Each Founder Collective partner has founded and sold a technology company. The company we wish had existed when we first started out is what we hope to create with Founder Collective. We offer a user guide for managing the risky commodity known as venture capital. The company believes that in order to advance their firms and maintain control, entrepreneurs should aim to raise the least amount of money possible. Founder Collective was established on May 22, 2009 in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Founder Collective

NextView Ventures is a high-conviction, hands-on seed VC with a thematic investing focus. NextView helps entrepreneurs build companies of consequence to shape a future of collective prosperity.

NextView Ventures

At Eniac Ventures we lead seed rounds in bold founders who use code to create transformational companies. Armed with over 80 years of combined experience building our own companies, we are your active partners and consider ourselves a member of your founding team. Providing capital is just the first step, when we lead your seed round we provide the industry’s most comprehensive support through our Eniac Platform and hands on approach. From the beginning one of the keys to Eniac’s success has been taking a holistic approach to supporting our portfolio. With Eniac you get four partners for the price of one, and each partner uses their unique experience to open doors and advise our investments. The result has led to companies that consistently bring quality product to market, find follow on investment and have a measurable impact across industries. With each fund our approach has evolved and expanded to address the growing needs of our portfolio companies. We want our founders to focus on their product so we created the Eniac Platform. Term sheets are just the first step, working with Eniac companies enjoy the following free support: - Talent recruiter to find the best employees, especially in engineering   - Public relations and marketing specialist on staff to help your product reach the audiences that matter from launch through growth - Operations resources to organize your staff and install best practices - Business development and networking opportunities with thousands of the top companies, investors, and brands - Connections to other founders in Eniac’s portfolio to explore synergies and opportunities Fundraising support including pitch deck guidance, follow on investor strategy, and syndicate building

Eniac Ventures

They are passionate about seeing their portfolio companies become successful.

Bantam Group

Techstars is a global platform that provides investment and innovation. Through the Techstars Worldwide Entrepreneur Network, founders and their teams connect with other entrepreneurs, experts, mentors, alumni, investors, community leaders, and corporate partners who will help their companies grow. Techstars operates four divisions: Techstars Mentorship-Driven Accelerator Program supercharges success and Techstars Startup Programs inspire, educate, and connect entrepreneurs. Techstars Venture Capital Fund invests in innovative and disruptive companies. Techstars Corporate Innovation Partnerships help brands create products and services. Techstars' accelerator portfolio includes more than 1,000 companies with a market cap of $8.1 billion.

Techstars

Trinity Ventures is an early stage venture capital firm dedicated to partnering with passionate entrepreneurs to transform revolutionary ideas into reality. With over $1 billion under management, Trinity Ventures believes in personal engagement, mutual respect and goal alignment with the entrepreneurs. Trinity focuses on early stage and seed technology investments with particular emphasis on social commerce and entertainment, digital media, Saas, and cloud and infrastructure.    Trinity Ventures has invested in such leading companies as Aruba Networks, 21Vianet, Blue Nile, LoopNet, Photobucket, SciQuest, Starbucks, BeachMint, Infoblox, Trion Worlds and Zulily.

Trinity Ventures

Correlation Ventures is a new breed of venture capital firm, leveraging world-class analytics to offer entrepreneurs and other venture capitalists a dramatically better option when they are seeking additional capital to complete a financing round.

Correlation Ventures

Coastal Ventures is a consulting firm helping small companies succeed and grow.

Coastal Ventures

Khosla Ventures invests in companies that are bold, early, and impactful. The firm was started in 2004 by Vinod Khosla, co-founder of Sun Microsystems, to provide venture assistance to entrepreneurs. Khosla Ventures invests in a range of areas including AI, climate, sustainability, enterprise, consumer, fintech, digital health, medtech and diagnostics, therapeutics, and frontier technology.

Khosla Ventures

Evolve Ventures is an early stage venture firm whose mission is to reduce inner suffering and to facilitate inner transformation at scale.

Evolve Ventures

Ten Percent Happier

Ten Percent Happier is a leader in mindfulness with an award-winning app, podcasts, books and more. The company's platform offers expert advice on how to ''do'' life better with a clear a simple approach to meditation. It was founded in 2013 and is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts.

Ten Percent Happier is a guided meditation app which helps users without prior meditation knowledge get started with the help of trained experts. In addition to meditation, Ten Percent Happier also offers stress management and sleep programs. The app is based on the book, “10% Happier”, a New York Times best seller written by Dan Harris based on his experience in overcoming cocaine addiction and panic attacks through meditation.

