away, you know, you want

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Speaker 1: to know the developing thing, and the next developing thing,

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Speaker 1: next the heloping thing. So UM, you know, I take

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Speaker 1: it as sound bites UM and I limited, but I

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Speaker 1: think the other way that people can be mindful of,

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Speaker 1: like what they're digesting with their ears, UM and their

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Speaker 1: spirit right is engaging in UM conversations with people that

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Speaker 1: that may be negative. Uh. The hardest thing to do

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Speaker 1: in that is disengaging from those conversations with family members. UM.

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Speaker 1: We often here on the platform and there are a

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Speaker 1: lot of groups that are around, like you know, dealing

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Speaker 1: with like narcissism and your family, dealing with like toxic

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Speaker 1: people in your family. So I think making that that

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Speaker 1: disconnect with news is oftentimes like having to do it

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Speaker 1: with the closest people around you UM and just saying respectfully,

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Speaker 1: like you know, hey, my boundary is that I've I've

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Speaker 1: had enough, UM or my boundary is I'm not emotionally

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Speaker 1: in a space to really process this or talk about

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Speaker 1: it now or even ever. And that's okay too. So

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Speaker 1: we're having this whole conversation about Web three and particularly

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Speaker 1: the metaverse, and you've probably been at least around a

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Speaker 1: bunch of conversations around the metaverse and Ready Player one.

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Speaker 1: I don't know if you've ever read the book or

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Speaker 1: seen the movie Ready Player one, but it was my

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Speaker 1: favorite book. UM. But it kind of describes, you know, vividly,

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Speaker 1: what the metaverse could look like one day. But when

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Speaker 1: you hear things like the metaphors being described and people

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Speaker 1: potentially one day spending a lot of time in this

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Speaker 1: virtual world, what does that make you think about? You know,

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Speaker 1: regarding your position as a healer and you know, a

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Speaker 1: mental health advocate, yeah that you know. Don't get me wrong,

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Speaker 1: I think cool things should exist in tech, UM, I

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Speaker 1: really do. UM. I think we've made a lot of

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Speaker 1: technological advancements, and it only makes sense that we start

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Speaker 1: imagining worlds in places are fun or interesting. UM really

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Speaker 1: allow us to tap into UM. Escapism isn't a bad thing.

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Speaker 1: Distraction is actually a really good mental health tool. You know,

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Speaker 1: sometimes if you're experiencing moments of very high anxiety, kind

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Speaker 1: of distracting yourself from that trigger works. But I do

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Speaker 1: have some concerns that UM, you know, we might be

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Speaker 1: really really really disconnecting UM from people and and relationships

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Speaker 1: in a meaningful ful way. I could be very wrong,

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Speaker 1: you know, I'd like to think I have a crystal ball,

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Speaker 1: but I probably you know, not a dent accurate all

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Speaker 1: the time, but it is caused for alarm, especially for

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Speaker 1: like younger kids that are UM trying to make sense

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Speaker 1: of their physical world around them. So there was this

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Speaker 1: um a tweet I saw where this guy was talking about,

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Speaker 1: you know, we already live in the metaverse. And his

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Speaker 1: description was, most of so many things we care about,

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Speaker 1: and so much of our lives is happening through virtual world,

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Speaker 1: whether that be Twitter or our Instagram, which is you know,

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Speaker 1: photoshopped in so many ways, filters and all these things

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Speaker 1: with TikTok, and so we care the things that we

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Speaker 1: value are the likes and the shares and the retweets

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Speaker 1: and the reshares, all those things. And so he was

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Speaker 1: saying that we already live in the metaverse. When the

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Speaker 1: things that we do all day are in this virtual

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Speaker 1: world the Internet. Now, what do you say to that

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Speaker 1: sort of take if you will? Yeah, Um, I see

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Speaker 1: his point, and I think I think no matter what

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Speaker 1: you create in technology, because I sometimes you'll build a

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Speaker 1: feature and then people take that feature to a whole

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Speaker 1: another you know, I mean Instagram wash you know. It

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Speaker 1: allows you to share your experiences, allows you to share

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Speaker 1: where you've been through like video and photos and stuff.

