April’s Mission-minded Spotlight: Wayhaven
Welcome to the April edition of “Mission-minded: Building for Tomorrow”
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Despite the hype of college, the reality is that the newly found independence, academic workload, social anxiety and/or overall ‘what am I doing with my life’ stress can have a deeply concerning emotional toll on young people. This month we’re spotlighting Wayhaven, a company I was recently introduced to at the Wild Pitch Competition at Dig South’s AI Summit in Charleston.
Wayhaven is an adaptive, chat-based mental wellness app to support the unique challenges faced by college students – available 24/7.
1) Why care? Since 2013 college students have experienced a 50% increase in mental health challenges. And among students who have a mental health condition, 50% do not access mental health services. From the university’s perspective, this also leads to decreased academic performance, student retention, and ultimately, profits.
2) What makes the co. credible? Not only is Wayhaven backed by advisors at prestigious universities including Duke, Columbia, and Iona, but the founder, Christine Nicodemus is a two-time Edtech entrepreneur. Christine previously founded Ascend, a gamified goal-setting app for teenagers to use with parents and teachers, which was acquired by Aperature Education in 2021. Christine and CTO Erik Murphy are also working alongside an impressive group of clinical psychologists and have built a product that utilizes decades of research on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), and mindfulness best practices.
3) What I love about their story? Founder Christine has been very forthcoming in her mental health struggles as a student at Wake Forest University. She had a depressive episode studying abroad in Scotland at the University of Edinburgh, and aside from struggling with loneliness, sleep deprivation, etc, she also lost her ability to focus, which greatly impacted her college performance. This resulted in her dropping out of college for the semester to receive outpatient CBT at the hospital. Christine knows that her story is not unique – and that’s why Wayhaven’s desire to support as many students as possible is so powerful.
Thank you, Christine, for sharing your story and helping to break the stigma around mental health! By spreading your experience and message, we can continue to overcome these challenges openly.
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In case you missed it, “Mission-minded: Building for tomorrow” is a monthly series where I highlight an under-the-radar founder or company that’s building something that has the power to enact real change in our world. From my personal perspective and understanding, I’ll tell you why you should care about what they’re building, what makes them credible, and what I love about their story. Here are the companies we’ve spotlighted so far this year:
March: Varuna, a company that enables the delivery of clean water efficiently by providing water system operators with actionable data and insights to identify blindspots
February: Acclinate, increasing health equity by making research more inclusive by helping pharmaceutical companies and healthcare organizations access and engage communities of color
January: Mission-Driven Tech, a company that’s building innovative solutions that normalize and modernize Cervical Health, a historically underfunded and misunderstood field of medicine