One Mind Accelerator

Applications will open on November 17th, 2022 for our Spring 2023 program.

The inaugural One Mind Accelerator program will run from February 27th – May 5th 2023.

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 8 weeks will be virtual.

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.

We’re focusing on companies at the Seed or Pre-Seed stage. 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.

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 & video pitch

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.

We invest $100,000 into each company that participates in the program in the form of a SAFE in exchange for 5% common-stock equity in your company. For companies that have raised more than $1,000,000 in priced equity, we’re able to work with you on an adjusted valuation that will be fair for both parties. 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.

The $100K investment is intended to give you some breathing room while you participate in the program, and show our follow-on investors that we have conviction in the companies we’re presenting to them come Demo Day. Capital is one small part of the value you’ll 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.

The Accelerator is a serious time commitment (8-10 hours most weeks), but everything you’ll be doing will help move your business in the right direction. 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.

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.

• The program is broken down into three sections:

Weeks 1-3: Learn

Join us in-person in Menlo Park, California, for the first week of the Accelerator to meet your cohort, the One Mind team, and mental health leaders in the heart of Silicon Valley. Weeks1-3 will introduce you to dozens of mentors from some of the best organizations in mental health and venture capital, while walking you through the fundamentals of building a rock-solid and differentiated company. 

Weeks 4-7: Build 

The second segment of the program focuses on developing your product, building key relationships with prospective customers, partners and users and getting first-hand feedback that will help you find product-market fit or secure deals depending on your stage of development. 

Weeks 8-10: Fundraise

The final three weeks are all about refining your pitch, mastering your finances and meeting investors to lead your next round. We’ll have top-tier investors and mental health founders that have raised their Series B or later on hand to help you nail your delivery and secure a term sheet.

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.

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.