REAL, ARIELA SAFIRA: The New Way to Therapy

Mental healthcare may be synonymous with self-care in certain circles, but the truth is only a small percentage of the US population actually goes to therapy. Affordability is a huge issue - for over 40% of the population, high cost and poor insurance coverage is the top barrier for accessing mental health services. It’s also difficult to even get into the room, with waits of weeks or more for those seeking treatment for the first time. Ariela Safira, the founder of Real, is working to expand access to mental healthcare and provide an alternative to the traditional and sometimes flawed system. 

Ariela Safira has dedicated her entire life to understanding the state of mental healthcare today and is bringing her thoughtful approach to an entirely new model for therapy. We talked to Ariela about her company and the experiences that helped her look at the entire system through a new lens. 

The Childhood 

Ariela Safira is a hustler from New Jersey, where she was raised by parents of two different ethnicities and cultures (Yemeni Jewish and Polish Catholic). She tells us her parents’ different approaches to life impacted the way she thinks, allowing her to challenge and question why the world works the way it does. Ariela didn’t have explicit entrepreneurial tendencies as a child, but thanks her parents for teaching her how to negotiate at an early age and opening her mind up to the importance of mental health. 

“I think mental healthcare is a much bigger part of my upbringing than entrepreneurialism itself,” Ariela said. “My father was raised in a commune, so he loves the world and cares deeply about his friends and his family, and taught me what it means to empathize and care for others. We didn't have the language to use the words therapy or psychiatry, but definitely thought about what it means for someone to be understood vs. not understood.” 

Ariela went to undergrad at Stanford, where she studied math and computer science and spent a lot of time in the product design department. When a close friend of hers went through a significant mental health struggle, Ariela was exposed to the mental healthcare system as it is today - severe, institutional inpatient programs and disjointed care, that isn't designed around the patient’s whole wellbeing. 

“It was the first time I saw a rehab, the first time I saw what therapy and meds looked like with a mature mindset,” Ariela said. “I didn’t think the system made sense so I pretty much threw myself at it.”

While at Stanford, Ariela participated in a class called Innovation in Mental Health, which she applied to using her initial concept for Real. The instructor, Dr. Nina Vasan, ultimately became Real’s Chief Medical Officer (but more on that later)!

Postgrad, Ariela spent time working at IDEO (founder David Kelly is also the founder of Stanford’s Design School), where she dove into research and innovation studying the mental healthcare system as it relates to design. After interviewing dozens of people who have participated in mental healthcare institutions like providers, architects, administrators, and the patients themselves, Ariela discovered that there is not a lot of thought and logic that goes into the design of mental health facilities. One example she uses is that although doctors instruct nearly every patient in inpatient care to exercise, the institutions themselves will not be set up with exercise equipment.

“There aren't people in the field who are questioning this,” Ariela said. “The majority of the people in the field are clinicians, and it’s not their job to think about how we redesign the system.” 

Destined to expand her approach to mental healthcare in some form, Ariela began a graduate degree with Columbia’s Clinical Psychology program to become a therapist. She quickly realized that the traditional path was not for her - she wanted to rethink the entire system rather than join it. Thus, a founder was born. Bada boom. 

“While I was at Columbia I saw how problematic the system is from a training perspective. It’s both damaging to the therapist and the end clients. So I dropped out of the program to found Real,” Ariela said. 

Ariela dedicated herself to Real full-time in 2019 and brought on Dr. Nina Vasan as CMO (Chief Medical Officer) to oversee and validate the clinical efficacy of all therapeutic programs. Fun fact: Gwyneth Paltrow is also an investor in the company. 

The Real Model

“The actual experience of therapy is intimidating - to go to a room with a stranger for 45 minutes and just talk about where you're at. We don't have the language to talk about body image, infidelity. We have to take ten steps back and understand how to talk about our mental health.” - Ariela Safira

Launched in April 2020 at the onset of the COVID Pandemic (what timing - the world needs therapy now more than ever), Real started with a brick-and-mortar studio concept that rapidly pivoted into a completely accessible, digital care model. The initial digital program, Real to the People, was launched in 8 days when the need for online care became obvious. Now the online platform is a full-scale program focused on group therapy, with therapist-led roundtable pathways and dedicated curriculums around specific areas of need.

