Advocating for everyday mental health with an app

THEODORIC Chew’s entrepreneurial journey began when he was in secondary school with an array of online businesses, ranging from dropshipping to arbitrage advertising. While most of his early ideas did not take off, the experiences gave Chew, now 26, the foundation and motivation to pursue his dream of being in the tech space.

In 2012, the 16-year-old Raffles Institution student decided to leave junior college to focus on this goal full time. He built his portfolio through stints in various companies and honed his entrepreneurial skills by reading self-help books. 

“I had a family that was massively supportive and understood what I hoped to do. They gave me the space and confidence to try, even if I may fail,” Chew says. Two years later, he had founded Existgreat, an online publishing startup that was later acquired by a small US internet media company. 

His most recent venture, tech-based mental health benefits company, Intellect, stems from a more personal place. 

A digital take on mental health

Having struggled with anxiety since secondary school, Chew had his first panic attack at age 16, prompting him to seek help. He experienced firsthand the benefits of therapy and became inspired to improve mental health access and care in Asia Pacific.

Through a mutual friend in the tech space, Chew met Anurag Chutani, a software engineer who shared this same vision. Together they spent a few months speaking to psychologists, HR professionals, business founders and the general public to further understand the issue, find out who Intellect’s target audience would be, and what their barriers to care are. 

They found that in Asia, and particularly Singapore, a lot of people struggle with mental health, but don’t get the support and care needed.

“This doesn’t necessarily mean they have clinical or critical mental conditions or disorders, but everyday struggles that come with work, relationships, sleep and lifestyle that we do not - in our minds - warrant seeing a therapist, but we do struggle with,” Chew says.

“Part of our mission is to shift the narrative of mental health from a clinical perception to one that encompasses everyday and relatable things that everyone can relate to. Because mental health is a spectrum, it’s not black or white.”

Chew focused on the business side of things, while Chutani was in charge of technical engineering like developing the app. They also invited Dr Oliver Suendermann, deputy director of clinical psychology at the National University of Singapore, as a clinical advisor, who later became clinical director of the company.

They had their beta launch in April 2020, and reached over a million users by April 2021. This has tripled to 3 million members today.

The Intellect app’s free version contains self-guided tools on mental health, self care and journaling. Companies can also purchase the premium version to give its employees access to hundreds more modules, as well as Intellect’s panel of coaches, therapists and psychologists, similar to the typical corporate physical health benefit packages that give access to general practitioners.

According to Chew, the platform was created into an app to push accessibility, because people always have their phones with them.

He adds that most large companies typically already have employee assistance programmes, but they often act as crisis helplines and only see about 1 to 2 per cent utilisation. In comparison, on average Intellect’s client companies have seen a 35 per cent adoption rate - the percentage of employees actually using the service.

The app is available to anyone anywhere in the world, but Intellect only markets its health benefits services to firms in Asia Pacific as Chew sees a “super strong need” for better access in the area.

The Intellect app comes in 14 different languages, and provides a panel of trained medical professionals across the region, so that client companies and their employees can connect with local therapists in their respective countries.

Overcoming setbacks and stigma

Intellect was initially bootstrapped by Chew’s savings, before raising funds from venture capitalists and investors.

On the amount invested, Chew says: “It was not a huge figure, but not insignificant as well”. Earlier this year, the company raised US$10 million in a Series A round.

As people did not usually associate mental health with tech startups, Chew notes that it was challenging at first to gain conversions. Intellect also had to overcome public stigma surrounding mental health. 

“The truth is mental health applies to everyone, all of us. Just like physical health we have our mental health. Education was a big challenge,” Chew adds. The team went about by conducting public webinars and training programmes. They also provided volunteers and beneficiaries of non-profits with Intellect’s services.

Early adopters were fellow startups and tech companies, as well as multinational firms who already provided mental health benefits in other parts of the world and were looking for solutions in Asia. Intellect’s growing portfolio of prominent clients - including Singtel, Schroders, Shopback, Shopee and Foodpanda - later allowed it to gain the trust of smaller, local companies as well. 

Chew says: “Factor in the growing awareness being pushed out from not just the individual level, but even on a government level. We saw that Parliament recently discussed the need for mental health in everyone’s lives and workforces.”

“Today, leaders and management teams could all very clearly see a need to invest in employee mental health. It’s no longer a nice-to-have, but a must-have. If your people are feeling and thinking well, they know what to do and perform well as well,” he added.

Amidst all the highs, lows, challenges and setbacks, Chew made sure that he “practised what he was preaching”. While founding a startup can be hectic, he always made an effort to take care of his mental health. For Chew, self care looks like drawing boundaries between work and life, speaking with his therapist and making time for family and friends.

Chew says: “Mental health isn’t just about coping, it’s about bettering myself fundamentally as well; better behaviours, better habits, healthier views on myself and others.”