- YC-backed mental health and psychedelic startup Osmind raises $40 million Series B
- Improving electronic health records for treatment and research
- Personal insights from following Osmind’s journey
- The pace of fundraising that is possible with proper execution and strong signals
- Strategic acquisitions for the growth of customers
- Building a community to learn quickly and create a competitive moat
#osmind #psychedelics #fundraise #mentalhealth #psychedelicstartup #ehr #digitalhealthrecords #seriesB #yc #ycombinator
Resources
https://www.linkedin.com/in/luciayhuang
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimmyjqian
YouTube Video
Automated Transcription
Hello Hello Tyler Bryden here very excited today to talk about a company that I’ve followed for a long time and have had the pleasure to meet the cofounders of early in this journey and that company is called OSMIN. It’s a second elic startup and really they’re focused on electronic health records and how can we do a better job with data making it more digitized and learning from it and they really look through the lens of psychedelics and ketamine treatment and have had an amazing run here with some. You know, just some exponential increase in funding and speed, and I’ve I’ve learned a lot from their journey from following up both closely and now more from afar and and watching and seeing them grow. So what I wanted to do today was just share some some lessons, some insights from following that journey. Maybe inform you about a really interesting company that’s doing some, I believe, important work and and hopefully that can help you on on your own journey so quickly. You know, why am I?
Interested in this, I’ve had my own journey with psychedelics. I see the just unbelievable potential for healing with them and we’re in a very delicate time after. I mean on top of all the information and everything else that’s going on in the world. We’ve come out of this pandemic. We’re heading into a recession. There are so many challenges from a mental health and then not just mental health but a overall, well-being, positive feeling of life that that is going to continue to be challenged. And and we’re also going to see downstream.
Facts from what? The last few years have done on it, and so companies, organizations working in this space trying to treat mental health. It’s very important work that is being done and with Osman. What I’ve liked about them just from knowing them seem like good people and have then tried to build that into their structure by being registered B Corporation, which I don’t really sort of advocates or moves towards. This idea of the triple bottom line, how can we obviously grow the business but help the world and help help help people help to plan it.
Kind of thing, so a lot of good stuff that has come from that just. You know, in my in the journey more professionally, we had applied some of speak AI technology to psychedelics, especially in the early stage with I think, the crescendo of excitement around the space and especially before the last few sort of months or year of volatility and challenges that then the markets faced with more high risk stocks but saw an unbelievable world there where there was so much potential to do it. To to apply technology in a valuable way. But then also, I think a lot of challenges to do this correctly to do this without bias to do this with the insight and perspective of health, you know healthcare professionals. And then the the the just incredible nuance or difference between people on how you treat them and what is the best way to do this. So I ran through the gamut of different applications and how this could be applied and seeing where some of the strength lies and then some of the challenges are.
And I’ve again really enjoyed the way that at least osmin is working on this problem. Bringing health care professionals in and that starts from a ground level with the actual founders of the organization. I’ll help quickly hop in just to do a little bit of a deep dive on them. This is the wonderful Lucia, awesome person, and one of the lessons or one of the insights that I’ve I’ve gathered from them. Here is just this power of.
Getting supported by why combinators? So they were in 2020 I believe one of the first second. Companies funded by why commentator that were related to psychedelics, Gilgamesh, I believe, was the other, and now there have been a few few more but that sort of signal that strong signal from YC as an investment that has then allowed them to continue this amazing fundraising fundraising streak. I believe starting with $15 million Series A and then moving into a 40 million Series B This was announced the 40 million Series B was announced just recently. And you know, I’m guessing they sort of continued their sort of increase in valuation even through. Again, this sort of volatile time where that’s follow falling, and I think it sounds like they brought this together to this money together, right in the right amount of time to give them some good runway. Allow them to continue to grow, and then, probably, you know, execute even, really not in an aggressive way, but in a tactical way over the next few years, as some of the people that they are competing with in quotation marks.
Everyone’s trying to make mental health better. Maybe don’t have the same access to capital, so why see an incredibly strong signal? Opens up doors and then allows you to fundraise, and this was much, you know, different. You know experience then from myself, which we had had, you know, a gone through the interview process with YC. Had the talk with Michael Seibel. And just because of the stage of the business we’re in and sort of multiple applications as well as a lot of consulting revenue said we were doing sort of too much and with that was a it was a little bit of a disappointing moment.
But you learn from that, you grow. But then you will see the passive people who have that excessive journey where it’s basically a preset pre credited amount of companies that come through and have easier access to capital and Osman. And very, you know, intelligently capitalized on that and then has continued to grow the the the business there. Other part that was really fascinating to me was just the power of strategic acquisitions in this and so this was a very early stage and something that this mood monitor organization was just a small team. I had pleasure to meet with a couple of people while we were exploring some of the use cases within ketamine clinics and how it could be applied to mental health and psychedelics. How technology could be applied and really.
This is as simple as it was. It was SMS to allow you to allow academian treatment provider to be in touch with the patient and then that patient could basically send a scale rating one to 10 and it would build out a pH Q9 profile to then help treatment providers monitor and also understand when someone should be coming in for another treatment and what the crazy thing was. This was a small team awesome guy. Some two guys, one who worked with Zapier, Zapier. However you say it and then another guy who was just privately working on this with his own experience of ketamine and they were in like 200 clinics. It maybe 190 and not sure the exact number at that time but just very small and just really working at this thousand when Osman was able to get access to the capital they got. You know we’re in touch with mood monitor and then made an acquisition so that.