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Speaker 1: But human beings, once they touch your technology, they just

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Speaker 1: kind of take it to a whole another level, for

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Speaker 1: good or bad. Right, Um. But I would not completely

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Speaker 1: agree that we live in a metaverse. I mean, these

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Speaker 1: products were come they came together with people in a

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Speaker 1: physical space that we understand it, right, Um, a physical space,

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Speaker 1: and they collaborated together and they continue to collaborate together.

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Speaker 1: The the images and photos that are shared in this

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Speaker 1: metaverse are of of a real, concrete time in place,

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Speaker 1: right Like if I post a picture of my family,

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Speaker 1: yet it's out on the Internet, but we were, you know,

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Speaker 1: on solid ground at the time that we took the picture. Um,

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Speaker 1: So I I don't totally agree. I'm not saying the

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Speaker 1: metaverse shouldn't exist. I'm just saying, you know, if if

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Speaker 1: it is what it is, that's fine, but let's try

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Speaker 1: to um digest it in a in a different way

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Speaker 1: than than we have been digesting a lot of the

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Speaker 1: digital things that are out there. You know, you raised

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Speaker 1: a million dollars last outlook, it might be more now,

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Speaker 1: but you raise a million dollars for this, and you

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Speaker 1: talked a little bit about, you know, the technology not

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Speaker 1: necessarily wanting to embrace or seeing the need to embrace

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Speaker 1: being a technology company. But you you went through y

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Speaker 1: C and so there's obviously market opportunity for being a

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Speaker 1: healer in so many respects. I understand that it's needed

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Speaker 1: and necessary, and it's you know, good work. It's um

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Speaker 1: necessary work, UM, and it's purposeful work, you know. But

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Speaker 1: when you think about market opportunity, when people are investing

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Speaker 1: money into your thing, what is it that you know?

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Speaker 1: How does that strike you as somebody who just wants

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Speaker 1: to really help people? And I'm not saying you just

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Speaker 1: want to help people. You want to live a good

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Speaker 1: life too, I imagine, But how do you reconcile those

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Speaker 1: two things? Yeah, I am, I guess I never thought

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Speaker 1: of them as separate things. Um, you know, the best

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Speaker 1: thing I've I've heard at y C was, you know,

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Speaker 1: just just build a product that people desperately want. You know,

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Speaker 1: investors will follow suit. UM. Customers will follow suit too,

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Speaker 1: But sometimes it takes a little pushing customers if it's

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Speaker 1: something very new, right, UM, people didn't automatically want the

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Speaker 1: automobile from going from a horse and buggy UM. But

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Speaker 1: I you know, I like to think that I am

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Speaker 1: a product CEO UM. I talked to customers on a

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Speaker 1: weekly basis. UM. I have like an open calendar where

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Speaker 1: you know, customers can like schedule time with me, ask them,

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Speaker 1: you know, what is it that they're experiencing on both ends, right,

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Speaker 1: the group members and the providers themselves. So we're I'm

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Speaker 1: constantly like looking at the product from their perspective, and

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Speaker 1: when you when you're building something that you're passionate about,

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Speaker 1: yet there is some like investors want to see this,

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Speaker 1: investors want to see that. But I think we've I

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Speaker 1: think we've grown up enough as a company to just

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Speaker 1: be like, you know, we know what our customers want

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Speaker 1: from us. UM. We know where the market opportunity lies

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Speaker 1: in terms of you know, currently in the market, there

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Speaker 1: are only about thirty or thirty one licensed professionals per

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Speaker 1: every hundred thousand people in the United States. UM. So

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Speaker 1: if we all decided in which we are collectively, we're

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Speaker 1: all starting to decide that we want to seek out therapy.

430
00:25:40,400 --> 00:25:42,960
Speaker 1: They just don't have the human power to deal with.