A new industry proving that digital connectivity and mental health can co-exist.

Digital Wellness

Beyond 'Ten Percent Happier' and six ways to build community: Jan Risher

Mindbloom

To strengthen Mindbloom's foothold in the psychedelic therapy market and broaden its reach by integrating mindfulness practices, offering a more holistic approach to mental health care.

Promising research and receding stigma are giving investors cannabis-boom flashbacks.

Psychedelic Medicine

Companies operating clinics and treatment centers to deliver psychedelic therapies.

Apps that provide relaxation, stress reduction and non-therapeutic mental health support via meditation-related techniques.

Ten Percent Happier is a guided meditation app which helps users without prior meditation knowledge get started with the help of trained experts. In addition to meditation, Ten Percent Happier also offers stress management and sleep programs. The app is based on the book, “10% Happier”, a New York Times best seller written by Dan Harris based on his experience in overcoming cocaine addiction and panic attacks through meditation.As of September 2024, membership was priced at USD 8.33 per month, billed annually at USD 99.99. A subscription offers over 500 guided meditations on topics ranging from anxiety to mindfulness as well as bite sized lessons to suit busy schedules, a progress tracker, podcasts, offline listening capabilities, access to personal coaches, and a meditation timer with daily reminders.&nbsp;Key customers and partnershipsTen Percent Happier caters to a diverse user base, including individuals new to meditation as well as experienced practitioners seeking to improve their mental well-being through practical and scientifically backed meditation techniques.In <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/36085">November 2024</a>, the company partnered with Mindbloom to launch "Continuous Transformation," which combines ketamine therapy with mindfulness practices. Through the partnership, Mindbloom clients gained free access to Happier's 500+ guided meditations from 60+ teachers, while Happier users recieved discounted access to Mindbloom's programs, including 12 pathways for various mental health challenges.

Headspace is a digital wellness company that delivers meditation programs through a smartphone app. The company was founded by Andy Puddicombe, a former Buddhist monk, and Richard Pierson, a marketing and brand development professional. In addition to meditation, Headspace offers stress management programs, mindfulness activities, and sleep therapy solutions. Headspace also operates a business-to-business (B2B) focused “Headspace for Work” program with around 1,600 corporate customers as of January 2021, which has seen around 3x growth during 2020. Further, the company operates “Headspace for Health,” a program that develops US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved meditation tools to treat chronic diseases.In November 2022, the company launched a new platform that combines its product offerings with mental health platform Ginger’s <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/5119">an entity it merged with in August 2021 </a>. The platform combines Headspace Health’s meditation and mindfulness services with Ginger’s on-demand coaching, therapy, and psychiatry services, to offer enterprise clients an integrated solution for supporting their employees.In September 2022, the company <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/12918">acquired fellow mindfulness platform Shine </a>for an undisclosed amount. The acquisition enhanced Headspace Health’s offerings and also helped grow Headspace’s member base. Select content from Shine was earmarked to be added to Headspace Health’s content library.In January 2023, the company <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/16052">expanded its geographical reach </a>to offer coaching, therapy, and employee assistance-related services to UK headquartered enterprise clients.&nbsp;Key customers and partnershipsAs of September 2024, the company has over 100 million users across 190 countries, with its brands “Headspace for Work” and “Ginger” being used by over 4,000 enterprises including Starbucks, Adobe, Delta Air Lines, Mattel, and Paramount. The company also partners with health plans, such as Cigna, to provide its services.In <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/36071">November 2024</a>, Headspace partnered with Hyatt, to help hotel guests improve their sleep quality while traveling. The collaboration featured a five-episode "Science Behind Sleep" video series filmed at Park Hyatt Aviara Resort, offering research-based tips for managing sleep struggles.In <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/30378">June 2024</a>, Headspace partnered with Uwill, a mental health platform for colleges and students, to integrate Headspace's wellness services into Uwill's existing portal. The collaborative effort allowed Uwill's Urise program to incorporate Headspace's services, primarily meditation, yoga, and mindfulness offerings.In <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/27330">March 2024</a>, Headspace partnered with Meta to launch "Headspace XR," available for an upfront fee of USD 30. Headspace XR provided guided mindfulness and meditation exercises led by the same instructors familiar to regular Headspace users. The exercises covered activities such as breathing techniques, body scans, and mood tracking. Additionally, it incorporated a social element, including interactive metaverse-style gaming in vivid environments.In <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/19771">June 2023</a>, the company extended its partnership with with employee benefit management platform provider Virgin Pulse to integrate its platform with Virgin Pulse’s platform. The integration enabled employees enrolled in Virgin Pulse’s health benefit offerings to access the full suite of Headspace’s offerings as a part of Virgin Pulse’s Homebase for Health platform.