More importantly. what makes Real’s therapy model unique is its quantitative, achievement-oriented coursework. Members complete various modules and levels of treatment when working through Real’s curriculums, and all of the progress is tracked so improvements can be measured (That’s a first!).  Data on upcoming therapy and completion stats are available to members at all times through Real’s website. Also unique about Real’s approach? No wait times, stuffy Midtown office, or uncomfortable couch required.

“At this point, we have an omnichannel approach to care,” Ariela said. “There is a brick-and-mortar studio format, with our first studio in Flatiron in Manhattan, and this digital platform, that truly democratizes care.”

Ariela views success as creating a world where the norm is that everyone takes care of their mental health. She wants access and participation in therapy to be the mainstream, not a luxury or something extra. True to that goal, Real’s memberships cost less than $30 a month and are available in a variety of time commitments. 

“We’re targeting the therapy curious. Not those that have already felt comforted by or can afford today's mental healthcare system,” Areila said. “I think the vast majority of people are at a place where they do want to understand themselves more deeply, whether it's because they identify as being clinically depressed or want to better get to know themselves.”

On Building a Team

“You should be hiring people who are here to work on a mission and not on a specific product. I don't remember a time when I had to motivate the team to work on the digital platform.” - Ariela 

Ariela tells us it is equally important to find the right people to hire as it is to nurture the team you build. Early hires at Real were a head of experience, a head of marketing, and Taryn Laeben (of other success stories Mirror and Casper) as interim COO, who Ariela now sees as a pseudo-co-founder. Ariela’s approach to hiring - build out a document that lists the companies, in any space, who are setting the bar for success in each area of expertise you need. Once you have a sense of the landscape, start the poach.

“Look at companies that were successful in what you’re looking for, whether it's launching a new partnership targeting a certain demographic,” Ariela said. “All efforts go into recruiting those 8-10 people [who made it happen]. Don't waste time on people who aren't a good fit - find your tier 1 folks and don’t talk to anyone else until you've talked to those people.”

As for how she fits into her team, Ariela sees herself as an endless researcher, always pushing boundaries and asking why. 

“Deep curiosity fuels innovation more than confidence,” Ariela said. 

The Advice 

Ariela has spent her career asking questions about one industry, and now she’s turning it on its head. We asked her advice for those looking to take on traditional systems with a new approach.

• Do sleep.

• Be open to questioning yourself, and be able to share when you've changed your opinion with new information.

• Be mindful of the areas you aren’t strong in. Be open and interested to learn what you don’t know.

Ready to level up from therapy-curious? Check out Real at https://www.join-real.com/. 

 Photo courtesy of Real.

Written by Kendall Embs.

LANTERN, LIZ EDDY: Prepping for Death

Death is a part of life. It’s the one thing every single human being has in common: we will all experience the death of a loved one, and eventually our own. Planning for the future is uncomfortable to many, and dealing with a loved one’s legacy after their death is a heavy load to place on the plate of someone who is grieving. Lantern is a new company lighting the way with a set of solutions that guide people through every step of the pre-death planning or end of life process. CEO and Co-Founder Liz Eddy is extremely mission-driven by nature as a result of her own life experiences with grief, and she’s the perfect person to build the tools we all will need when dealing with death. 

Childhood and Background

Liz grew up in suburban New Jersey with the cosmopolitan influence of Manhattan ever-present in her community. Her earliest endeavors focused on improving the lives of others and educating people on tough topics - in middle school, Liz won the Cease Fire New Jersey essay contest with her piece on gun control. When she was 15, she started a company with two friends that provided a curriculum around dating abuse and domestic violence to her high school. Organic growth took over and quickly the curriculum was used in high schools and universities across the country!

“It made me completely fall in love with the startup energy and pace, but also made me realize I needed to be doing mission-driven work. I loved the idea of doing things around topics people weren’t talking about,” Liz said.

Liz went into a full-time role in mission-oriented work at DoSomething.org right out of undergrad (Liz has a Business and Design degree from Parsons!). Through DoSomething, she became an early team member at the Crisis Text Line, the first free, 24/7, national support line in the US. Her skills in communication and community building made her the right fit to jump into developing the entire go-to-market strategy for the project, at the age of 23.

“It was this strange thing where I felt totally unqualified but our team was like, ‘Hey, we’re launching to people in your age group - you know what people are looking at; you know how people are going to find this.' We ended up reaching every area code in the US within 3 months, faster growth than Facebook.”