431
00:25:43,000 --> 00:25:44,960
Speaker 1: Like I think the head of the a p A

432
00:25:45,160 --> 00:25:49,520
Speaker 1: called this tsunami level demand, like the swell is just

433
00:25:49,720 --> 00:25:54,199
Speaker 1: that much UM. And we we spend a product that

434
00:25:54,280 --> 00:25:57,639
Speaker 1: allows these peer support groups to be either their soul

435
00:25:57,680 --> 00:26:00,679
Speaker 1: practice in running peer support groups or an extension of

436
00:26:00,680 --> 00:26:04,600
Speaker 1: their practice. And I think knowing the market, knowing where

437
00:26:04,640 --> 00:26:07,560
Speaker 1: the pain point is is really what makes us very

438
00:26:07,640 --> 00:26:12,399
Speaker 1: appealing UM to investors because UM, we do have the

439
00:26:12,440 --> 00:26:16,200
Speaker 1: proof points. We have UM since we started, since we

440
00:26:16,320 --> 00:26:19,440
Speaker 1: launched it, UH this particular product like eight months ago,

441
00:26:19,800 --> 00:26:24,520
Speaker 1: we have thousands of people enjoying over fifty these UH

442
00:26:24,560 --> 00:26:28,199
Speaker 1: specialized groups that are unique to life events. You know,

443
00:26:28,280 --> 00:26:31,439
Speaker 1: They're not just I have anxiety or I have you know, depression,

444
00:26:31,640 --> 00:26:34,119
Speaker 1: And we we get to like the core what people

445
00:26:34,160 --> 00:26:36,680
Speaker 1: want to talk about, which is you know, their life stuff.

446
00:26:37,000 --> 00:26:39,600
Speaker 1: I went through a divorce, you know, I was diagnosed

447
00:26:39,640 --> 00:26:42,920
Speaker 1: with this illness or you know, I'm taking care of

448
00:26:43,720 --> 00:26:45,960
Speaker 1: my partner and I'm now I'm a caregiver. I didn't

449
00:26:46,000 --> 00:26:48,040
Speaker 1: expect to be married and be a caregiver. I'm taking

450
00:26:48,040 --> 00:26:51,720
Speaker 1: care of an elderly parent UM or I'm adopted UM,

451
00:26:51,760 --> 00:26:54,879
Speaker 1: and I'm just kind of unpacking that as an adult.

452
00:26:54,960 --> 00:26:57,600
Speaker 1: So these are we have like over forty seven different

453
00:26:58,000 --> 00:27:02,320
Speaker 1: life event related categories. And I think understanding your customers,

454
00:27:02,560 --> 00:27:06,240
Speaker 1: understanding your market UM, and really knowing how you'd use

455
00:27:06,280 --> 00:27:10,080
Speaker 1: these people's money and telling them specifically how you know

456
00:27:10,160 --> 00:27:12,320
Speaker 1: how we're going to use your money to grow to

457
00:27:12,440 --> 00:27:15,560
Speaker 1: be this UM you know, to be this global provider

458
00:27:15,840 --> 00:27:19,240
Speaker 1: is really UM is really what gets them to believe

459
00:27:19,280 --> 00:27:21,960
Speaker 1: in you. And if and if that doesn't align, which

460
00:27:22,240 --> 00:27:23,960
Speaker 1: more often than not, you're going to hear a lot

461
00:27:24,000 --> 00:27:28,879
Speaker 1: of nose from investors UM. And that's okay. UM. We

462
00:27:28,960 --> 00:27:34,360
Speaker 1: are allowing people to invest in Mental Happy via start Engine. Yeah.

