A Guide to Innovation in Mental Health From the One Mind Ecosystem

With Carmine Di Maro from One Mind

TRANSCRIPT

CMHI: Carmine, thank you so much for joining us. I’m really looking forward to hearing all about One Mind. And perhaps actually, if you could just start with a little bit of an introduction to One Mind, to the accelerator, but just a little bit about the whole ecosystem that is One Mind.

Carmine Di Maro: Yeah. Happy to. So One Mind, it’s an organization in the mental health space for 31 years now. We had our 30-year anniversary last year. It started with the Staglin family, and their son, Brandon Staglin, who was diagnosed with schizophrenia when he was in college, just over 30 years ago. And so they built this whole foundation around supporting him and this serious mental illness. And Brandon was the president of One Mind for a long time. He’s our chief advocacy engagement officer now, and so he’s been a huge part of the whole story.

And so One Mind really started with this mission to affect serious mental illness — schizophrenia, bipolar, major depressive disorder. It started off as a fundraising mechanism, beginning with the music festival, which they still do every year in Napa at the Staglin’s home, and then expanded into providing grants to up-and-coming scientists through the Rising Star Awards program.

Then we started co-sponsoring different research projects in different areas and then building out our own programs, like One Mind at Work, which provides mental health resources and the Mental Health Index to a consortium of very large companies like Bank of America, McKinsey, Accenture, and others. It helps improve the mental health of the workforce.

And then about three years ago, we launched the One Mind Accelerator. I was at Techstars and came over to help build and launch that initiative. It started just as conversations and notes in a Google doc, and now, three years later, we’ve done three cohorts, 37 companies. The companies are valued at almost $4 billion across the portfolio. They’ve raised over $600 million post–Demo Day across three cohorts, and have served almost a million patients.

We really focus on companies tackling the hardest problems in mental health. That can look like a lot of different things. We do a good mix of services and digital health innovation companies, companies targeting underrepresented populations, youth mental health, maternal mental health, things of that nature. And then folks targeting serious mental illness — treatments and platforms for bipolar and schizophrenia.

On the other side, we also back deep science companies going through FDA approval, clinical trials, building medical devices, neurotech, neuromodulation, and biotech drug development. For example, in the last cohort, we had three companies developing variations of psychedelic compounds — some without the trip aspect, some enhancing it — based on what the science says about how it impacts the brain. Others were developing novel treatments for different forms of serious mental illness.

By having this really good mix of companies, we’ve been able to create this community unlike any other in the world, with great exchange of information between companies. Now we’re gearing up for the fourth cohort — 14 to 16 companies. At that point, we’ll have over 50 companies in the alumni community, and we’re really starting to shift focus toward making it the strongest alumni community in the mental health space.

CMHI: That’s incredible, to be getting that portfolio effect across the different cohorts. You’ve started to answer my next question, which is really around the areas or themes within mental health that you think right now are some of the best investment prospects. Looking across the portfolios and cohorts you’ve had, are there particular areas you think are strong from an investment point of view? And what are your timelines or prospects in terms of ROI?

Carmine Di Maro: We’ve had some really outsized wins in the portfolio. A good example is Function Health, which raised their Series B this past year and became a unicorn company. They do a massive array of blood tests, really comprehensive body health, and we helped them integrate behavioral health biomarkers as well.

I think direct-to-consumer functional health is exploding right now. Another example is Metabolic Psychiatry Labs, which is using a ketogenic diet as therapy for mental illness, starting with bipolar but applicable to others. So we’re seeing functional approaches to health, already popular in other areas, become part of mental health as well.

The other big one is AI in mental health. What’s less obvious is how it will be applied and in what ways it will be useful. For example, Slingshot AI, which raised almost $100 million, is building a foundational model for psychiatry. Imagine all of the world’s expertise on mental health in an application for $10 a month — that’s incredible scalability. Another company, Jimini, integrates AI with therapists, creating a feedback loop between sessions. That could totally transform the patient–therapist relationship.

On the science side, psychedelics are another big area — natural compounds with therapeutic benefits that can be scaled. And neuromodulation is advancing with things like ultrasound therapy and updated forms of TMS that don’t require daily office visits for weeks at a time. These are breakthroughs in how we impact the structure of the brain.

CMHI: Did you find it challenging, given how fast the science and technology are moving, to assess what’s commercially viable right now versus what’s still years out?

Carmine Di Maro: Absolutely. Drug compounds and new molecules take years — you’re not selling them in a 3- to 5-year timeline. But often these companies are acquired by big pharma after Phase II trials, so investors can see returns earlier. With AI, it’s happening now, though the challenge is picking who will stand out in such a crowded market.

CMHI: And for someone looking to get started investing in mental health, what would your advice be?

Carmine Di Maro: Start with conversations. Talk to folks like us who have an ecosystem view, talk to other VCs, talk to founders, talk to the scientists leading cutting-edge research. Sometimes the only way to know what’s coming is to be in conversation with those building it, even if it’s still in a lab.

CMHI: Last question — what’s changing from a business and commercial model perspective?

Carmine Di Maro: The U.S. landscape is shifting fast. A lot of mental health services depend on Medicaid, and that future is uncertain. Companies are looking at alternatives. Payers are also paying less for behavioral health, creating pricing pressure. That’s why direct-to-consumer looks more appealing, though expensive due to high acquisition costs. We coach founders to get creative — referral deals, community-based businesses, word of mouth. It’s hard to rely on paid ads alone.

The fundamental challenge in behavioral health is always: who pays, and at what rate? That’s what founders need to solve.

CMHI: Carmine, thank you. That was incredibly practical as well as helpful.

Carmine Di Maro: Of course. Thank you.