David Cohn

“Originally from outside Chicago, I’ve tacked back and forth between helping make a societal impact (specifically in mental health) and doing that within the fast-growing structure of a for-profit enterprise. Regroup grew out of those two objectives, providing over 100,000 mental health sessions via video to those who need it most across the United States, while seeing our revenue also grow exponentially. To date, Regroup has raised over $15 million from top-tier venture capital firms.”

How did IE help you get to where you are today?

“IE was instrumental in helping make Regroup a reality. In the early days, I met Sari Nass in an entrepreneurial management class where we built out the pilot narrative and plan. Our professor, Paris de l´Etraz, helped us understand that we had a viable idea even at that early stage. Classes like Lee Newman’s on Behavioral Decision Making have helped guide how we make major decisions ever since that class. IE changed the way I think about business and gave me the skills and confidence required to take this from an idea to a scaling enterprise.”

How did you come up with the idea for your company?

“Like so many things, Regroup was an iterative process. One of the seeds was planted early, as I had been interested in the use cases for synchronous, web-based video for years. I had long been interested in behavioral health as well as it played an important role in my life. In parallel, Sari Nass was looking at early mental health ideas as well. When we met in Paris’ Entrepreneurial Management class, we excitedly combined ideas around where to start and ultimately landed on video-enabled group support. While that was not where we ultimately found market traction, it was an important starting point.”

What is the key to the success of your company?

“The key to our success has been a deep understanding of the real problem to be solved. While many in the health tech space focus on innovation for innovation’s sake, we understood early that the real challenge in the field was a lack of clinician access for patients with unmet mental health needs. While technology was required to solve the problem, keeping the tech stack lightweight and easy to navigate was more important than building complex features. We focused instead on clinical quality and easy integration into clinical settings and that has made all the difference in terms of clinical and financial impact in the marketplace.”