Headspace

Calm is a digital wellness company which offers guided meditations to make people happy as well as mindfulness and sleep programs through a smartphone app. Its audio content is designed to strengthen mental fitness and address mental health challenges such as stress, anxiety, insomnia, and depression. The company started out as a website in 2011 where users were trained to stare at a screen and listen to waves on a beach for two minutes without touching their mouse. In February 2013, more content was added and the company launched a mobile app.&nbsp;In October 2022, the company launched a new clinical mental health offering called “Calm Health,” marking its expansion into the mental health space. The new solution provides condition-specific programs designed to bridge mental and physical care and includes tools for communication with providers and medication tracking. This solution was created for the company by Ripple Health, which was acquired by Calm in February 2022.As of 2024, Calm reported over 100 million downloads and more than 1.5 million five-star reviews. The app is available on iOS, Android, and desktop platforms. Calm operates on a freemium model with paid subscriptions unlocking full access to features. In 2023, an annual subscription cost USD 69.99, with monthly and lifetime options also available for USD 5.83 and USD 399.99, respectively. Key customers and partnershipsCalm offers content in English, Spanish, French, and German and operates Calm Business, a business-to-business (B2B) covering over 10 million employees across 3,500+ organizations as of September 2024.Calm gained significant traction in 2020 during the Covid-19 lockdowns. It became the most downloaded digital wellness app during April 2020 with 3.9 million downloads worldwide, including 1.6 million downloads in the US. Kaiser Permanente, a large managed care service provider, provided Calm free for its 12.4 million members in May 2019. Calm also partnered with CNN on the 2020 US presidential election day to play the sound of rain hitting leaves on air, a marketing effort that went viral on social media. As of September 2024, the app had 150 million+ downloads.As of December 2022, the company has partnered with over 20 brands to collaborate and provide its services through sales partnerships. These brands include Xbox, Amazon, YouTube, Adidas, Fitbit, and American Express.&nbsp;In October 2022, Calm partnered with <a href="https://news.adidas.com/partnerships/adidas-and-calm-unite-to-progress-sports-performance-through-mental-wellbeing/s/48baf8f2-f856-4313-91cf-71bf7238faea">Adidas</a> to progress sport performances through mental well-being. Another partnership is with <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/10/20/lyra-partners-with-calm-to-bring-meditation-to-mental-health-service.html">Lyra Health</a> to combat stress and burnout and support resilience-building in the workplace.

Calm

<div>
 
 Simple Habit is a guided meditation service provider, which offers bite sized, five-minute long meditation sessions through an app targeting people with busy schedules. The company also offers mindfulness, sleep, and wellness programs. As of November 2020, Simple Habit offered over 2,000 sessions designed to help users sleep, reduce anxiety, and get over relationship issues. The content is organized by occasion, such as commuting, going to sleep or preparing for a meeting. 
 
 
 In June 2022 the company launched its Sleep Habit app, a virtual sleep clinic that helps users improve the quality of their sleep. The app uses clinically validated approaches to improve sleep quality and treat issues such as insomnia via methods such as cognitive behavioral therapy. 
 
 
 As of September 2022, Simple Habit claims to have a 7 million users between both of its apps. 
 
 
 
 
 In November 2018, Simple Habit raised USD 10 million in a Series A round led by Foundation Capital, bringing the company’s total funding to USD 12.6 million. The company used the funds to expand its library of guided meditation sessions and to add audio content led by therapists and executive coaches. As of late 2018, the app was reported to sign up as many as 30,000 new users per week. As of November 2020, Simple Habit reported having helped helped over five million people reduce burnout through its app’s services.
 
