Therify
“I remember matching with these therapists and I would be in these consultations literally explaining what it feels like to be Black in America.
And I'm just like, this can't be it, right? This is not my match, right? And so I ended up going through many consultations before finding the right fit.
That led me to learning about this clinical concept called the Therapeutic Alliance, which essentially states that the empathy and understanding that exists between a patient and provider is the number one signal that determines if you can get to a positive outcome in care. And so, with Therify, that's what we're trying to optimize for.
We want to give everyone the opportunity to achieve a Therapeutic Alliance. And not have to go through all the hurdles that I went through.”
- James Edward Murray
After his own struggle finding a culturally-competent therapist, James Edward Murray left his cushy job at Facebook to solve this problem for others. He’s since built an incredible product and landed 10 employer customers. With just a seed round, Therify is making $400K in ARR today, and burning about $60K/month.
Our guest VC in this episode is Blake Wu, who is a partner at NEA where he focuses on digital health and healthcare services.
We discuss:
Using cold LinkedIn outreach to land his first employer customers
Building a provider network
Why he thinks the problem isn’t provider shortage or capacity, but rather finding the right mental health professional
SaaS vs. services business models
Meet the Founder
James Edward Murray has a diverse professional background, beginning with their role as an Analyst in the 2010 Finance Analyst Program at Morgan Stanley, where they were hired out of college despite having no finance or accounting experience. James Edward then worked as an Associate in Treasury Capital Markets Controllers and Global Wealth Management Finance at Morgan Stanley, followed by a role as a Customer Success Manager at PubMatic. In 2016, they were an MBA Intern in Strategy and Business Development at Time Inc. and then went on to become the Co-Founder and CEO of NewsCart, a news aggregation platform. In 2018, they joined InVision as an Enterprise Salesperson and then in 2019, they became the Digital News Partnerships Lead at Facebook. Most recently, in 2021, they became the Co-Founder and CEO of Therify, a company that provides companies with inclusive mental health resources to improve employee well-being and belonging.
James Edward Murray completed their Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in Journalism from Howard University. James Edward then went on to earn a Master of Business Administration (MBA) in Strategy and Entrepreneurship from Vanderbilt University - Owen Graduate School of Management.
Meet the VC
Blake Wu joined NEA in 2014 and focuses on investments in healthcare services, healthcare IT, and biopharmaceuticals.
At NEA, Blake works closely with the firm’s healthcare growth and public investment practices, and is also a member of the Asia investing team and is involved with the firm’s healthcare investments in the region.
Prior to NEA, Blake was a member of the private equity group at Ares Management, focused on investments in healthcare. Blake’s prior work experience also includes investment banking at Moelis & Company, where he was focused on transactions in healthcare, as well as equity research at Barclays Capital. Blake graduated from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, with a B.S in Economics with concentrations in finance, real estate and management.