Blackboxer Spotlight: Nick Tong and Ry Morgan
Unmind // United Kingdom // Blackbox Connect 9

2016 was an eventful year for Nick and Ry, participants of the ninth edition of Blackbox Connect, powered by Google For Entrepreneurs. One year after completing the program in 2015, Nick parted ways with Compare and Share, the sharing economy aggregation platform he had founded a few years earlier. A few months later, he accepted an offer to be the CTO of Unmind, a startup building a B2B mental health platform. Ry, on the other hand, was busy checking off deliverables at the company that had recently acquired Yomp, his own workplace wellness venture. Satisfied though he was with this exit, he was unsure of what his next steps would be.
Fast forward to late 2016 when Nick, having cultivated a close friendship with Ry from their time together at Blackbox Connect, reached out requesting an introduction to a London-based investor.
“When Nick mentioned what he was up to at Unmind, I told him we need to meet for coffee,” Ry recalls.
The timing was uncanny. Equipped with the insights, experience, and contacts from the health and wellness company he had just exited, Ry came on board as CPO to help Unmind develop product, partnerships, and more. Within a month — just two days into 2017 — Ry was sitting down with Nick and the team, preparing to help them launch the platform.
Looking back, Nick and Ry credit much of the strength of their relationship to the environment of openness and vulnerability created at Blackbox Connect:
“It was such a relief to be in an environment that didn’t expect you to always be crushing it. Not having to carry around the weight of that expectation all the time allowed us to better ourselves in the moment and help each other along the way.”
The attitude and approach of the speakers, fellow entrepreneurs, and team members at Blackbox Connect came together to create a space that allowed founders to connect with each other on a meaningful and authentic level. When asked to share a moment from the program that stuck with him, Nick responds immediately: “One of the major disarming moments for me was Mike Maples’ session. He had a level of respect and appreciation for what we were doing as entrepreneurs that was really encouraging and stayed with me.”

Today, Nick, Ry, and their wider team are working hard on growing Unmind, having just launched their initial pilots. Their positive, proactive approach to supporting mental health has piqued the interest of clients, insurers and investors alike — helping to secure enterprise contracts and seed investment at a relatively early-stage.
Looking back at their journey, Ry notes, “Nick and I built a rapport during morning runs while attending Blackbox; so it seems apt that luck would bring us back together for a wellbeing venture years later… albeit this one is admittedly more of a marathon than just a quick sprint!”
