Sophia Has Closed, Meet Headway
Let’s back up
The Boston-based startup, now defunct, was established in 2017 to offer life counseling starting at $30 per session. It’s value proposition was along the lines of “Talk it out with a confidential, unbiased counselor, and find perspective and peace along the way” – in other words, it was helping people find the right therapists.
When asked ‘what went wrong?’, ex-CEO and cofounder Eva Breitenbach replied “Insurance is a nightmare in this space”, adding that the team didn’t want to prioritize the matching based on insurance, but on other factors like need and treatment style. This, however, created its own complications for the company. As the saying goes – the devil is in the details. In its peak days, Sophia managed to recruit a network of over 120 therapists and 20 life coaches, and reach over 1k customers.
Innovative health tech startups pitching at @BostonNewTech. Great solution developed by @sophiatherapy matching mental health therapists and patients in Boston! #bnt91 #healthtech pic.twitter.com/Ek8j08O7dC
— Carole-Anne Brugere (@CaroleAnne_br) July 11, 2018
What Now?
– Cofounder Bowen Lu is “building new mental wellness co.”
– Cofounder Eva Breitenbach is now the product manager at Ten Percent Happier , a Boston-based company established in 2013 to offer meditation courses via an app. It has since raised $5.1m and operates in the space of Happify and Headspace (a John Hancock partner); to name a few.
– And it remains to be seen what will be the new gig of cofounder Chetan Jhaveri.
Bottom Line: Headway , an emerging wellness startup from New York, is looking to succeed where Sophia failed.
