One Mind Accelerator

 

Shaping a Hopeful Future for Mental Health through Innovation & Entrepreneurship

The One Mind Accelerator backs bold and determined founders of early-stage startups with the network, education and capital to build category-defining companies that radically improve the lives of people facing mental health challenges.

Launched in 2023, the highly competitive program selects a cohort of 10-12 startups each year from over 100+ applicants. The companies span care model innovations to diagnostics and treatments, and are prioritized for serious mental illness, youth mental health, maternal mental health, and precision psychiatry.

Designed from the ground up with a specific focus on mental health, the selected founders participate in nine weeks of programming, with in-person opening and closing weeks in Menlo Park, CA. The program leverages One Mind’s vast and influential network of leaders and domain experts to help the startups take their innovations to market faster and with greater impact for people facing mental illness.

Supported by leading philanthropists and corporations, the One Mind Accelerator seeks to usher in a new  era of value-based, affordable, accessible, equitable and personalized mental healthcare. 

Get Involved with the One Mind Accelerator

2025 One Mind Accelerator Applications are Now Open

Apply Now!

Key Benefits for Founders

Mentoring

Receive advice, coaching, and hands on training from top-tier mentors across the mental health ecosystem and beyond to fast-track your company building activities.

Community

Become a part of One Mind’s multi-stakeholder network of individuals and organizations with a strong commitment to helping one another to advance mental health.

Brand Development

Leverage One Mind to build your company’s brand through unique content development, thought leadership opportunities, and traditional media and PR activities.

Advisory Councils

Work with senior leaders from our array of One Mind Accelerator Advisory Councils including our Lived Experience Council and Payer Council.

Perks

Leverage significant discounts and in-kind services from top providers including AWS, HubSpot, Silicon Valley Bank, and Brex to grow your business rapidly.

Business Development

Warm intros to prospective partners, customers, and the lived experience community to validate product and market.

Key Focus Areas

Key focus areas include, but are not limited to:

  • Small Molecules Drugs & Biologics
  • Psychedelics
  • Biomarkers & Diagnostics
  • Closed-Loop Neurostimulation
  • Precision Psychiatry 
  • Metabolic Psychiatry
  • Digital Therapeutics
  • Social Determinants 
  • SMI-focused Services
  • Patient Engagement
  • Deep Tech / AI-Powered Solutions

Advisors, Mentors, Speakers

Thomas Insel One Mind

Thomas Insel

Co-Founder & Executive Chair, Vanna Health
Tom lnsel, M.D., a psychiatrist and neuroscientist, has been a national leader in mental health research, policy, and technology.  From 2002-2015, Dr. Insel ...
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Harvey Schwartz One Mind

Harvey Schwartz

One Mind Board Member and CEO, Carlyle Group, One Mind Accelerator Governing Council
Harvey M. Schwartz is a business leader, investor and philanthropist. For the past 30+ years, Harvey’s professional focus has centered on tackling complex ...
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Andrew Barr One Mind

Andrew Barr

Founding Partner of GreyMatter
Andrew is a Founding Partner of GreyMatter. Prior to GreyMatter, he advised and invested at the intersection of mental health and technology, supporting a ...
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Shiv Bhavnani

Shiv Bhavnani

Founder, GIMBHI
Shiv founded GIMBHI in 2020 with the mission of driving more capital, resources, and awareness for the underfunded areas of mental, behavioral, and brain ...
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Dani Bicknell, One Mind Accelerator Advisor

Dani Bicknell

Sr. Program Manager, SecondMuse
Dani (she/her) is the Senior Program Manager for SecondMuse’s youth health and wellbeing innovation program, Headstream. Based in San Francisco, Dani works ...
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Katie Bush, One Mind Accelerator Advisor

Katie Bush

Founder & CEO, KBD
Katie Bush is the founder and CEO of KBD, one of Silicon Valley’s most sought-after strategic design and consulting firms. Centered in the technology ...
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Tom Cassels, One Mind Accelerator Advisor

Tom Cassels

President & CEO, Rock Health
Tom is the president and chief executive officer of Rock Health Advisory, a digital health strategy group catalyzing innovation within Fortune 100 healthcare, ...
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Joe Corkery, One Mind Accelerator

Joe Corkery

Fmr Director of Product Management, Google
Joe Corkery, M.D. is a seasoned product leader with 25 years of experience building and bringing brand new products to market for the healthcare, life ...
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One Mind Accelerator Advisor John Cooper

John Cooper

Managing Partner at Carlsquare
As the Managing Partner at Carlsquare, John advises and represents technology companies worldwide in financings, M&A activities, and corporate ...
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Fred Dillon One Mind

Fred Dillon

Head of Advisory Services, HopeLab
As Head of Advisory Services, Fred Dillon scopes and leads advising engagements that lend Hopelab’s expertise in research, design, and co-creation to our ...
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Current and Past Cohorts

Accelerator FAQs

Learn everything you need to know to apply for the next round of funding.

When can I apply for the next program?

Applications for our Spring 2025 class are now open through October 31, 2024. Apply here!

What are the dates of the next program?

The One Mind Accelerator Spring 2024 program will run from the first week of March until the first week of May, 2024. Final dates will be announced shortly.

Is the program in-person?

The first and last weeks will be in-person in the San Francisco Bay Area (some Menlo Park, a day-trip to Napa). The intervening 7 weeks will be virtual.

What types of companies is the One Mind Accelerator looking for?

The scope of the Accelerator is broad. One Mind will invest in startups across a wide range of mental health conditions and solutions. At one end of the spectrum, these could be service-based companies innovating on patient engagement, access, quality of care, and care delivery models. At the other end, these could be “deep science / deep tech” companies commercializing breakthrough discovery platforms, diagnostics, and treatments with the goal of realizing the promise of precision psychiatry. 

