(Part II) #thereallifeofanentrepreneur

Epiphany Much

This day didn’t start like all the rest, but with a clarity like none other. I woke with an idea/concept/epiphany of how we could connect individuals with their providers each and every day, collecting vital wellness data/key metrics, fostering better engagement, understanding those in between days better, reducing the overwhelming burdens providers face each and every day. Our collective mantra nationally in behavioral health is truly, “Do More With Less”, because the number of individuals needing services never change, but the budgets are always being cut, reduced, and or reallocated.

At my level of the playing field (on the ground level), updates on how those we work with are doing is maybe bi-monthly at best. At the state level this lag can be even longer, consider 30, 60, 90, 120 days and at federal levels, perhaps tri-annually. How can we ever change this national system for the better if we can’t get the information needed on a daily basis from clients to better focus care in the now. If states can’t get that same information to use and then provide it to the federal government, what then? How can we ever justify treatment modalities that work, allocate resources to where they are truly needed, and create a paradigm shift when there is such a lag time between what is going and on and when action is taken.

I have digressed a bit, lets head back to that morning in the middle of 2014.

This day didn’t start like all the rest but with a clarity like none other. I woke with an idea/concept/epiphany of how we could connect individuals with their providers each and every day, collecting vital wellness data/key metrics, fostering better engagement, teaching self-awareness, understanding those in between days better, reducing the overwhelming burdens providers face each and every day.

A few days passed as I mulled the idea over in my mind. Then talked with the matriarch about my idea/concept/epiphany “what if we could….”. As with many of my “inventive ideas”, she seemed engaged but not overly so. Then after giving it more thought she speculated that this could be a game changer and benefit so many people at so many levels. As with many things, money is always a deciding factor and with that the discussion ended.

Days passed and I continued to map out the idea in my head, scribbles of notes and diagrams on paper.

Then came the call, from my mother, the matriarch supreme. Clearly the clan matriarch had been talking and liked my idea enough to mention it in some detail in a conversation. So, I laid out my idea/concept/epiphany and got the same response, this could be a game changer. Then it was followed with, “I mentioned it to your step dad, you two should talk, he knows people” …

The Super Early Days

A few intense conversations, with a few people in a few locations and suddenly we were on our way. Now armed with a well versed, seasoned and connected co-founder Richard Jackson the path to MVP began.

A gathering of like-minded individuals was brought together to run this concept , that had been taking up so much of my limited gray matters space, by. A thumbs up from the PhD, attorney, masters level clinicians, executive director and others, confirmed a definite and growing need.

With the minimal degrees of separation between my co-founder and so many others, I was lead to the virtual door step of one amazing individual named Lisa Lopuck; google her name and add art work or bio and be amazed. To say that she is amazingly impressive, doesn’t do her justice at all. She literally crawled into my head and helped us wireframe out version 1 of the still yet to be named platform. The end outcome was exactly as I had envisioned it and the ideas began flooding in like a river at near flood level, and so then the true dance then began.

With a co-founder extraordinaire, some initial funding and a set of wire-frames we were off and ready to find our initial audience and development team. The name continued to elude us but, it will come eventually, it will come indeed.

Number of hats: (19)

Up Next:

Part III

We shall call thee

Shoot holes in it, I dare you

(Originally published on the Huffington Post, 4/9/20127)