The Aha Moment

“Grief is a sort of superpower. I think grief has made me very resilient, very focused, really passionate, but on the flip side, you deal with the loss and the lacking of that person and the fear of other losses. It's a counterbalance.” - Liz Eddy 

Liz’s intimate experiences with grief and loss compelled her to create the solution now offered through Lantern. She lost her father as a young girl, and in 2018 she lost her grandmother. Liz was tasked with handling all of the arrangements for her Grandmother’s funeral and legacy and found many obstacles in navigating the process, on top of dealing with grief. 

“I expected Lantern to already exist because there’s a startup option for everything on the planet. I thought you could find all the information consolidated into one place,” Liz said. “For the end of life and death, it’s super fragmented and expensive, especially online. It was hard to find help in a tough situation.” 

So, Liz set out to create the company she wished she had found at the time - a guiding light for dealing with a death or planning for your own. Lantern offers a step-by-step checklist that helps you cover every base of funeral planning, documentation, and closing out any personal affairs for a loved one you’ve lost. The Lantern system also enables you to create your own end of life plan with detailed guides and support. Lantern’s goal is to lighten the burden of coping with the end of life and death. 

“One of the things that I'm the most excited about is creating a way for the end of life planning to become the norm. I think we are very comfortable at this point thinking about retirement and getting life insurance set up. Those are things that are directly discussing death. It’s something we do and we move on, but the end of life planning isn't like that yet. It's more of an uncomfortable thing, and that’s what needs to change. Lantern as a product is a piece of a larger puzzle of changing the way we talk about death,” Liz said.

Alyssa Ruderman (on left), and Liz Eddy (on right).

On Finding A Co-Founder 

When looking to start Lantern, Liz turned to a long-time work bestie from her days at DoSomething.org, Alyssa Ruderman, who now serves as COO. Liz credits Alyssa with being a brilliant systems thinker who likes to solve tough problems. 

“Alyssa and I were naturally meant to be Co-Founders. Our relationship is built on ideas. We own so many domain names. Nothing had ever sunk in like, we should leave our jobs for this, until Lantern,” Liz said.

Looking ahead, Liz and the team are focused on building the Lantern product to serve enterprise customers and working on partnerships and affiliate strategy. Closing a fundraising round this fall, Liz is optimistic about the future for her rapidly growing category.

“One of the things I like to remind people is we are only touching such a small population at this point because we're fighting against something people aren’t talking about. As a business we can't just be a product, we have to be starting a movement. We’re trying to create conversation in the larger cultural context, and bring together the industry as a whole,” Liz said.

The Advice

Liz is a passionate founder working in an industry that requires an extra degree of compassion and care. Follow her advice to turn your ambitions into reality:

• If someone is creating something really phenomenal and doing what you want to do, join them instead of duplicating it.
  

• On the flip side, if what you want to do doesn't exist or you can do it in a way no one else can, don't let anyone stop you.
  

• Someone doesn't have to lose for you to win - you don't need to step on anyone to get to where you want to go.
  

• Operate your business with kindness and treat people with kindness. As entrepreneurs, we should be raising each other up!
  

If you’re facing the difficulties of a loved one’s death or are ready to think about what you want regarding your own, Lantern is here to make it not-so-scary! Explore their resources and get the checklist here.

Photo courtesy of Lantern.

Written by Kendall Embs.

EDN, RYAN WOLTZ: The Efficient Grower

It's a commonly held belief - no home or office is complete without a little foliage. Indoor plants reduce the stress of those around them, purify the air, and provide a sense of purpose to their caretakers. Those benefits, as well as the opportunity to grow herbs or leafy greens, make healthy plants a highly desired item for apartment dwellers and people looking to bring the outdoors inside. Founder and CEO Ryan Woltz combined his engineering background and love of nature to create Edn, a complete indoor gardening system that enables anyone to grow a variety of plants on their countertop. 

From his time as a collegiate serial entrepreneur through the ringer of Shark Tank, we got the inside scoop from Ryan on Edn’s origins and what we can expect as the innovative company grows (pun intended).

