FOUNDER MEET CUTE
Sunday, September 3
I spent 4+ years at Spring Health. I was responsible for scaling and maintaining the quality of our virtual and in-person therapist and psychiatrist network. As demand continued to skyrocket and the supply constraints in the mental health industry persisted, it was a complex and constantly evolving problem. While Spring competed with employer-facing MH solutions for demand, my team competed with any and every entity that employs therapists and psychiatrists!
I learned a ton, as we built from scratch, attempted to differentiate, and did our best to contain provider cost/appt (care delivery made up about 75% of our total COGs) and cost to acquire, activate, and manage our network. We built an operational machine to drive efficient growth; we built clinical and non-clinical teams to manage, retain, and drive quality of providers at-scale; we built programs, community, and products to differentiate against our many competitors. I had the opportunity to grow a smart, creative, fun team to deliver on our mission. Hiring and developing people - setting a high bar and building a learning-centered, inclusive culture - was hands down my favorite part of the job. Spring grew like a very well-watered weed. I was exhausted and missed early-stage building. I left in October of 2023 to reset and start thinking about what was next.
I was ready to start exploring in Q1 2024. I talked to 20 companies, most of which were in mental health, fertility, and learning/education - all hiring for a supply side strategy or operations leader. I have been fairly confident since leaving Spring that I do not want my next role to mirror the one I held at Spring. In mental health specifically, this is because I do not think rapid, at-scale services growth at inherently patient/B2B focused organizations (where the strategy is more providers, lower cost, minimal true innovation) will solve the supply problem. I also think therapist/psychiatrist-led care is addressing a narrow part of a massive and growing problem - and I don’t believe care delivery as it exists today will be as central to the care paths of younger generations.
To give me time to explore more innovative ideas and opportunities, I offered provider strategy and operations consulting services instead of interviewing for these full-time roles. My most committed relationship is with Headspace, where I work ½ of the week with Karan, their COO, and the Marketplace team. I got close to a full-time home with Solara - a seed-stage AI company that is training models to co-pilot therapists and, one day, potentially replace the therapist. I would have been their first business hire, focused on customer development. I was compelled by the founders’ resumes (Castlight and Brightline founders, Lyra and MindStrong CMO) and the shiny object that is AI to solve quality, access, and unit economic problems at scale. Ultimately, it wasn’t the right role or team, so I declined an offer in May 2024.
As I set back out to explore at the beginning of the summer, I went on a “tour” of connecting with great leaders, whether I had worked with them before or people I trusted introduced me. This is when Myra connected me with Mark Bernfeld, a Dartmouth ‘78 and experienced entrepreneur and angel investor. He asked if I’d heard of Lyra. Duh. As Spring Health’s biggest competitor, I talked about them almost every day for 4 years. He said I must meet Amelia. She was a Tuck grad and Lyra’s (first and) top salesperson for 5 years. She also left in the fall of 2023. His introduction email was simply: “Amelia and Kelsey, you two have had parallel paths and really need to meet one another. Please talk…” We talked over Zoom in June and Amelia flew up to SF (from LA) for the day in July. Who are you? What is your story? What do you care about, believe in, stand for? What was your experience at Lyra? What do you think is missing here? What problems do you want to solve? Do I like being around you…like, kind of a lot? I think I found “the one.” And so begins our journey. More on the ‘what’ soon!
