George Moringer’s Post

Sometimes the "Wrong" Person is Exactly Right for the Job When we started tapouts, our children's mental wellbeing program that now delivers close to 100,000 hours of coaching per year, I was met with a common question: "What's your background in child psychology?" My answer: "I was a child." VCs always ask the same questions, looking for the traditional credentials. The truth? I had none. I've never been to therapy. Never worked in mental health. My background is in philosophy. On paper, I was perhaps the "wrong" person to build a mental health edtech platform. Sometimes though, being an outsider is precisely what an industry needs. The Power of Fresh Eyes We approached children's mental wellbeing without the constraints of "how things have always been done." Instead of limitations, we saw possibilities: - I get bored fast. Most coaching sessions are 1h and boring. Practitioners told us you can't teach kids social skills in less than 60 minutes a week. We figured out how to teach kids social skills in 30 minutes a week. It works. No child has ever said: "This is boring!" - "You shouldn't make it too much fun. It's mental health." We made it more fun than too much fun. Kids love it. - I said let's add points and amazing prizes. People said, "You are bribing kids to do mental health." I asked: Why is that a problem? Kids love the points and the prizes which leads to stellar show up rates. The Results Speak Volumes Now with a $5.5 million annual revenue run rate within just 2 years and unheard of conversion rates from trial to subscription, we've proven that sometimes the most valuable perspective is from outside the established framework. Naivety can be an asset - you'll ask questions others don't. #InnovationMindset #MentalHealthInnovation #ThinkDifferently #StartupJourney