Seeking mental health support is a complex process, but some founders believe that using AI to formalize techniques like congestive behavior therapy (CBT) can help people who may not have access to professionals. Dr. David Burns, who has 40 years of experience in the field of psychiatry, has now developed an app called Feeling Great based on his methods.
Burns teamed up with Jeremy Karmel, who previously led growth teams at Doordash and Reddit, to develop “Feeling Great,” which is also the title of one of Burns’ best-selling books on mental health.
Founded in 2022, the company announced today that it has raised $8 million in seed funding co-led by Learn Capital and TitleTownTech, with participation from Lux Ventures, WaveMaker Three-Sixty Health, Pacific Health Ventures, and Treble Capital. The startup is also launching its app today, which has so far been in beta with around 3,000 users.
Feeling Great currently employs 14 people and wants to invest capital in the development and marketing of the app.
Rob Hutter, founder and managing partner of Learn Capital, said he read Burns’ book and attended one of his seminars years ago and developed a keen interest in his work.
In recent years, he reconnected with Burns and learned that he was working with Karmel on a therapy solution, so he decided to invest. Hutter noted that Burns’ popularity and Karmel’s growth mindset are a great combination to scale the app.
The app and technology
Burns said the company had been thinking about developing an app that offers guided lessons before large-scale language models came on the market. But with the release of modern AI models, the startup decided to transfer Burns’ knowledge into its own model to accelerate the impact of the feel-better process.
“I’m very excited that we’ve developed an electronic tool that not only alleviates depression, but seven negative emotions at once,” he said in a phone call with TechCrunch.
The Feeling Great app consists of two parts: interactive courses on mental health and managing emotions, taught through illustrations and stories, and a chatbot that can talk to you about your problems. The latter also offers you the opportunity to practice techniques that can help you deal with negative emotions.
The company said it developed its AI models based on Burns’ TEAM (Testing, Empathy, Assessment of Resistance and Methods) approach, which focuses on empathetic responses and providing actionable advice to users.
“We have developed an empathy model that focuses particularly on building a deep relationship with users. In addition, we have created an evaluation framework that can tell us whether the AI understands users well,” said Karmel.
Burns said from a physiological perspective, the app first works to make you feel better and turn negative emotions into joy. It also helps you manage difficult emotional situations when the negative thoughts return.
He added that it is often difficult to train human therapists to be compassionate with patients, but if you train an AI model, it does what you tell it.
However, the startup stated that it does not intend to replace human therapists with this app. During the onboarding process, numerous warnings are displayed to remind users that the app cannot replace a therapist. It also advises users who are having suicidal thoughts to seek professional help.
Opportunities and the way forward
In the mental health space, there are marketplace startups like BetterHelp and Talkspace that connect users with therapists, and apps like Calm and Headspace for meditation. That being said, Feeling Great would directly compete with companies like Woebot, Wysa and Sonia.
Hutter of Learn Capital said, I believe it is possible to take manual therapy approaches that have been proven to be effective and use the data to develop a product.
“The reason this product makes sense in today’s world is because the LLM revolution allows computer-based intelligence to communicate with humans, triggering a psychological transformation of the product,” Hutter said.
“At Learn Capital, we are all about creating things that help people reach their full potential.”
Both Hutter and the co-founders of Feeling Great emphasized that therapy is sometimes unaffordable and your therapist may not always be available to you. They argued that the app is ubiquitous and can help you even if you consult a therapist.
Eventually, the company wants to develop an app that works under clinical conditions and submit it to the FDA for approval. In 2022, Calm also launched its own clinical offering.
Feeling Great is also working on introducing new features to its app, including voice-based AI, long-term memory, and an anonymous mode.
Feeling Great, which is available for both Android and iOS, will be available only to US customers at launch. It offers a seven-day free trial, after which it costs $99 per year.
