June 28, 2023: How therapy inspired this business idea

What is PracticeSpace?

We build software for therapists working with children, adolescents, and neurodivergent adults so they can effectively engage patients regardless of setting.

What was the insight/inspiration that led you to launch it?

I have been in therapy for 20 years and have seen the same therapist over this time to treat my bipolar 2, borderline personality disorder, and ADHD.

Working in the digital mental health field, my therapist came to me during the pandemic to ask if there was anything out there she could use to engage children remotely that was secure and safe. She said she couldn’t use the same tools to engage children as I used for business meetings.

When I couldn’t find anything that solved her problem, I partnered with Kartik Ravi and Hamilton Lima who I had worked with at MindBeacon and we built a solution.

How has it been received by the market? Why do you think it has been so well received?

The response we are getting from therapists that work with these populations is overwhelmingly positive.

With 99% of sessions in-person pre-pandemic and now 55% of therapy sessions being delivered virtually, therapists were forced to adapt on their own and their calls for support have been ignored. They have had to hold up paper to play tic tac toe through video and try sharing links and sharing screens, all of which have made delivering care virtually much harder. Thus, seeing a solution to a problem they face day in and day out and feeling like they have a team that listens to their needs and builds accordingly, is both exciting to these therapists and a relief.

They immediately understand the product and are excited to use it.

How did you know you were ready to found a company?

I have been in therapy for serious mental health conditions my whole life. For someone like me, mental health is managed, not cured. Through this experience, I was inspired to improve the mental health system that is so broken and until a few years ago, was very overlooked.

I was fortunate to be the first business hire at MindBeacon, Canada as the first digitally native mental health platform. It was there that I was given all the opportunities one could want at a startup, from ideation to the eventual IPO roadshow. I also worked with a few other digital health companies in sleep, mental health, and diabetes before my therapist came to me with this problem to solve.

As someone that benefitted firsthand from art and play therapy and then getting to play a central role at what became a leading digital mental health company, I have both an authentic passion for our mission as well as the skill set formed through my professional experiences to survive the challenging early stages and build a sustainable, impactful business.

How did you meet your founders/know they were the right people to start a company with?

I met Kartik Ravi and Hamilton Lima Jr at MindBeacon where we had the chance to work together for the first time.

It was there that I learned about their inspiring, unique stories and their motivation to make mental healthcare more effective and accessible. Besides the overwhelming passion, they possessed the direct experience needed for us to be efficient and effective with our spending. Their experiences at banks, video game development companies, digital mental health companies, and Fortune 100 tech companies gave me confidence in our ability to move quickly while ensuring the utmost privacy and security needed in any software company operating in the health space.

What has been the hardest thing on your journey so far?

The most significant challenge so far has been the disconnect between our customers and investors and the distraction that results.

Our customers understand the solution immediately and quickly become our champions. However, it has been hard to fundraise.

It could be the fundraising environment, it could be that there is a limited pool of investors that have knowledge of the mental health space or experience investing in mental health companies.

What is clear is that we are operating in a new space.

Child and adolescent mental health has only recently come into vogue and we have found it challenging to convince investors that there is a large market that is desperate for our solution. This leads to a chicken and egg paradigm where our current growth is proving to be most convincing, but we need investment to truly accelerate our growth and realize the opportunity we and our customers know exists.

As the founder and CEO, I am forced to invest a lot of time fundraising at the expense of time that could be otherwise spent on revenue-generating activities, which as a small team is a significant opportunity cost.

What has been the most pleasant surprise?

The most pleasant surprise has been the engagement from therapists.

Therapists are very busy and our mission is to make their lives easier, not take time away from practicing or adding any additional work to their plates. However, we didn’t anticipate that helping them feel heard and supported would lead to the level of engagement we are seeing.

Many of the therapists on our platform act more like partners than customers. They help us advance the platform, grow our revenue by making meaningful referrals, create content to help other therapists using the platform and work with us to validate the impact and outcomes our product elicits.

Most therapists only recently introduced technology in their practice as a response to the pandemic and have historically been averse to adopting technology. So their openness and embrace of the possibilities associated with our technology has been surprising.

What is your super strength?

Passion.

Being passionate drives me to go all in and avoid a defeatist attitude in the face of adversity.

Passion is also infectious.

It motivates the team, inspires investors, and lands with customers. In operating a business at the intersection of purpose and profit, passion for both is necessary.

Who is the unsung hero on the team? Why?

Kartik (CPO) and Hamilton (CTO). They are also my cofounders.

As a non-technical founder, I can inspire vision but rely on my cofounders to make our therapist’s dreams a reality. They are also responsible for managing our product team and managing me in some cases. I can only feel fortunate to have the culture they’ve created and the trust we’ve established.

Being a CEO could be lonely, but with cofounders like them, no one ever feels alone.

What are you trying to achieve over the next 12 months?

In the next 12 months, we would like to add 1500 new therapists to the platform and close a few enterprise opportunities currently in the pipeline.

We are also in conversations with two of the three largest toy and entertainment companies in the world and hope to close one to offer their incredible brands and products to our customers.

What advice do you wish you had been given prior to launching?

I wish I had known the differences between a leadership role at a startup and a CEO role. I am not afraid to say that I was perhaps a bit naive about the pressure and responsibilities of a CEO. 

“It’s one thing to make a material impact under a CEO. But doing those same things as a CEO is totally different and certainly gives me much more appreciation for the unique adversities faced by CEOs I previously worked under.”

Who are the 5 Canadian startups you like in your market?

Curv Health - the new digital private practice

Lucid Therapeutics - creating digital therapeutics using EmotionAI

UpBeing - automates how you measure, understand, and improve your habits

Greenspace Health - the measurement-based care platform that helps everyone thrive

Cerebra Health - helping to transform the future of sleep diagnoses

Learn more about PracticeSpace here

Alex Norman here. I have used a virtual EA for years. Double, a TechTO partner, asked me to share some of my experience. Between running TechTO and my fund, N49P, it is nearly impossible for me to stay on top of every task. I would feel terrible every time I let a follow-up slip or did not get to a Founder’s email. Also, all the context-switching was driving me crazy and burning me out. After spending the time to get a virtual EA up to speed, I have found it streamlines everything about my day. It lets me focus on what is most important to me and helps me delegate what isn’t.

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