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As usual, SV tech founders have a fix for all that ails mankind, one that takes a data-driven approach and is 10X effective!

tomhoward 7y ago
I've met the founders of one of the startups mentioned in the article. They're not from SV (or from the U.S.), and they'd hardly count as "tech workers". They're self-taught programmers who built their app in an effort to address their own anxiety, as well as a digestive illness that afflicts at least one of them, and for which university research has found hypnotherapy can be somewhat helpful (I have my own experience with these kinds of illnesses and therapies, which is why I took an interest). You can sneer all you like, but these guys are nothing like the "SV tech bro" stereotype you're invoking, and they're earnestly working on a profoundly important problem: huge and growing numbers of people in the world experiencing mental health challenges and many (or likely, most) of them don't have the proximity or financial means to access in-person professional therapy or mindfulness coaching.
lemm 7y ago
And conveniently enough allows them to make tons of money!
- tomhoward 7y ago
  Most startups fail, and can often cause the founders to lose much/all their savings or go into personal debt. Where a startup beats the odds and starts to become successful, it needs to employ a lot of people (and generate other benefits for others, such as returns to investors and, oh yeah, valuable products to customers) before the founders can get personally rich. Occasionally it goes well enough for the founders to "make tons of money", but it's not the norm. In this case, founders of these companies will only "make tons of money" if they succeed in helping vast numbers of people overcome anxiety and other distressing states of existence. Of the founders I know who are working on one of these startups to help people overcome anxiety and ill health, if you could talk to them, and see the sincerity with which they are dedicated to building something that makes life better for troubled people, you wouldn’t dismiss them with such cynicism and snark.

tomhoward 7y ago

I've met the founders of one of the startups mentioned in the article. They're not from SV (or from the U.S.), and they'd hardly count as "tech workers". They're self-taught programmers who built their app in an effort to address their own anxiety, as well as a digestive illness that afflicts at least one of them, and for which university research has found hypnotherapy can be somewhat helpful (I have my own experience with these kinds of illnesses and therapies, which is why I took an interest). You can sneer all you like, but these guys are nothing like the "SV tech bro" stereotype you're invoking, and they're earnestly working on a profoundly important problem: huge and growing numbers of people in the world experiencing mental health challenges and many (or likely, most) of them don't have the proximity or financial means to access in-person professional therapy or mindfulness coaching.

lemm 7y ago

And conveniently enough allows them to make tons of money!

tomhoward 7y ago
Most startups fail, and can often cause the founders to lose much/all their savings or go into personal debt. Where a startup beats the odds and starts to become successful, it needs to employ a lot of people (and generate other benefits for others, such as returns to investors and, oh yeah, valuable products to customers) before the founders can get personally rich. Occasionally it goes well enough for the founders to "make tons of money", but it's not the norm. In this case, founders of these companies will only "make tons of money" if they succeed in helping vast numbers of people overcome anxiety and other distressing states of existence. Of the founders I know who are working on one of these startups to help people overcome anxiety and ill health, if you could talk to them, and see the sincerity with which they are dedicated to building something that makes life better for troubled people, you wouldn’t dismiss them with such cynicism and snark.