Mental Health in the Startup - How do I strengthen the resilience of my team as a founder for "hard times"? From B2C to B2B - Kim Breuer Likeminded

Likeminded founder Kim Breuer on mental health, the switch from B2C to B2B, and decision-making between KPI and gut feeling.

You can listen to the full podcast interview here.

Kim Breuer, a psychologist by training, has dedicated her start-up to an area that is close to her heart: Because although mental health is a topic that almost everyone deals with in one way or another, it is still a taboo. What's more, there's a lack of services that make it easier for people to access the resources and help they need. In 2020, she and her co-founders launched "Likeminded," a platform that helps people access a variety of mental health services:?

"At the end of the day, it's about giving people a platform that is as intuitive and easily accessible as possible through which they can get psychological support and educate themselves around mental health. We want to bring about a change in society with regard to this topic area and also encourage companies to become more involved with mental health," says the founder, summarizing the mission of her start-up.?

For her, the decision to start a company is part of a larger vision. That's because not only she, but all of her co-founders have a personal connection to mental health:?

"Everyone in our founding team has had touch points with the topic. We understood that it was a mission to which we personally wanted to dedicate ourselves,"

explains the young entrepreneur: "Especially in Europe, we have an extreme shortage of psychotherapists. You have to wait a long time for an appointment and there is less education about the subject. I've always wondered why we don't learn about it in school."

To achieve their goal of helping as many people as possible in the mental health field, the founding team had to make the tough decision to move from a B2C model to a B2B business model. It was a pivot that wasn't necessarily easy:?

"Our mission is to reach as many people as possible. So B2C was more obvious at first, because it allows you to reach the masses. It was also clear to us that the healthcare sector in Germany is difficult and we looked for models that are also affordable for self-payers,"

says the founder looking back. The first idea was to offer group therapies and thus shorten waiting times while at the same time pushing down the price of working with a psychologist. Unfortunately, too few clients willing to pay were found for this approach:?

"We took off in the B2C market and then realized that even the price of a group session was still too expensive for many. In addition, mental health is still a new and fearful topic for many. We had chosen an innovative format that people had to be told about first. Getting that across to people at all is a big challenge," says the young entrepreneur, summing up the problem.?

In the end, the team decided to switch to a B2B model in order to reach more people this way:?

"The feeling that it can really fly never happened with B2C,"

reflects Kim Breuer: "For us, it was that we did a lot of testing to find our product market fit. At some point, though, you have to look at the numbers and ask the honest question of whether you're working on the right model."?

To gain a clearer view of the state of affairs, the team decided to hold itself accountable using clear KPIs:?

"We then set ourselves targets at some point and said, if these three KPIs are not achieved by this point, then we'll make that and the decision,"

reflects Kim Breuer, adding,

"It's important to have agreed on numbers together beforehand. Because then it's easier to make a decision."?

?In addition, the founding team involved their own employees in the process of finding solutions and making decisions through several workshops:?

"We had three sessions with the entire team and even votes at the end. In the end, the majority decided to go the B2B route. It was a good feeling to know that the whole team stuck together and came to the same conclusion together."?

After the switch to B2B, things started to become smoother: "Suddenly, the first feelings of success came, which we didn't know from the B2C market. That's when we realized as a founding team how motivating that is and how important such feelings of success are for the team."?

In general, the newly emerging success has had a very positive effect on the mood in the company:?

"We have a more stable basic mood overall," says the entrepreneur, trying to put the change since the pivot into words: "You always go through ups and downs, but it was as if the curve of ups and downs had been put one floor higher. And that's only because the basic assumption that we're doing something that works, helps people and is embraced by them is validated for now."?

Above all, experience has shown her that company success is a crucial factor in employee satisfaction:?

"Of course, as a manager, you are responsible for motivating employees and can leverage a lot with culture and other factors, but that's nothing compared to the actual success of the company," reflects the founder. She advises other young entrepreneurs not to lose sight of the larger mission and to listen more to their gut feeling:?

"Gut feeling usually already knows the right path. My biggest learning was that my intuition is something I can rely on. Of course, you should still set the KPIs around it to hedge your bets. Still, I would advise other founders: Believe your intuition."

Inspired??If you want to learn more about Kim Breuer's mission, her learnings from moving to B2B, and her approach between KPI and gut feeling, listen in to the podcast interview.