Across the United States, November is widely recognized as Early Childhood and Men’s Mental Health Awareness Month. To truly observe these months of remembrance, we must reckon America’s significant socioeconomic disparities is access to mental and behavioral healthcare. Indeed, within our country, Latino and Black individuals with diagnosed mental health needs receive care at rates over 10% lower than their white counterparts.1 Studies have shown that recent efforts to address these disparities in primary care contests have largely been ineffective.2 In order to achieve an accessible and equitable mental healthcare system, addressing these disparities is essential.
Early-stage startups and nonprofit organizations offer one solution to addressing these disparities. Founders of these ventures often have lived experience related to mental and behavioral healthcare, prompting innovative and efficient solutions to existing problems. These solutions, however, are often hindered by the difficulty of starting and maintaining a small business within an industry as complex as healthcare.
Here at SEED SPOT, we’re working to increase the success and efficacy of these ventures. In our Mental and Behavioral Health Accelerator, we offer business education honed for organizations in the healthcare sector and hand-match founders with established mentors. But what do these things exactly mean? What are these programs actionally like for participants?
To answer these questions, we spoke with SEED SPOT alumnus Jennifer “Jaki” Johnson, a graduate of our Mental and Behavioral Health Accelerator and the founder of WellMiss, a trauma-informed care clinic. She sat down with us to talk about her business and the ways that SEED SPOT’s Mental and Behavioral Health Accelerator helped her business grow its impact.
First off, I’d love to know a bit more about WellMiss.
Absolutely! WellMiss is a virtual trauma specialty clinic for women. We look at the impact that trauma has on a woman’s heart health, mental health, and physical health. So for the first time, women can come to a clinic and see the impact that a traumatic experience has had on them holistically.
The clinic was born out of my own personal experience of losing my son unexpectedly and dramatically in 2019. His name was Christian. After he passed, I learned I had broken heart syndrome, a leaky heart valve, emotional eating and insomnia. It was a true combination of not only my mind, but also my heart and my body being affected.
At the time I had to pull together my own care team. Having gone through that journey, I would meet other women who were experiencing trauma. They would say, “Hey, I need a care team as well.” I started WellMiss because I saw a true need to help women have a care team that focuses on their trauma all in one place.
What brought you to SEED SPOT?
SEED SPOT’s program was all about impact. In other words, how do you tell your business’s impact story? A lot of programs just focus on pitching. And though we did practice pitching with SEED SPOT, we also talked about many things that other accelerators don’t speak about.
When we went through the VOA Community Health Incubator, offered by SEED SPOT, we honed in on partnerships. That was big for me. I knew that WellMiss was going to grow through partnerships and through relationships. When you’re building a clinic, you want to develop partnerships that can scale and that can be more formalized. SEED SPOT helped us develop the structural, scalable partnerships that we needed to increase our impact.
What advice would you give to entrepreneurs considering our Mental and Behavioral Health Accelerator?
The word that comes to me is time. Every program is meant for a particular time in a business’s lifecycle. We were accepted to SEED SPOT’s Mental and Behavioral Health Accelerator at the perfect time for our business. That wasn’t a mistake. We applied three times, and only on the third try did we get in.
When you’re considering an accelerator, you’re going to come across a million programs. You have to make sure that, when you’re looking at a program, you ask yourself the following questions. Where is my company now? Is my company going to benefit from the resources that the program is offering? Can I use these resources at their highest level? Once you’ve answered these questions, you’ll be able to make a really good decision about which programs to apply for.
When I applied to SEED SPOT, I needed a program that honed in on mental and behavioral health. Though we’re not strictly a mental and behavioral health company, these topics are anchors within our care model. I needed a program that would allow me to talk to different companies that have actually done mental and behavioral health. How did they approach fundraising? How do they look at alternative forms of funding?
During the program, I kept saying to myself, this accelerator is so amazing. I’m learning so much.
Do you have any other advice for entrepreneurs?
I think the biggest thing I’ve learned is to put your consumer first. In the Mental and Behavioral Health Accelerator, I learned you have to address a need and a want. If your company provides something people want but don’t need, you might not succeed. But if your company provides something that is both needed and wanted by customers, you’re going to do really well.
Being able to meet with our patients and learning from them has helped us hone our care model and build patient retention. If you’re constantly in communication and constantly open to learning, you can really make your company better. Just never stop listening.
Ultimately, SEED SPOT’s specialty accelerators help early stage businesses in specific industries grow quickly and sustainably. It’s hard to get things right on your first try, especially in specialized fields like mental and behavioral healthcare. For entrepreneurs like Jennifer “Jaki” Johnson, SEED SPOT helps identify and address potential roadblocks before they become bigger issues. If you’re interested in learning more about our Mental and Behavioral Health Accelerator, check out our programs here.