463
00:27:34,680 --> 00:27:38,840
Speaker 1: UM we did a We did a stock a common

464
00:27:38,880 --> 00:27:41,840
Speaker 1: stock ground which means people have like real equity stake

465
00:27:41,840 --> 00:27:47,280
Speaker 1: in the company UM two years ago and we're bringing

466
00:27:47,320 --> 00:27:50,879
Speaker 1: it back UM before we do our series A, just

467
00:27:50,960 --> 00:27:54,760
Speaker 1: like one last time, letting micro investors invest in Mental

468
00:27:54,800 --> 00:27:59,320
Speaker 1: Happy before we kind of only take on big investors

469
00:27:59,320 --> 00:28:01,720
Speaker 1: in the in the check amounts are too high for

470
00:28:01,760 --> 00:28:05,280
Speaker 1: people to thank. The minimum is uh. I've seen some

471
00:28:05,440 --> 00:28:08,080
Speaker 1: people go through this well. Isaac Hayes went through this.

472
00:28:08,280 --> 00:28:10,840
Speaker 1: Dawn Thixon told, so we just go to start engine

473
00:28:10,880 --> 00:28:16,959
Speaker 1: dot com and search for Mental Happy and start engine

474
00:28:17,240 --> 00:28:22,480
Speaker 1: dot com and the minimum the minimum is five to invest,

475
00:28:22,600 --> 00:28:25,280
Speaker 1: So you know, just a couple hundred dollars and you

476
00:28:25,280 --> 00:28:28,119
Speaker 1: can be a real investor and have um a steak

477
00:28:28,280 --> 00:28:32,679
Speaker 1: in in Mental Happy. You get real investor updates, you

478
00:28:32,760 --> 00:28:35,840
Speaker 1: really get treated like an investor. UM. You know, we

479
00:28:35,880 --> 00:28:38,600
Speaker 1: don't treat you like second class citizens just because you

480
00:28:38,640 --> 00:28:41,760
Speaker 1: know the amount isn't five hundred thousand dollars um like

481
00:28:41,800 --> 00:28:46,240
Speaker 1: other investors. But UM, it's it's a really great opportunity

482
00:28:46,280 --> 00:28:50,440
Speaker 1: that's near and dear to me because financial freedom is

483
00:28:50,440 --> 00:28:52,640
Speaker 1: something I was taught about a lot as a kid

484
00:28:52,680 --> 00:28:55,400
Speaker 1: from my mom, like owning a home, owning stocks and

485
00:28:55,440 --> 00:28:58,560
Speaker 1: things of that nature. So UM, and she worked for

486
00:28:58,600 --> 00:29:03,640
Speaker 1: a company that provided their employees with common stocks and

487
00:29:03,680 --> 00:29:06,240
Speaker 1: things of that nature. So it just feels really great

488
00:29:06,320 --> 00:29:09,640
Speaker 1: to be able to extend, you know, this opportunity through

489
00:29:10,120 --> 00:29:13,080
Speaker 1: start Engine for people who want to invest in pre

490
00:29:13,120 --> 00:29:15,600
Speaker 1: I p O opportunities, which there aren't a lot of,

491
00:29:15,720 --> 00:29:19,400
Speaker 1: especially a people of color, there aren't a lot of. UM.

492
00:29:19,440 --> 00:29:22,200
Speaker 1: I read in an interview you did that, you know,

493
00:29:22,240 --> 00:29:25,480
Speaker 1: like the sheltering place orders we were under as a country,

494
00:29:25,800 --> 00:29:28,920
Speaker 1: UM and in many places in the world UM two

495
00:29:29,000 --> 00:29:34,200
Speaker 1: years ago. How it impacted the demand for your offering? UM.

496
00:29:34,320 --> 00:29:38,680
Speaker 1: Can you talk about having great timing? UM? How you

497
00:29:38,720 --> 00:29:42,640
Speaker 1: may see indicators in the market that the market is

498
00:29:42,680 --> 00:29:44,920
Speaker 1: moving towards you in general terms, So it's not if

499
00:29:44,920 --> 00:29:47,800
Speaker 1: I'm not building a mental health company, how to recognize

500
00:29:47,840 --> 00:29:51,360
Speaker 1: indicators that the market is moving towards your offering? And

501
00:29:51,400 --> 00:29:55,720
Speaker 1: then you know, if you were to embrace web three,

502
00:29:55,800 --> 00:30:02,959
Speaker 1: what it might look like for what you're building. Yeah

503
00:30:03,080 --> 00:30:06,560
Speaker 1: so web three? Yeah, you know, so Web three. I haven't.