“As a young kid, I was always super interested in computers and robots, that type of stuff, but also being outside in nature.” - Ryan

When looking back at his childhood, Ryan showed the signs of a budding founder as early as the 3rd grade when he participated in an entrepreneurship program at his elementary school in Pittsburg. His early endeavors and participation in sports fostered his competitive edge, and while at Clemson for college he simultaneously ran several businesses. Talk about being a hustler! 

“I had a newspaper, a t-shirt company, a moving company, we made ice luges, I also made jewelry,” Ryan said. “The newspaper advertised parties, and I was the social chair that planned those parties. I had a pretty good business going on.” 

Ryan also dove deep into studying civil engineering and spent the money he made in his businesses experimenting with chemicals in thermochromic dye and color-changing fabrics. The application he was ideating was totally novel at the time but was later commercialized by several companies that took it to market separately from his collegiate experiments.

The Aha Moment

“I thought being a civil engineer meant I'd be outdoors solving problems, but I started missing nature,” Ryan said. “I bought houseplants, but I always forgot to water them and take care of them. As opposed to running out and getting more plants each time I was forgetful, I thought there had to be a better way.”

Ryan had worked as an engineer for over two years when he built and programmed his own automatic watering system for his once-neglected houseplants. 

“It looked crazy at the time but I thought it had potential. I could no longer screw up gardening,” Ryan said.

In 2015, with the idea for Edn and an early prototype under his belt, Ryan quit his day job and chose Denver as the city where he was going to build his company. He began developing different solutions for indoor gardening and got into Techstars where he had a crash course in pitching, team building, and goal setting. For Ryan, one accelerator was not enough - he also took his company through the XRC Labs program!  

“Being ok with failure is important, that's the only way you will succeed.”

In 2017 Ryan had just closed his first round of funding for Edn when he had the opportunity to pitch on the TV show Shark Tank. He showcased the prototype for Edn’s SmallGarden, which is a tech-enabled planter that gives its users an instant green thumb with built-in lights and soilless seed pods.

Ryan gave us a behind-the-scenes review of the Shark Tank process, which starts with a pitch to producers that results in many participants being cut before pitching the Sharks. The final pitch lasts over an hour, and Ryan successfully obtained 2 offers before declining to take any funding (note to Shark Tank junkies - the terms offered are notoriously unfavorable to the entrepreneurs). With four months until the episode aired, Ryan had to produce the SmallGarden on an aggressive schedule to meet the demand that would come from exposure on the show.

“We got 1000 units made. I set up an assembly line, warehouse, and we manufactured them all in Colorado,” Ryan said. “I learned a ton about building products at scale, and when you make them yourself you realize they should be as simple as possible. When Shark Tank aired we sold $100,000 worth of gardens.”

By the summer of 2018 Edn had developed its next iteration of the SmallGarden, which added functionality and is controlled via a convenient app. The app allows users to control the amount of light exposure and water release which ultimately controls how fast or slow your plant grows. Hence, if you are traveling and won’t be back for some time, you can slow down the growth for your lovely fruits and vegetables so that they don’t go to waste. 

“We completely simplified it - it has only 16 parts, which include the automated garden, LEDs, water sensors and wifi connection. We injection-molded all of our plastic this time,” Ryan said.

“This operating system brings nature indoors and into the 21st century.” 

Ryan’s time is now focused on positioning Edn to be the best choice for people who want to bring the joy of plants into their homes. 

“People love plants for so many different reasons,” Ryan said. “ You can eat them, but they also are beautiful, they can make you more productive, they smell nice. There are all the use cases and we don’t want to be scattered in our approach.”

Edn is planning to roll out more ways for people to win the green thumb war. Keep an eye out for larger plants in the product line, and for talk of Edn in the press. They’ve been featured on the Today Show, and continuously get organic media traction.

“We’ve been super lucky - people are really interested in our space. I think the product and the vision has a lot to do with it,” Ryan said.

The Advice

By our calculation, Ryan is at least a fifth-time founder! Here are his tips for anyone at the helm of a burgeoning business:

• As the CEO you have to work on the business, not in the business.

• Be confident in yourself but lean on your support system.

• Spend time building your time and realize you can’t do everything yourself.

• Understand that you are going to wear many hats as a founder and business leader.
  

Can’t seem to keep your plants alive or looking to grow an indoor vegetable garden during Covid? Grow with Edn here. 

Photo courtesy of Edn. 

Written by Kendall Embs.