What is occurring in the public markets, and how do these developments impact startups and VCs in the digital health and mental health markets? Let’s dig in. Rarely do we find a pure-play public comp that we can compare to a startup. This holds true within the mental health space…

Leaning on one of the most overused finance analogies of all time, we are not even in the first inning of the mental health game. Rather, we haven’t even gotten on the bus to go to the stadium for warmups. After investing $40mm into 31 startups in the mental health…

Last week What If Ventures celebrated the IPO of portfolio company, atai Life Sciences which went public on the Nasdaq and quickly traded up to a nearly $3 billion valuation on its first day (CNBC article on IPO here). The Company, is biopharmaceutical drug development company that leverages a decentralized…

It’s ok to have bad days, weeks, or months while living in recovery from addiction or living with a mental illness. However, I feel like I usually write about the successes we’ve had at What If Ventures and I don’t write as much about the bad things. The last few…

During the last week of December 2020, I surveyed 150 mental health startup investors. I asked for their opinions on various issues, such as the latest investment trends in the industry as well as valuation expectations. I’ve summarized the results below and presented the data as objectively as I can…

In 2018, I almost lost my life to addiction and untreated bipolar disorder. In 2019, I tried to raise a seed fund to invest in mental health startups. Investors laughed at me and told me they would never give money to someone who, at that time, only had a few…

After nearly two decades struggling with addiction and untreated bipolar disorder, I almost lost my life to these diseases in 2018. After going to rehab, I wanted to be a part of creating solutions for people like me. I launched What If Ventures as a syndicate, to fund mental health…

Tonight we are hosting the first of what we plan to make into a series of digital “Open Mic” events featuring mental health startup founders. The goal is to give these founders exposure to potential partners, users, friends and allies while leveraging our platform and exposure (Stigma Podcast and What…

What If Ventures is a syndicate formed in January 2020 to invest in mental health and addiction related startups. In just 7 months, we have deployed $3,200,000 into 6 mental health startups. We share all of our deals with our syndicate members on a deal-by-deal basis. Would you like to…