ATAI Life Sciences’ IPO Taught Me to Dream Big in Mental Health

Last week What If Ventures celebrated the IPO of portfolio company, atai Life Sciences which went public on the Nasdaq and quickly traded up to a nearly $3 billion valuation on its first day (CNBC article on IPO here).

The Company, is biopharmaceutical drug development company that leverages a decentralized platform approach to incubate and accelerate the development of highly effective mental health treatments that address the unmet needs of people like me who have suffered from things like addiction and bipolar disorder among other indications.

The primary reason I started investing in this space was because of my own personal experience struggling with addiction and mental illness. I nearly lost my life to addiction and a battle with bipolar disorder that lasted for 17 years (my story here). I was one of the lucky few people who get help and survive. It’s really unfortunate that luck has anything to do with accessing affordable and effective mental health care in our world today.

Thank You Christian For Showing Me How to Dream

When I began investing in mental health startups in January 2020 I didn’t even have a sense of how our market would evolve in such a short time. I connected with Christian Angermayer in early 2020 and we…