Based in Epping, Essex, I founded MYNDUP in February 2020 after setting out to show the world that there is no single solution to mental health. After experiencing my own mental health struggles and not knowing who to turn to, I found the services offered through my corporate company payed little attention to the very different challenges that people face.
MYNDUP aims to put an end to this approach, by giving users access to live video sessions with a range of professionals across the entire mental health spectrum – covering areas like therapy, counselling, life coaching, and meditation. The business has grown significantly quarter on quarter, servicing over 50,000 employees from top global brands. This includes Savills, Dentons, CVC, The Prince’s Trust, and Avast.
MYNDUP has also been backed financially by CVC and LSEG, as well as angel investors from the Deutsche Bank and the London Stock Exchange Group. As part of this, the team has recently partnered with CVC to launch a free mental health service for NHS workers.
How did you come up with the idea for the company?
After tackling my own mental health battles – brought on by spending several months in and out of hospital with an undiagnosed physical illness – I reached out for support within my company at the time. However, those working directly above me did not know how to help and I was passed over to regional HR, which could only offer counselling through occupational health support. This whole process was very traumatic, with multiple barriers to entry, and I could not face reliving my story with people that I did not know.
As a result, I had to pay for private counselling sessions. Yet, to my surprise, even this process was flawed. The support I received was very much focused on the past, whereas what I needed was more future-focused and solution-based support. I came away from these sessions feeling lost – like I was fighting a losing battle.
For weeks and weeks, I found myself researching different ways to offer support and this is where I found a fantastic online life coach Jermaine Harris, who helped me to turn my life around. Because of this experience and the overwhelmingly positive outcome, I set out on a mission to help as many people in my situation as possible and to show the world that there is no one-size-fits-all solution to mental health.
I have always had a passion for helping people on their mental health journey. Now, I am the founder of mental health startup MYNDUP and a qualified mindfulness practitioner, as well as a certified life coach.
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How has the company evolved during the pandemic?
With the pandemic changing the way we operate; people have started to accept and enjoy virtual sessions more and more. As a result, we have been growing at a rate of 2x every 6 months in terms of our revenue and client base. I was the only full-time employee up until December 2020, but now we are up to a core team of nine.
We started servicing The Office Group’s 400 employees across the UK and Europe in February 2020, and now we are servicing over 50,000 employees across 30+ countries with global brands like Savills, Dentons, Avast, CVC, and The Prince’s Trust.
What can we hope to see from MYNDUP in the future?
There is a lot still for us to do to make sure that we really put MYNDUP on the map. As well as recruiting more team members, a top priority for us is global expansion to help more people across the world. We are also looking to implement artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities into the business, to create a fantastic matching service that can pair you with a psychologist and/or specialism based on how you are feeling.
Finally, we will be entering into series A funding next year, once we have hit our first million in revenue. There is definitely still a lot to do, but I truly believe that MYNDUP has the capability to open people up to a new world of being intuitive with our mental health. Our aim is to make this subject a normal everyday talking point, as it always should be.