Acquisition then allowed them to adopt the customer base. That mood monitor had continued to upscale that technology. I’m sure just elaborate more and more and build, you know, so much more. On top of this. But to me was just an amazing sign of execution in a signal of how if you get access to capital and then you’re strategic and you execute, you can buy a company for. I’m guessing relatively good price or a good arrangement that then allows you to to excel, and so that was something.
Another lesson that I’ve learned is if you do have that capital and you have the ability, there are strategic ways to buy companies that actually help your business grow. Help you adopt these customers and it can be a pivotal moment for you to then gain the traction you need to continue the growth. Continue the fundraising journey and everything there so. You know that the the piece that I’m really fascinated and I’ll just take a look at their site. They’ve done a wonderful rebrand here. I mean not, not rebrand fully but just nice design, nice new website and you know with what we’ve seen from YC, what’s been really, you know, fascinating is once. Once you get that, you start to get features on different articles. You know big big ones, which obviously builds credibility and then allows you to invest. And then you know.
Require really talented people to then join the mission, so that’s something I’ve seen continued as they they hire more people. I’ve really been impressed with the quality of people, their roles, and what you see is then these people. When you have that opportunity to hire, they come in with their experience and then they start to execute even better. And then it’s left to the cofounders to be. You know, advocates continue to be faces and show up at discussions and do really good work. But with the right people with the right teams.
It obviously doesn’t get easier when when problems like when our problems are as big as this, but it does allow you to. Sort of focus on the things that you need to focus on as CEO and CEO, and then let the other team members take take place. Take take, you know, take care of the things that they need to, so that’s something else that I’ve seen from sort of this journey that they’ve gone on. The ability to raise capital and then the ability to raise really get really talented people on their team. And one other point that I think was really amazing that they just did right away that.
I find to be, you know, in this world today what they is an important part of any company success, which is this idea of building a Community and and the reason is building a there’s many reasons to build a community. First is just a good thing to do, especially when you’re looking at mental health treatment and people are going through, say, ketamine treatment as an example and then they’re having these powerful experiences as life changing experiences and they’re looking for people, other people to connect with to talk about and look at topics. And you can see the kind of topics that are then. He you know talked about and you can see that there are actual replies, there’s views. There’s real activity in this community, so that’s an amazing part of.
The work that can be or what can be built. The value that can be built if you’re a company focusing on community and so they almost built this like Reddit like wiki, sort of conversation forum and with that it also gives you this incredible feedback and intelligence on what matters most to the people who are in the community. Who in a way somewhat are your customers. And then obviously you’re learning to then make your platform better for the the the treatment providers who are then serving these patients so so much good stuff that can come here and then the other piece. There is that this builds of really amazing competitive mode. So when you have this community when you have all these people now they found an amazing place where there’s a forum. There’s discussion points with this organization and all of a sudden you have the ability to protect that you become a well known organization, you you become.
Sort of associated with this community. Experience the conversations that are happening there and so. If you are here and all of a sudden you get really great advice or you connect with someone and you have a great moment or talking about you know getting prepared for a ketamine treatment and then all of a sudden you know that advice helps you have a better treatment. You’re thankful for that experience you’re thankful for Osmond for creating that community for bringing that community together, and that goes beyond the value of how many, many things? So that’s something I’m I know, a huge advocate and believer in very excited to continue.
See how they sort of just foster this community, especially in a time where this. This treatment is becoming more and more popular. People are struggling more and more, and they’re at sort of their wits end and looking for alternative treatments, and often because of some of the I guess the Gray lines of legality seek ketamine as one of those ways to do it so. Try to think if there’s anything else that I want to hop. Hop in and talk about here, but just I guess quickly where the cofounders come from. Does have an impact so not that they are not that they are. You know previous, crazy successful founders. They’re amazing talented people, but the education they Yale, the Stanford Jimmy and them Jimmy also met at Stanford, so they talk about sort of this trifecta.
Of. Like qualities of founders that then get funded, especially in early stages like YC and things like this. Those credibility, those social signals are really strong with this team and then that’s allowed them to also reduce the friction during fundraising. And then I I think, just because they have executed, they’ve got a good brand. You have all these things that then have stacked together to disguise community. They’ve got a great product with really good reviews. They acquired the customers that they need and have eaten up sort of the market share.
Again, it’s a sort of cooperative space all trying to solve mental health, but there’s only so many clinics that can be served and using certain technologies, and Osmond has done an incredible job. All those stacked together to make them an exception. An exceptional company. In this space, one that I’m excited that I’ve had the chance to connect with and also just follow and learn from as I’m reflecting and looking at my own journey through speak I and then also trying to build some connections and communities specifically within psychedelics with the Forest City psychedelic meet up group and all the amazing stuff that has come from that and all the beautiful people that I’ve met through that community who are trying to figure out how to bring this this kind of treatment to the larger. World to the mainstream to help people grow to help people heal and that’s something I’m continued to be passionate about. We continue to follow and continue to support, so maybe this isn’t something you’re as deep into, but there was some lessons that you learned from Oz mind here. Grateful to have met them and if anything more exciting comes from their journey, which I’m sure it will. I will be happy to to share more. So thank you for everything you doing his mind and thank you for checking this out. I really appreciate it. Bye bye.