</div>

Simple Habit

Insight Timer is a company which offers guided meditation, yoga, and sleep programs through a smartphone app. It also offers free interactive live sessions with teachers, performers, and therapists through the app and web. The company’s business-to-business (B2B) offering, “Circles for teams”, targets enterprise customers to help bring employees together to practice group meditations, chat with each other, and recommend content. In October 2020, Insight Timer began offering free, daily live yoga classes from instructors based on a pay-what-you-can model.Insight Timer's core offering is its extensive free content library, which includes over 140,000 guided meditations, talks, and music tracks from thousands of teachers and experts worldwide. The app features a customizable meditation timer, allowing users to set session lengths and choose from various ambient sounds and ending bells.The majority of the content is available for free, and users can sign up for a premium version priced at USD 9.99 per month or USD 59.99 per year, as of August 2024. Premium users get access to content such as Insight courses and the ability to download content. This subscription unlocks additional features such as offline listening, the ability to fast-forward and rewind meditations, and access to over 1,000 in-depth courses on various topics. The app also offers live events, including yoga classes and meditation sessions, as well as a community space where users can connect with like-minded individuals and join discussion groups.Insight Timer collaborates with meditation teachers, psychologists, neuroscientists, and experts from institutions such as Stanford, Harvard, and the University of Oxford to provide content for its platform and with musicians to offer ambient and relaxation music. Insight Timer has positioned itself as a platform that supports its content creators with a revenue-sharing model that distributes 50% of course income to teachers. As of 2022, the app reported having approximately 12,000 teachers and yoga instructors contributing content to its platform. As of November 2020, the app had a 16% 30-day retention rate, more than double the average retention rate of 7.7% for top 100 apps in Apple’s App Store.&nbsp; Key customers and partnershipsThe app had over 29 million users as of September 2024. In April 2021, Insight Timer partnered with <a href="https://www.vondereurope.com/magazine/brand-partnerships-insight-timer">Vonder</a> to provide curated content, including different wellness classes and weekly group meditations. The company had also partnered with <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/gisele-bundchen-partners-with-insight-timer-to-encourage-millions-to-meditate-for-free-301126987.html">Gisele Bündchen</a> in September 2020 to encourage people to meditate for free.

Insight Timer

<div>
 
 Big Sky Health is the developer of the Oak Meditation breathing app. Oak Meditation offers guided and unguided meditations, sleep meditations, meditation timers, yogic exercises for breathing, animated instructions, and music tracks. The company is headed by Mike Maser, an entrepreneur who was diagnosed with stage IV cancer. Most of the companies services are offered free of charge with in-app purchases ranging from USD 5.99 to USD 38.99.
 
 
 
 
 In addition to Oak meditation, Big Sky also offers a fasting app called Zero and an alcohol moderation app called Less. In May 2020, Big Sky raised USD 8 million in Series A funding in a round led by Greycroft with participation from existing investors True Ventures and Trinity Ventures, bringing the company’s total funding to USD 12.2 million. Big Sky Health expects to use the funds to expand its staff and boost customer acquisition.
 
</div>

Big Sky Health

These apps aim to increase users’ body and brain functions including memory and attention to detail with microlearning, gamification, and journaling techniques.

Helps users analyze and address sleep disorders with wearable tech, music and sound therapy, and storytelling.

Apps that provide virtual training programs, track workouts, and provide guides for nutrition.

Companies that use GenAI as a core part of their product offering for Digital Wellness

Some digital wellness providers provider VR/AR experiences for meditations

Some companies offer personalized care/meditation plans, workout regimens, or treatments for sleep disorders

Offers app-based platforms that improve health and wellness

Wellness providers use GenAI to enhance their solutions

ANALYST_QUICK_TAKE

PROMINENT_CATEGORY

<div>
 
 Mindbloom, a company based in New York, has entered into a partnership with the meditation app Happier. The partnership aims at launching "Continuous Transformation," a novel approach that merges ketamine therapy and mindfulness practices. 
 This collaboration will provide Mindbloom's clients with free access to over 500 guided meditations found on Happier, with these meditations being taught by more than 60 teachers. In return, users of Happier will receive discounts on Mindbloom's programs. These programs include 12 different paths aimed at tackling various mental health issues. Further, in the upcoming year, phase two of this partnership will be initiated. Named as "Meditation for Mindbloom, Powered by Happier," this phase will facilitate the integration of Happier's meditations into the Mindbloom app itself.
 
</div> Analyst QuickTake: 
 This partnership strengthens Mindbloom's foothold in the psychedelic therapy market while broadening its reach beyond the 500,000 clients it has already served. By integrating mindfulness practices, Mindbloom is poised to offer a more holistic approach to mental health care.

Ten Percent Happier

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