If even hackers are being affected by an epidemic of severe depression, why isn't there more silicon valley / venture capitalist interest in fixing America?
Ask HN: Why don't startups try to disrupt the poor state of mental health?
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Re: Ask HN: Why don't startups try to disrupt the poor state of mental health?
#2Either no one has figured out how to monetize mental illness with an app yet, or no one feels confident challenging the regulatory and legal prohibitions already in place. The pharmaceutical companies seem to be winning in this space.
Re: Ask HN: Why don't startups try to disrupt the poor state of mental health?
#3One of the drug companies recently paid a massive fine for falsifying research to justify selling their antidepressant to children:
http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/glaxosmithkline-plead-guilty-a...
The big players have a lot of money invested in exactly-wrong theories and approaches to mental health.
Re: Ask HN: Why don't startups try to disrupt the poor state of mental health?
#4Do you genuinely believe that VCs, a group of glorified financial services professionals, have anything but a cursory interest in "fixing America"?
Re: Ask HN: Why don't startups try to disrupt the poor state of mental health?
#5There's 7cups.com , there are some doing remote mental health consultations, and there are some apps/games for cognitive behavioral therapy.
There are also some doing more hardcore scientific stuff , like better diagnoses using eeg analysis, but those requires fda involvement , deep pockets , patience , deep knowledge , etc - so those innovations come from universities, when/if they come.
Also Alphabet is going to that field, it recruited a high official from the NIH in mental health. This again shows you how hard is to start such projects.
Re: Ask HN: Why don't startups try to disrupt the poor state of mental health?
#6Many researches do, some companies do, I also do https://medium.com/@kidargueta/building-an-emotional-artific...
But the problem is that if you fix depression and anxiety then you also fix compulsive spending, need for drugs, etc, and then you will piss many VCs off.
Re: Ask HN: Why don't startups try to disrupt the poor state of mental health?
#7Funnily enough, I just received an email promothing this: http://csplusmh.com/
Re: Ask HN: Why don't startups try to disrupt the poor state of mental health?
#8I can’t comment on the VC or investor side, but as a solopreneur I wouldn’t mind trying to tackle something in here since I live with depression.
However I don’t think we’re quite at that point yet where just a couple of kids with technology chops can tackle this adequately. Seems a lot of finesse, research and wealth of knowledge in this area is needed before a critical mass of startups can tackle this in the same fervor that you see in the sharing economy or even health and fitness trackers.
Re: Ask HN: Why don't startups try to disrupt the poor state of mental health?
#9It's very hard to scale, I think. And most mentally ill people have less money than average people.
Re: Ask HN: Why don't startups try to disrupt the poor state of mental health?
#10These folks are trying to use a biofeedback approach to helping with executive function issues. http://www.myndlift.com/
One problem is: how does a consumer know that something will work?