Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital podcast, where we go down the numbers behind the headlines. Have a wonderful Saturday!
We couldn’t resist jumping on the mics for an extra episode after hearing that meditation app Headspace and on-demand mental health care platform Ginger were joining. Natasha and Alex conducted the chat on Twitter Spaces because we were in the mood for hot takes. The special guests we had on, who we’ll get to later, did not let us down.
It’s a short program, but the takeaway is that you should listen if you’re curious about why a meditation app would move into therapy, the precedent set by Lyra Health and Calm, and how the sector might consolidate in the future. Here are the people that assisted us in comprehending and contextualizing the news:
- OMERS Ventures’ Chrissy Farr (who you may also know as a former CNBC reporter in the health tech space)
- Alyssa Jaffee of 7WireVentures (who needs her own podcast because she was shining during the Spaces)
- Deena Shakir is a Lux Capital partner (who is also coming to Disrupt, incidentally)
And a special shout-out to Ginger CEO Russell Glass, who attended the Space but was unable to speak on stage owing to technical issues, Twitter Spaces are entertaining, but because the technology is still in its infancy, live productions can be plagued by blunders.
We did, however, receive some notes from him via email, so let’s have a look at them:
- He also double-clicked on the topic of future “significant market consolidation,” stating that he expects it to happen “particularly” in “areas that handle higher acuity treatment for serious mental illness.”
- Glass agreed with “what Chrissy Farr and others said about there simply not being enough therapists in the market today to meet the overwhelming demand,” and added that there is a “real global need today for what Headspace Health can offer — a scaled, comprehensive platform that can truly democratize mental healthcare.”
Make sure you’re following us on Twitter so you don’t miss out when we go live. Because these are supposed to be impromptu pop-up shows, you’ll want to turn on notifications so you don’t miss any of our Spaces. That’s all there is to it. Thank you all very much!
