Lennie Carter, CEO of TruCircle, credits therapy with saving his life — and he hopes to return the favor with his secure video conferencing service for therapists and their patients.
“I founded TruCircle after the loss of my mother 10 years ago and the impact it had on my mental health,” he said. “Going to therapy saved my life and the value of therapy became clearer."
He added that his mental health struggles weren't unique. In fact, Carter grew up in Brownsville, a section of Brooklyn that is often underserved in many ways. Mental health is one thing that falls low on the totem pole. Instead, residents often push emotions down, which leads to problems later in life.
"Some of the stories [I've heard] stem from, as a kid, growing up in households with domestic violence," he said. "Other stories include family members using drugs. Other stories include family members getting robbed, and other crime happening in the neighborhood."
And, he continued, society isn't programmed (yet) to face mental health issues in a fully productive way.
"There's a huge problem with the mental health industry, because not only finding help can be difficult at times, but finding the right help is challenging," Carter continued. He stated that there's a 60 percent drop off in therapy attendance after the first visit.
TruCircle aims to solve those problems by connecting those in underserved communities with the help they need. The service provides affordable, easily accessible mental health resources with licensed professionals. Patients can sign up and choose the services they need, without the stigma of having to go into a doctor's office.
A member of UpTech's most recent cohort (from which the company received seed funding as a participant), Carter and his team have mainly funded their work on their own.
“We bootstrapped the majority of our journey, with some funding from Neighborhood Start Fund, from the founders Lupe Fiasco and Di-Ann Eisnor," he told Cincy Inno.
Looking ahead, TruCircle wants to use that money to continue to have a positive impact by spreading their platform to help people.
At the end of the day, “I created TruCircle to solve a problem that I lived through and didn't want any other person from an underserved community to go through the same problem,” Carter said.
