MMV Invests in PeerCollective
We’re happy to announce MedMountain Ventures’ investment in PeerCollective. PeerCollective provides high-quality, low-cost peer counseling. They have a unique hiring process that identifies people with outsize potential to be peer coaches. The founders, Tim and Kyle, are authentic to the space. Tim’s an academic clinical psychotherapist and prior Google subject matter expert. Kyle’s a founder of a software development firm and prior worked as an executive communication coach.
Right now, digital mental health is in crisis. There’s increasing concern from regulators and national media about whether companies in the space provide inappropriate and dangerous care to drive growth. Even if the scrutiny has focused on a small number of firms, it will likely erode public trust and invite regulatory intervention. The companies that can sincerely demonstrate their dedication to quality will come out ahead in this crisis.
While prioritizing clinical quality seems cliche in healthcare circles, it actually is a radical attitude to take.
As physicians and as VCs, we love that PeerCollective obsesses over data-driven patient quality. Among their different initiatives, I want to highlight their hiring workflow. They have a proprietary hiring process based on Tim’s prior research to identify factors that predict successful therapeutic alliance. These factors differ from the factors that predict high wages for psychotherapists and counselors in the status quo. This process creates an opportunity for them to provide better care at cheaper cost than legacy systems. In addition to wage arbitrage, this business model has the positive externality of bringing a more diverse community of counselors into the industry.
While prioritizing clinical quality seems cliche in healthcare circles, it actually is a radical attitude to take. It involves being willing to forego easy growth in favor of maintaining high quality. It requires investment both in maintaining workforce skills and in tracking patient experiences. Successful organizations must be willing to confront their own biases in order to overcome them. The former are significant financial investments, and the latter requires a significant emotional investment from all employees.
Companies that can push the quality frontier (the best theoretical quality at a given price) can transform industries. We’re betting that PeerCollective can provide better quality care for a lower price. This is apropos. With a possible recession looming, we hope this service will provide better care for folks seeking help currently and make the possibility of care available to many millions more who’re priced out.
Check out PeerCollective. If you’d like to learn more, feel free to leave a comment or send me a note at saumitra@mmv.vc.