504
00:30:07,120 --> 00:30:11,480
Speaker 1: I haven't really UM gotten to the place of UM

505
00:30:11,520 --> 00:30:17,600
Speaker 1: thinking that through, so you know, full disclosure. I see

506
00:30:17,640 --> 00:30:20,960
Speaker 1: the conversations that even like other social platforms are having

507
00:30:20,960 --> 00:30:25,240
Speaker 1: about it, Like I think the former CEO of like Twitter, Jackie,

508
00:30:25,400 --> 00:30:28,440
Speaker 1: made some comments about it. It's one of you know,

509
00:30:28,440 --> 00:30:30,680
Speaker 1: it's like one of those inevitable things like I think

510
00:30:30,720 --> 00:30:33,240
Speaker 1: digital wallets and all those things are going to change

511
00:30:33,240 --> 00:30:35,400
Speaker 1: as well, I don't. I don't think my I don't

512
00:30:35,400 --> 00:30:38,160
Speaker 1: think my kids are gonna have they have bank accounts now,

513
00:30:38,160 --> 00:30:39,920
Speaker 1: but I don't think they're gonna, you know, need a

514
00:30:39,960 --> 00:30:44,400
Speaker 1: physical bank account even by the time they're five, right. Um.

515
00:30:44,520 --> 00:30:46,880
Speaker 1: So so it is something to kind of like get

516
00:30:46,920 --> 00:30:52,880
Speaker 1: ahead of and think about. But in terms of like, um,

517
00:30:53,000 --> 00:30:56,560
Speaker 1: the other pieces of like what we're pulling together, um,

518
00:30:56,600 --> 00:30:59,240
Speaker 1: with the technology and how it's it's going to change,

519
00:30:59,360 --> 00:31:01,680
Speaker 1: it's something that we just we just try to stay

520
00:31:01,840 --> 00:31:04,240
Speaker 1: on top of and be mindful of. And the only

521
00:31:04,280 --> 00:31:06,880
Speaker 1: way I could like really best answer that question is

522
00:31:06,920 --> 00:31:09,600
Speaker 1: just really kind of getting out in front of customers

523
00:31:09,720 --> 00:31:12,000
Speaker 1: and and putting some type of product that looks like

524
00:31:12,040 --> 00:31:14,560
Speaker 1: that in front of them and stuffing out like, Okay,

525
00:31:14,640 --> 00:31:17,520
Speaker 1: is this useful? Is it not useful in terms of

526
00:31:17,520 --> 00:31:23,040
Speaker 1: like market indicator. UM, I'm just you know, I meditate

527
00:31:23,120 --> 00:31:26,360
Speaker 1: every day, so I try to like ground myself and

528
00:31:26,440 --> 00:31:31,200
Speaker 1: see what feels internally true to me. Um. And we

529
00:31:31,240 --> 00:31:33,880
Speaker 1: started doing this six years ago, and that's what felt

530
00:31:33,880 --> 00:31:38,120
Speaker 1: true to me. And pivoting to software. UM, I'm not

531
00:31:38,160 --> 00:31:41,560
Speaker 1: gonna lie to you, it was you know, I think

532
00:31:41,600 --> 00:31:44,520
Speaker 1: we've me in particular. I think I've done a good

533
00:31:44,600 --> 00:31:48,160
Speaker 1: job of proving everyone wrong with the product. UM. We've

534
00:31:48,240 --> 00:31:51,680
Speaker 1: raised more money with this UM, with this as product

535
00:31:51,680 --> 00:31:54,080
Speaker 1: than we did the physical product. UM, we have more

536
00:31:54,160 --> 00:31:58,959
Speaker 1: users and more followers, we have more partnerships. And with

