What is the future of legal cannabis from a retail / e-commerce perspective? Today's guest, Socrates Rosenfeld, Co-Founder and CEO of Jane Technologies explains. Jane is an e-commerce solution for the Cannabis space that supports nearly 3,000 dispensaries and handles more than 20% of the legal Cannabis transactions in the U.S. each year.

Prior to founding Jane, Soc was a consultant at McKinsey and Company. Before that, he served in the US Army as an Apache Helicopter Pilot from 2004-2011. Soc earned an MBA from MIT Sloan School of Management and his undergrad degree my alma mater, West Point.

Soc has a very personal reason for building Jane, that he’s going to share with us in a few minutes. He’s one of the most impressive founders I’ve ever met and we at What If Ventures have had the chance to get to know him in 2021 as we were a small part of their most recent funding round and have been able to witness first-hand what an amazing operator he is.

You can connect with Soc here: LinkedIn

What If Fellowship: https://whatif.vc/fellowship

HERE ARE SOME OF THE THINGS WE TALKED ABOUT:

1. Soc shares his journey from the Army to eventually founding a Canmnabis retail tech platform beacuase of his own personal experience struggling with mental heatlh after the Army.
   
   
   
2. We discuss Jane’s platform and how Jane is not only revolutionizing the Cannabis retail world, but how Jane's novel approach to e-commerce will transform broader e-commerce which hasn't seen real disruption since the creation of decades old platforms like Amazon.
   
   
   
3. Soc shares what it was like to face the stigma around Cannabis and the challenges/benefits that came with creating a company in this space.
   
   
   
4. We discuss the legistlative environment around Cannabis, false information about the plant (and industry) that has been spread over the years, and the effect it has had on people finding and using this solution.
   
   
   
5. Soc talks about what Jane is focused on today while they await legislative changes and a more broad based acceptance of cannabis usage in the U.S.
   
   
   
6. Soc tells us about the biggest challenges that come with being an entrepreneur and the importance of believing in yourself.
   
   
   
7. We discuss tips for entrepreneurs who are wanting to get into the Cannabis space and what advice Soc wishes he would have received when he first started.

Connect with the Stigma Podcast in the following ways: What If Fellowship, Website, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Email

Connect with host Stephen Hays here: Stephen Hays Personal Website, Twitter, LinkedIn, What If Ventures (Mental Health Venture Fund)

Alyson Watson is CEO and co-founder of Modern Health, a mental health unicorn! Modern Health is a global mental health benefits solution for employers that covers the spectrum of mental wellbeing needs from tech enabled solutions to professional support solutions on one platform.

You can connect with Alyson here: LinkedIn

What If Fellowship: https://whatif.vc/fellowship

HERE ARE SOME OF THE THINGS WE TALKED ABOUT:

1. Alyson shares her background with mental health, her education, and how it led her to the mental health space. She also shares about Modern Health and what their mission is.
   
   
   
2. Alyson talks about Y Combinator, what the process looks like as a startup who applies, the benefits from it and the difference it made for her when starting up Modern Health.
   
   
   
3. We discuss the stigma and lack of access that used to surround mental health support from employers and how Modern Health is helping to solve these issues.
   
   
   
4. We talk about how mental health problems limit productivity and how this is a societal problem, not only in the workplace but in personal lives as well.
   
   
   
5. Alyson shares what more she thinks companies can do to promote mental wellness with their employees.
   
   
   
6. We discuss the vision for Modern Health and where she sees the company going in the future.
   
   
   
7. Alyson shares her advice for those who are wishing to start up their own company and what she wishes she knew when she started.

Connect with the Stigma Podcast in the following ways: What If Fellowship, Website, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Email

Connect with host Stephen Hays here: Stephen Hays Personal Website, Twitter, LinkedIn, What If Ventures (Mental Health Venture Fund)

April Koh is the youngest female founder to ever take a startup from just an idea to unicorn status. We are so excited that she’s accomplished this in the mental health space, and we are excited for you to meet her and learn more about her Company, Spring Health! For those who may not be familiar, Spring Health is a provider of mental health benefits to employers for their employees, and their employees’ families.

Spring Health’s product is a "precision mental healthcare" platform that matches a company’s employees to the most effective care for each employee. These care solutions that employees are matched to include (but are not limited to) mindfulness and meditation applications, care navigation tools, access to coaching services, therapy, and medication management.

To date, Spring Health has raised $300mm of capital and April and her team are truly pioneers in the mental health benefits space. Their recent funding round valued the company at $2 billion and April herself, is now the youngest female founder to lead a unicorn startup! She’s truly amazing and I’m excited to share our conversation!

You can connect with April on LinkedIn: April’s LinkedIn Page

Spring Health Website: https://www.springhealth.com/

What If Fellowship: https://whatif.vc/fellowship

HERE ARE SOME OF THE THINGS WE TALKED ABOUT:

1. April shares the founding story of Spring Health with us. She explains how she came up with the idea and tells the impressive story about how she put a minimum viable product (MVP) together in short order, impressed her soon to be co-founder to join her team, and brought a business to life at lighting speed.
   
   
   
2. April is the youngest female founder to grow a startup to unicorn status, EVER! We talked with her about what this accomplishment means for her, for female founders and for the mental health space in general.
   
   
   
3. April shares about her journey to realize there was a problem worth solving in this space, coming up with an idea, deciding to start a business and the path that she and the business took in the early days.
   
   
   
4. April talks with us about what Spring Health looked like in those early days including how she recruited her co-founder, which is quite an interesting and inspiring story.
   
   
   
5. We talked further about exactly what Spring Health is from a business point of view, how they win customers, what exactly they provide, and how they get paid.
   
   
   
6. April shared her vision for the future of the business and more broadly, the future of the mental health care landscape.
   
   
   
7. We always love to ask pioneers in the mental health space where they view the biggest opportunities in our space (of course, outside of what they are currently building) and April’s answers there were certainly insightful for anyone looking to build a mental health startup.
   
   
   
8. Finally, April provides advice and “lessons learned” that she wished she had known in the early days. I found her answers to be so helpful I believe every founder in this space could learn from April.

Connect with the Stigma Podcast in the following ways: Website, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Email

Connect with host Stephen Hays here: Stephen Hays Personal Website, Twitter, LinkedIn, What If Ventures (Mental Health Venture Fund)