Founding father of Mind raised $20 million for his psychological well being startup

From drop-shipping to advert arbitrage, Chew began experimenting with varied web companies all through his teenage years.

“Numerous this began throughout my secondary faculty years (ages 12 to 16) … I used to be already engaged on a few my very own issues at that time,” mentioned Chew, who attended Raffles Establishment, a widely known and prestigious faculty in Singapore.

At age 16, Chew determined to drop out of highschool.

“Trying long run, I actually did not see myself going the trail of … being a prime scholar, going to a prime college, or being a prime lawyer or physician,” he mentioned.

However what he clearly knew was that he needed to spend extra time constructing issues. “For me, it is by truly working in startups reasonably than, you understand, the speculation of it.”

Chew caught a few “fortunate breaks” after dropping out, he mentioned.

By age 20, he had already based and efficiently exited his first startup, Existgreat, a self-help content material platform that featured interviews with the likes of American entrepreneur and speaker, Gary Vaynerchuk.

Following the acquisition, Chew went on to work at a few startups, the place he gained extra expertise.

Recounting his personal journey with psychological well being, Chew mentioned: “I bought my first panic assault after I was 16.”

“That is when, truly, I noticed one thing appeared a bit flawed,” he added.

Chew went on to hunt the assistance of a therapist, and was later recognized with an anxiousness dysfunction.

By way of his personal expertise, the Singapore-native discovered a evident downside: whereas psychological well being points are prevalent in Asia, the area is basically underserved.

“I feel within the very preliminary phases, any founder must be a bit delusional,” mentioned Chew. “I do not suppose I am the neatest, I do not suppose I am essentially the most succesful however … I’m naively formidable, and I feel that has served me fairly properly,” he mentioned.

All through his journey up to now, Chew has been distinctly conscious of his strengths, and extra importantly, the place he’s missing. By understanding the place his weaknesses lie, Chew outsources sure expertise and jobs to workers.

“As a founder, significantly a younger founder, you’ll want to be very conscious of the place you are not good at, reasonably than the place you are good at, and be open minded to be taught,” he mentioned. “Our whole govt workforce is far more skilled and senior than I’m.”

Together with being “naively formidable” and being extremely self-aware, the important thing to Chew’s success has been three-fold: Having an innate curiosity in constructing issues, having the drive to experiment with concepts, and anticipating challenges alongside the way in which.

Nevertheless, the fact is that “it by no means will get tremendous simple or simple for anybody, so there’s at all times that inertia to beat,” Chew mentioned. “I feel [expecting] that to be a part of the journey can be an important factor.”