My favorite quote is: "No one can give you wiser advice than yourself." – Anon My happy place is: A really good coffee on my deck at sunrise
Marcie Cheung
Caring for the mental well-being of healthcare workers
VALUING YOUR AND OTHERS' TIME. Marcie Cheung is a proud optimizer. Whether in business or her personal life, she aims to get the most output for her input. "I would rather take a little bit more time to think about a decision to ensure that it's going to maximize that output rather than run at something head-on without really vetting it. I even created a program to optimize my shopping list in my free time."
Marcie's latest venture helps those particularly time-poor: healthcare workers. KindMind is a tech-enabled mental health platform that offers healthcare workers access to specialized therapy. "Our special sauce is the matching algorithm. Not only were we hyper-focused on healthcare workers, but we also matched therapists and patients based on a 12-point system, looking at things like age, availability, price point, and schedule."
Marcie founded the company in April 2020 after her parents were admitted to the hospital during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. "Because I spent so much time in the hospital, I ended up becoming friends with the care team that was taking care of my parents. I realized that before COVID, they were already going through their own mental health pandemic, and as COVID went on, it just got worse."
KindMind was acquired by Heading Health in April 2022, where the offering now extends to psychiatry and innovative treatments using psychedelics. As a learning experience, Marcie considers KindMind one of her greatest successes. "I learned an incredible amount about building a business, building patient-driven products, fundraising, and the acquisition process. Beyond that, I learned that being a founder gives you a completely different perspective on how the world works, and the importance of prioritizing.
PLAYING TO YOUR STRENGTHS. Marcie's appetite for startups began at Wharton Business School and flourished when, after graduating in 2015, she joined startup Jet.com. "I realized from there the power of bringing together incredibly smart people aligned to an ambitious goal. From there, I just wanted to work with those types of people, to create an environment similar to the early Jet.com days. That’s when I realized I was a startup person."
Before Jet.com, Marcie explored the fashion industry, giving up a well-paid job at a tech company for an internship at a fashion trade publication. It was a move, she says, that marked “when the kind of Marcie you see today started to come out a little bit." When she moved to Jet.com, that was the first time she was open about her sexuality, a move that propelled her to embrace her authentic self.
Marcie is now using her experience at KindMind to elevate her next project, exploring the world of artificial intelligence. "I think technology, depending on how you use it, can be helpful or hurtful. I would love to create technology that actually enables people to be more conscious.
"One of the big reasons why I started KindMind, not only because I saw a problem, was that I firmly believe that we are our own biggest blockers; that our minds are our biggest limitations. I want to help people understand that and help to give them tools to manage through that. That is where I see myself providing the most value back to this world."