537
00:31:59,000 --> 00:32:01,040
Speaker 1: the physical product, every want to saying, no, it's going

538
00:32:01,120 --> 00:32:03,600
Speaker 1: so well, you should just you know, keep forging forward

539
00:32:03,600 --> 00:32:05,200
Speaker 1: and doing that. And I was just like, no, I

540
00:32:05,320 --> 00:32:09,360
Speaker 1: just I really feel like, UM, the ties are changing

541
00:32:09,400 --> 00:32:13,080
Speaker 1: and we should UM change with that. And then boom,

542
00:32:13,120 --> 00:32:17,680
Speaker 1: like the shutdowns happened. The lockdowns happened all kinds of

543
00:32:17,720 --> 00:32:20,480
Speaker 1: like supply chain issues, like if we if we would

544
00:32:20,480 --> 00:32:23,640
Speaker 1: have stayed a physical product, like everybody wanted me to,

545
00:32:23,880 --> 00:32:27,480
Speaker 1: like even my co founder some investors, UM, we would

546
00:32:27,480 --> 00:32:30,560
Speaker 1: have been kind of stuck, you know, we we probably

547
00:32:30,600 --> 00:32:34,920
Speaker 1: would have forcibly, UM had to pivot versus having the

548
00:32:35,040 --> 00:32:39,000
Speaker 1: forethought to pivot. And so I want to end here.

549
00:32:39,400 --> 00:32:42,120
Speaker 1: I'm gonna ask you for some advice. Was you know

550
00:32:42,160 --> 00:32:45,400
Speaker 1: a lot of our even me, I'm an entrepreneur outside

551
00:32:45,400 --> 00:32:49,080
Speaker 1: of you know, learning the podcast and afro teching, etcetera.

552
00:32:49,200 --> 00:32:54,600
Speaker 1: And I was thinking about this yesterday and the ill

553
00:32:54,640 --> 00:32:56,640
Speaker 1: wake up to a hundred emails that I actually have

554
00:32:56,720 --> 00:32:58,920
Speaker 1: to respond to. I have a whole different email account

555
00:32:59,200 --> 00:33:01,360
Speaker 1: that the spam those too, but the emails that are

556
00:33:01,400 --> 00:33:04,240
Speaker 1: in my inbox I actually have to do something about, right.

557
00:33:04,680 --> 00:33:06,760
Speaker 1: And then you're out in the world and inputs are coming.

558
00:33:06,800 --> 00:33:10,160
Speaker 1: All the people want demanding your time, and then responsibilities

559
00:33:10,160 --> 00:33:12,200
Speaker 1: that you have to take care of. And I realized,

560
00:33:12,880 --> 00:33:15,400
Speaker 1: if I don't take the time to write these things down,

561
00:33:15,480 --> 00:33:17,479
Speaker 1: write the things down that I need to do, then

562
00:33:17,520 --> 00:33:20,880
Speaker 1: they're all in my head and therefore that anxiety inducing

563
00:33:21,360 --> 00:33:23,400
Speaker 1: and not just for me, but for the people like that.

564
00:33:23,920 --> 00:33:25,640
Speaker 1: And so there are a lot the people who listen

565
00:33:25,720 --> 00:33:30,000
Speaker 1: to this show, either startup founders, the entrepreneurs. They're trying

566
00:33:30,000 --> 00:33:33,640
Speaker 1: to build something. Maybe they're doing that internally at another company,

567
00:33:33,720 --> 00:33:36,160
Speaker 1: or they're trying to build their own thing, but they're doers.

568
00:33:36,200 --> 00:33:38,800
Speaker 1: There are people who want to do something. So if

569
00:33:38,840 --> 00:33:41,640
Speaker 1: you could give us some simple things we could do.

