The story so far
In 2011, Charlie woke from a coma after a brain haemorrhage. Overnight he went from a high flying advertising executive who had built a successful career to someone who found himself in hospital, unable to move. To all of the doctors surprise, he made a miraculous recovery, and within a year had taught himself to stand and walk again, and the year after that he ran an ultramarathon and was an executive of JustGiving. This experience inspired him to focus on continued self-improvement, and he wanted to build a company that encouraged people to be their best self. Through his own experience and having spoken to doctors and academics who studied him, he realised there’s a short term pain-point of lack of access to psychological therapy, so as a result in 2019 Charlie founded HelloSelf.
In the immediate term, HelloSelf offers ordinary consumers access to the best psychologists, on demand over video. Longer term, it is working with experts to help develop machine-learning software that can accurately diagnose depression or anxiety with high precision, and to ultimately allow psychologists to provide more tailored care. OMERS invested in HelloSelf’s seed round at a previous company, and along with Managing Partner, Harry Briggs they lead its Series-A. In less than two years from launch, HelloSelf now has 82 therapists on its platform, and has delivered over 10,000 hours of therapy.
