Aug 15, 2019
Announcing our Series B
By: Alex Katz, CEO and Founder of Two Chairs
Two years ago, Two Chairs opened its first clinic in downtown San Francisco. Motivated by my personal experience seeing loved ones struggle with our mental health system, that clinic was the first step to achieving our mission: Creating a world where everyone has access to exceptional mental healthcare. Since then, Two Chairs has grown rapidly. We’ve opened five additional clinics from San Francisco to Oakland to San Jose and helped over two thousand clients find care, tailored to them.
Today, I am thrilled to announce our next step toward achieving and scaling that mission: our $21 million Series B funding round. We’re excited to continue to partner with investors that have been with us since the beginning and know our team well. Our Series B is led by Amplo with longtime investors Goldcrest and Maveron also participating. Sheel Tyle at Amplo has been a friend since our freshman year in college. When he offered to lead our round, he shared with me: “Two Chairs is on its way to being a truly meaningful company: If we can make mental health care more accessible and uplifting, we can create a movement that de-stigmatizes therapy.”
All three firms have been exceptional partners in helping us to realize our vision, and we’re so excited to deepen our relationship with them. We are more dedicated than ever to rebuilding our nation’s mental health system by innovating at the intersection of healthcare delivery and technology, and providing mental health services that keep the in-person experience at the center. In particular, this funding will enable us to do 3 big things: (1) Deepen our investment in technology that powers our system, (2) Accelerate our clinic growth, and (3) Continue building our world-class team.
Deepen our investment in technology:
From the beginning, Two Chairs has been dedicated to providing high-quality, end-to-end care for our clients. Our board member and Maveron co-founder, Dan Levitan, said it best: “Two Chairs is tackling mental health’s most pervasive issues through a fully integrated approach that expertly delivers deeply empathetic, end-to-end care — all through a completely seamless client experience.” Though that experience has in-person care at its core, it wouldn’t be possible without a deep commitment to technology. Said another way, technology at Two Chairs means building products and experiences that improve in-person care — not replace it. This means seamless booking, best-in-class client support, and clinical programs that are all enabled by in-house technology.
Decades of clinical research has shown that success in therapy depends on the strength of alliance, or therapeutic relationship between client and clinician. However, finding the right fit is traditionally a black box. From demographic preferences to modality, matching your unique needs to the right clinician can be difficult. At Two Chairs, we’ve made this process easy. Our unique matching system combines in-person clinical expertise with data science and in-house software to find our clients the best match, and in turn, ensure the best care. This round helps us to scale our engineering and technology efforts to create the first clinical system that seamlessly integrates modern data science with clinical expertise.
Accelerate our clinic growth:
Unlike the majority of digital-only mental health start-ups, we run brick-and-mortar clinics. Our spaces feature beautiful interior design in locations close to mass-transit, so our clients can integrate therapy into their everyday lives the way they might integrate any other wellness activity. On top of that, we’re building the first consumer brand in mental health: we’ve built a passionate community of mental health advocates in the Bay Area. Our community has invited us into their social and professional spaces, from coffee shops to workplaces to local businesses and social clubs, to share our approach to care and mental health education. Our funding enables us not only to expand our presence within this community and open more clinics in the Bay Area, but also beyond in new communities around the country.
Continue building a world-class team:
We couldn’t have gotten to where we are today without the exceptional and empathetic team we’ve built. Working side by side, our clinicians, engineers, designers, and operators combine a deep commitment to clinical rigor with best-in-class technology, design, and consumer experience. We’re made up of clinicians from Stanford to UCSF, engineers and product managers from Google to Nerdwallet, business people from McKinsey to Uber, and designers and operators from Everlane to Virgin America.
Our clinicians are the heart of Two Chairs: Day after day, they deliver exceptional quality care to our clients. We are building a system that enables them to thrive and be successful. We are also creating opportunities for diversity of work: a commitment that we believe not only benefits our clinicians, but also our clients. Our clinical offerings are currently focused primarily on individual psychotherapy; as we expand, we look forward to investing further in our group therapy program and launching new clinical programs, enabled by the research and experience brought by our clinical team. We aim to be a mental health provider for all people — and for all mental health needs.
We believe that our deep commitment to clinical rigor sets us apart. We know that our ability to achieve our mission will be enabled by a seamless partnership between the clinical and technology worlds. Though our backgrounds may be different, we’re united by our collective personal experiences with our mental health care system and the desire to make it better.
I couldn’t be more excited about what’s ahead for us. This round means we have the resources we need to take our model to many, many more people in need. If you’re passionate about making an impact and want to help us rebuild our nation’s mental health system, please reach out — we’d love to have you on the team!
— Alex
Alex Katz is the CEO and Founder of Two Chairs
