A Chat with Daniel Mansson, Founder at HealthTech Company: Flow Neuroscience

Tell us about Flow Neuroscience

Flow Neuroscience is a health tech company I co-founded together with Erik Rehn to make treatment for depression more accessible, affordable, and safe. Our flagship product combines a medically approved brain stimulation headset with a therapy app. The headset uses transcranial direct-current stimulation (tDCS) to gently stimulate the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex — a key brain area that regulates mood — while the app provides evidence-based behavioral therapy.

To date, more than 50,000 people have used Flow, and it’s now being used by more than 600 clinicians and hospitals across Europe. Clinical data shows that around 77% of users see meaningful improvement within three weeks, and more than half are free from depression after ten weeks.

How did you come up with the idea for the company?

My background is in clinical psychology, and I’ve always been motivated by the challenge of how to make effective mental health treatment more accessible. When I met my co-founder, Erik Rehn, who is an engineer and computational neuroscientist, we realized we could combine our disciplines to create something new.

We saw that depression wasn’t just a chemical imbalance but also a problem of brain activity and connectivity. That insight led us to explore non-invasive brain stimulation — specifically tDCS — which has been studied for decades. Flow was born out of the idea that we could take this science out of the lab and into people’s homes, in a safe and regulated way.

Tell us about your core product or service

At its heart, Flow is two things:

A medical-grade headset that delivers gentle electrical currents to the brain to restore healthy activity patterns.

A companion app that guides users through evidence-based behavioral therapy, covering areas like sleep, nutrition, exercise, and meditation.

It’s the first medically certified tDCS device for home use in the UK and EU, and it can be used on its own or alongside medication and therapy. For many people, it offers a way to access treatment sooner, at home, and without the side-effects associated with antidepressants.

What most excites you about the health tech industry?

For me, it’s the opportunity to close the gap between science and patient access. We now have the tools to take decades of neuroscience research and turn it into products people can actually use in their daily lives.

Health tech allows us to deliver care that is personal, scalable, and global — whether that’s through digital platforms, data-driven personalization, or devices like Flow that people can use from home. I’m also excited by the shift in mindset: patients and healthcare providers are increasingly open to innovation, provided it’s backed by strong evidence.

What has been the biggest challenge you’ve had to overcome along the way?

The biggest challenge has been credibility. When you introduce a new medical technology — particularly one that involves brain stimulation — there’s a natural and healthy level of skepticism. To overcome this, we’ve had to put science at the center of everything we do: running clinical trials, achieving regulatory approval, and continuously collecting real-world data.

Another challenge has been scaling responsibly. It’s not enough to have an effective device; you also need to manufacture safely, provide strong clinical support, and ensure patients are using it correctly. Balancing rapid growth with clinical rigor is always a tightrope, but it’s the only way to build lasting trust.

What is your number one piece of advice to aspiring entrepreneurs?

Solve a real problem. The best companies are built at the intersection of scientific rigor and human need. My advice would be: stay close to the people you’re trying to help, listen carefully, and build something that genuinely improves their lives. At the same time, don’t compromise on evidence. In health tech especially, integrity and data are everything.

What can we hope to see from Flow Neuroscience in the future?

We’re very focused on expanding clinical research and ensuring our device is available to as many people as possible. Flow has already received Breakthrough Device designation from the FDA, which is an exciting step toward U.S. approval.

You’ll also see us working closely with healthcare systems like the NHS to integrate Flow into mainstream treatment pathways. Longer-term, our vision is to be a first line of treatment for depression — combining neuromodulation with behavioral and digital interventions — so that people not only recover from depression but also stay well. The next generation device in this space will deliver a big jump in efficacy so i am also very excited running that development.

Our ultimate mission is simple: to empower millions of people worldwide to take control of their mental health.