Charla House
“During my transition to a new country and being away from my family and college life in general, I experienced a mental health crisis, a severe mental health crisis…
This is what I noticed was happening to Latinos... They were accessing primary care physicians, or relying heavily on emergency care, because there was a gap that needed to be filled in that space. Groups within the Hispanic community rely on traditional healing methods. So curanderos, spiritual healing, herbs, salvadores or massage, specific massages to heal the mind, body, and spirit. And when they come through the doors of a psychiatrist, for example, they're very afraid of getting medication.”
- Sophia Pages
After her own mental health crisis, founder Sophia Pages set out to create culturally centered care options for Latine patients struggling with moderate to severe mental illness.
Charla House offers a virtual intensive mental health program with 3 hours of support each day for 30+ days is accessible and effective in treating adults with high acuity mental health. Sophia is early in the journey and looking for a co-founder.
Our guest investor in this episode is Cheryl Cheng, founder of Vive Collective, a new model to build, fund and scale the best digital health companies.
We discuss:
The unmet mental health needs of latine patients
Getting health plans to cover your service, and providers to refer you clients
How to scale a tech-enabled healthcare services business
Why Cheryl thinks she shouldn’t raise VC funding, and what she should do instead
Meet the Founder
Sophia Pages is a Mexican-American licensed marriage and family therapist with extensive experience in behavioral health PHP/IOP programs. Having been both a patient and a clinical leader, she has a unique perspective on the market and the barriers to quality and effective care Latine clients face when experiencing moderate to high acuity mental illness.
Meet the VC
Cheryl is the founder of Vive Collective and was most recently a General Partner at BlueRun Ventures, one of Silicon Valley’s premiere VC firms, where she led rounds and worked closely with digital health and wellness companies like Hello Heart (at-home heart health management), gennev (tele-health services for gynecology, primary care, and lifestyle behaviors), and Blue Fever (an online space for Gen Z to increase belonging and resilience). Across other sectors, she has worked with HumanAPI, Waze, Chomp, and Kabbage. Cheryl currently sits on the board of Kiddo, a pediatric remote patient monitoring company and Samacare, a prior authorization platform for specialty medications.
She brings a rare combination of finance, marketing, and operational experience to support and grow companies. Her mission to radically improve healthcare began over 15 years ago when she helped launch Health and Wellness initiatives at The Clorox Company. As a former brand manager in new products, she gets hands-on in many critical areas including user research and insights to identify product opportunities, investment white spaces, and user experiences. Cheryl is an advisor to Stanford’s BioDesign program where she teaches go-to-market strategies, and mentors faculty and student teams. She is also a Board Member at the Ronald McDonald House at Stanford, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting families with sick children in their time of need.
She has a B.A. from Stanford University and an MBA from Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University where she was a Forte Foundation Scholar. Cheryl lives in Menlo Park with her husband Albert and their two children, 14 year-old Connor and 11 year-old Chloe. She enjoys cooking dinner for her friends, visiting new cities, and tennis.