570
00:33:42,200 --> 00:33:45,200
Speaker 1: Mine was just just writing keeping your list to do list,

571
00:33:45,240 --> 00:33:49,000
Speaker 1: like actual written one, because my notes one wasn't really

572
00:33:49,080 --> 00:33:52,720
Speaker 1: satiating my need for decompressing. So an actual piece of

573
00:33:52,800 --> 00:33:55,280
Speaker 1: paper and a pen that helped me. But if you

574
00:33:55,320 --> 00:33:58,400
Speaker 1: could give us some simple things that these listeners can

575
00:33:58,440 --> 00:34:04,480
Speaker 1: do these viewers also, um, to help protect their mental health. Yeah,

576
00:34:04,480 --> 00:34:07,880
Speaker 1: that's that's a good So I am uh. I am

577
00:34:07,960 --> 00:34:14,400
Speaker 1: cursive handwriting years old. UM. I only recently learned. I

578
00:34:14,520 --> 00:34:17,480
Speaker 1: only recently learned. It's not taught in school anymore. UM.

579
00:34:17,520 --> 00:34:19,760
Speaker 1: I guess it makes sense. But I am that old

580
00:34:20,040 --> 00:34:22,720
Speaker 1: um where we had to learn how to write in cursive.

581
00:34:22,840 --> 00:34:25,279
Speaker 1: So I'm a pen and paper person to even when

582
00:34:25,280 --> 00:34:27,880
Speaker 1: I sketch out products and I do wire frames for

583
00:34:27,920 --> 00:34:30,120
Speaker 1: the company. I know there's like a million wonderful wire

584
00:34:30,160 --> 00:34:33,160
Speaker 1: framing tools out there, but I still uh pen and

585
00:34:33,239 --> 00:34:36,640
Speaker 1: pad like sketch out a frame I do have because

586
00:34:36,640 --> 00:34:40,319
Speaker 1: I'm paper conscious. I at least correction, my husband makes

587
00:34:40,320 --> 00:34:45,120
Speaker 1: me favorite conscious. UM. I do now like a digital writer.

588
00:34:45,680 --> 00:34:49,880
Speaker 1: And what I love about my digital writer it's called remarkable. UM.

589
00:34:49,920 --> 00:34:52,640
Speaker 1: It's a little bit of investment. But when we go

590
00:34:53,160 --> 00:34:56,279
Speaker 1: like Mabe twenty notebooks a year, UM, I had to

591
00:34:56,280 --> 00:34:59,319
Speaker 1: cut down the amount of from using UM. But Remarkable

592
00:34:59,440 --> 00:35:03,440
Speaker 1: feels like paper UM. And it writes like paper. And

593
00:35:03,680 --> 00:35:06,359
Speaker 1: that's where I take my notes every day. So I

594
00:35:06,440 --> 00:35:10,440
Speaker 1: empty out my thoughts at night. UM again like you,

595
00:35:10,640 --> 00:35:16,120
Speaker 1: just so I'm not high anxiety. UM. And in the morning,

596
00:35:16,400 --> 00:35:23,040
Speaker 1: I'll so empty out um my thoughts, um, and then

597
00:35:23,080 --> 00:35:25,240
Speaker 1: the other things that I start off in the morning,

598
00:35:25,640 --> 00:35:29,600
Speaker 1: um as much as I can is meditation. And honestly,

599
00:35:29,640 --> 00:35:31,960
Speaker 1: now with my routine and being a new mom, that

600
00:35:32,000 --> 00:35:35,960
Speaker 1: looks very, very different. I used to luxuriously take, like,

601
00:35:36,200 --> 00:35:39,160
Speaker 1: you know, forty minutes of meditation and do yoga and

602
00:35:39,200 --> 00:35:41,520
Speaker 1: all this stuff. But now it's like, you know, ten

603
00:35:41,520 --> 00:35:45,040
Speaker 1: minutes of meditation and maybe five minutes of yoga stretching

604
00:35:45,560 --> 00:35:47,520
Speaker 1: because that's all my little one will allow me to

605
00:35:47,600 --> 00:35:51,440
Speaker 1: do before he wants my attention. UM. So you know,

606
00:35:51,600 --> 00:35:55,000
Speaker 1: I definitely deeply believe in meditation. I think even if