Some areas we’re interested in exploring include social determinants of mental illness, patient engagement, AI / ML derived biomarkers,, closed-loop neurostimulation, psychedelics, metabolic psychiatry, and more. Of note, companies focusing on serious mental illness (as defined by the NIMH) will be given special attention.

What stage of company is right for the One Mind Accelerator?

We’re focusing on companies from Seed to Series B. Stages can be blurry, but in general we’re looking for fully committed teams (see below) that are ready to rapidly develop their product and grow their business to the next level.

How do we select the companies we invest in?

Our process is straightforward. You can submit your application here. We review every application that we receive. The full process can be seen below:

Step One: Submit application

Step Two: Interview with Program Director & Chief Science Officer 

Step Three: Submit scientific research, white papers, etc. for review by One Mind’s Scientific Advisory Board  

Step Four: Interview with a top-tier panel of Venture Capitalists from the One Mind Accelerator Governing Council 

Step Five: Receive an offer to participate & begin the onboarding process

Founders get real-time feedback from experts as a part of the interview process that they can incorporate into their business, regardless of whether they participate in the program or not. 

Some of the most important factors we’re tracking: 

Team: Are you working full-time? Do you have at least one full-time co-founder? Is there someone with relevant clinical expertise on the team? Do you and your co-founder have complementary skillsets? Can you incorporate feedback and make necessary pivots while staying true to your vision? 

Problem: Will your business move the needle in a meaningful way for people living with Serious Mental Illness? Will you be able to do it at scale over the long term?  

Differentiation: Do you have something that can’t easily be copied by the next team? This can be novel scientific research, an innovative business model or new way of delivering care that outperforms alternatives currently on the market. 

Traction: For some businesses, the best proof of traction is sales. For others, it might be securing a reputable partner for a clinical trial or existing evidence of efficacy. We just want to see that you have demonstrated demand for the thing you’re building in a meaningful way.

What type of investment do participating companies receive?

We invest in the form of a SAFE that matches the valuation of your last fundraising round. These terms are more founder friendly than those offered by other top accelerators, while still providing One Mind with a fair ownership stake. Capital is only a small part of the value of the accelerator. The One Mind network, community, and support in all aspects of company-building are the real value propositions for founders that go through the program.

What value will my startup get from The One Mind Accelerator?
  • We’ve built this program from the ground up to be tailor-made for founders in the mental health space. We bring together the best minds from the mental health world including healthcare providers, insurance companies, large employers, neuroscientists, founders, policymakers and people with first hand experience with mental illness to give you an inside look at how the system works. As a participant in the Accelerator you’ll gain access to all of One Mind’s resources: 
  • Mentorship: We have leaders that cover every aspect of building a mental health company. Our mentor pool includes successful founders that have raised $50M+; heads of innovation for major healthcare companies; legal, marketing, product and growth experts that know the intricacies of working in the field of mental health and who are passionate about helping founders maximize their impact. Your mentors will be by your side throughout the program and in many cases, well beyond. 
  • Research & Patient Communities: Get access to research from One Mind-backed research and our partners including McKinsey, the NIMH, UCSF,  Stanford Neuroscience and more. 
  • One Mind at Work: Our initiative comprised of hundreds of top companies dedicated to improving mental health in the workplace. Our membership includes senior decision-makers from Fortune 500s and major players across the healthcare system from payers & providers to the largest pharmaceutical companies. This access can make an enormous difference to startups looking for pilots & first-hand customer feedback. Learn more here.

  • One Mind All Media: Our media division has developed and backed mental-health focused content at the highest levels, including Ken Burn’s latest documentary on mental health: Hiding in Plain Sight. The team includes Emmy and Peabody award winners who can help your company develop & produce a content plan that will educate & inform your target audience.
Will this distract me from building my company?

The Accelerator will require between 5-10 hours per week, but everything you’ll be doing will help move your business in the right direction. The opening week in-person in Menlo Park, CA will be 9am-5pm Monday-Friday with team dinners every night. We’re focused on action over lectures, and every step of the program will either prompt you to answer key questions about your business, make connections with valuable industry contacts, or develop your product & business model further.

What role will One Mind take in governing my company?

We strongly believe that founding teams should have autonomy in running their companies. For that reason, our investment does not require a board seat. However, we may selectively ask for board seats when we believe it is in the best interest of the founding team and One Mind to do so. Our goal is to develop a strong working relationship with each of our founding teams where we are a valued advisor as opposed to formally dictating changes in the business.

What is a typical day like?

An average day in the accelerator could include a workshop on a key topic to your business, a panel with industry insiders, relationship building with decision-makers at major providers and payers, founder stories from some of the best in the mental health space and breakouts with your classmates designed to keep you accountable and on track with your business goals.

What happens when the program ends?

You’ll be added to our alumni community and will have lifetime access to the One Mind Accelerator team and our network of partners, investors, mentors. One of the most valuable components of the program is getting to know nine other founding teams that are passionate about solving the mental health crisis.

Philanthropic Support

One Mind is grateful to receive generous philanthropic support from private donors, foundations, and corporate sponsors who together make the One Mind Accelerator possible.

Lead Sponsors

Donors

Our Partners

The One Mind Accelerator is proud to partner with leading investment firms, non-profits, and consultants who share our commitment to improving the lives of people facing mental health challenges.

We are grateful to our partners for their help with sourcing world-class mental health startups and for providing the resources to support world class programming for the 2024 cohort.