607
00:35:55,000 --> 00:35:57,520
Speaker 1: you're not sure how to meditate, you're not exactly sure

608
00:35:57,520 --> 00:35:59,680
Speaker 1: if you're doing it right. I think just even taking

609
00:35:59,680 --> 00:36:02,480
Speaker 1: them all meant in the morning where you're not immediately

610
00:36:02,560 --> 00:36:04,640
Speaker 1: running to your phone like you buffer, like I'm not

611
00:36:04,680 --> 00:36:07,760
Speaker 1: going to look at my phone before you know, seven

612
00:36:07,800 --> 00:36:10,200
Speaker 1: am or eight am or whatever that looks like for

613
00:36:10,239 --> 00:36:13,520
Speaker 1: your schedule. And you know, even if you can't clear

614
00:36:13,560 --> 00:36:17,240
Speaker 1: your mind, you immediately clear your mind by just taking

615
00:36:17,280 --> 00:36:19,640
Speaker 1: deep breaths in and holding and then deep breaths out,

616
00:36:19,719 --> 00:36:22,680
Speaker 1: deep breaths in and then deep breaths out slowly and

617
00:36:22,680 --> 00:36:25,480
Speaker 1: and just the the forcing function of focusing on your

618
00:36:25,520 --> 00:36:30,160
Speaker 1: breath clears your mind. UM. And I would say the

619
00:36:30,200 --> 00:36:33,160
Speaker 1: other the other tool that I that I do is

620
00:36:33,239 --> 00:36:35,800
Speaker 1: if you can if you live in an area, connecting

621
00:36:35,800 --> 00:36:38,920
Speaker 1: with nature is so important. And if you live somewhere

622
00:36:38,920 --> 00:36:41,239
Speaker 1: where it's like hard er, you know, you don't have

623
00:36:41,280 --> 00:36:43,520
Speaker 1: a lot of nature around you, even something as simple

624
00:36:43,520 --> 00:36:47,040
Speaker 1: as getting a plant, you know what I mean is

625
00:36:46,360 --> 00:36:50,120
Speaker 1: is close enough to nature. But I try to um

626
00:36:50,120 --> 00:36:54,320
Speaker 1: walk outside um as much as I can, because UM,

627
00:36:54,400 --> 00:36:57,640
Speaker 1: I did suffer from panic attacks in my twenties and

628
00:36:57,840 --> 00:37:00,000
Speaker 1: those were some of the things that I learned through

629
00:37:00,000 --> 00:37:03,880
Speaker 1: therapy and then also learning UM what's what's right for me?

630
00:37:04,000 --> 00:37:17,600
Speaker 1: To Black Tech Green Money is the production to black

631
00:37:17,680 --> 00:37:20,640
Speaker 1: of the Afro Tech on the Black Effect podcast Network

632
00:37:20,640 --> 00:37:23,280
Speaker 1: and i Heeart Media, and it's produced by Morgan Dubon

633
00:37:23,440 --> 00:37:27,400
Speaker 1: and me Well Lucas, with additional production support by Love

634
00:37:27,480 --> 00:37:31,280
Speaker 1: Beach and Marissa Lewis. Special thank you to Michael Davis

635
00:37:31,320 --> 00:37:34,960
Speaker 1: your main hall, Ivan Necessariano. Learn more about my guests

636
00:37:34,960 --> 00:37:37,560
Speaker 1: and other tech disruptor to innovators at afro tech dot

637
00:37:37,560 --> 00:37:40,040
Speaker 1: com and the video version of this episode We'll drop

638
00:37:40,040 --> 00:37:42,239
Speaker 1: the Black Tech Green Money on YouTube next week. So

639
00:37:42,400 --> 00:37:46,440
Speaker 1: tapped and join your Black Tech Green Money. Leave us

640
00:37:46,440 --> 00:37:49,920
Speaker 1: a five star rating on iTunes, Go get your money,

641
00:37:51,120 --> 00:38:01,480
Speaker 1: Peace and love, that's what