The Pitch is a Milwaukee Business Journal and Wisconsin Inno series that gives a snapshot of a local startup. The Business Journal doesn’t endorse companies featured in The Pitch, nor is this an invitation to invest. To suggest a startup for possible future features, email tnykiel@bizjournals.com.
Montréal Cain knows firsthand how stressful it can be to worry about someone who is experiencing a mental health crisis. Four years ago, a family member who lives with a mental illness briefly disappeared after experiencing an adverse medication reaction.
"I don't want anyone to feel the way I'm feeling right now," Cain recalled thinking during the incident. "If there was something I could do to know where my (family member) was, how he's feeling, know that he's okay, it would give me peace of mind."
About three years later, Cain founded HouseCall Wisconsin, a company developing an app designed to help individuals, as well as their caretakers and family members, monitor and get help for mental illness.
The app's name, MERA, is an acronym that describes its function: monitor, engage, recommend, advocate. The technology integrates with smartwatches to monitor users' heart rates, track their stress levels and connect them with mental health professionals if necessary.
Upon recognizing signs of stress, the MERA app will engage with users through wellness check-in questions, recommend mindfulness techniques and advocate on behalf of users with its team of licensed clinicians and trained crisis intervention officers. The HouseCall Foundation will provide access to MERA, as well as smartphones and smartwatches, to low-income families.
HouseCall Wisconsin is testing MERA with initial users and expects to publicly launch next February, Cain said. He's lobbying the city of Milwaukee to allocate $3.9 million from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) to fund an 875-family pilot program.
"We know that because of the pandemic, mental illnesses is at an all-time high," Cain said.
The company has letters of support from various community leaders and organizations including Wisconsin Sen. Lena Taylor (D-Milwaukee) and the Milwaukee County Department of Health and Human Services.
"Information, both data-driven and anecdotal, suggest that collaborations with providers like HouseCall Wisconsin reduce the strain on thinly-stretched law enforcement agencies and create safer outcomes for all involved," Taylor wrote.
Cain is a former Marshall High School broadcast journalism teacher, Apple employee, multimedia professional and American Idol contestant. He earned a master’s degree in Christian counseling from Milwaukee's Agape Love Bible College last year.
The technology: MERA is a preventative care mental health app that connects with smartwatches worn by individuals living with a mental illness. The app identifies stress indicators, provides de-escalation recommendations, notifies caretakers and provides 24-hour monitoring by mental health professionals.
How it makes money: HouseCall Wisconsin said it will monetize through user subscriptions, white-labeling agreements with other companies such as health care organizations, and government contracts.
Size of the market: HouseCall Wisconsin is targeting the state's 1.9 million families that have a loved one with a mental illness.
Competition: The company said it collaborates with other organizations that do some of what it offers, but it isn't aware of other companies with its patent-pending technology.
Competitive advantage: MERA will use assistive technology to prevent the manifestation of mental health disabilities and give loved ones and their caretakers 24/7 round-the-clock support from mental health professionals and community-based responders, HouseCall Wisconsin said.
Business/technology it could disrupt: Technology used by first responders
Key team members: Founder and CEO Montréal Cain; AMRI Family Services CEO Dr. Lakeia Jones, who serves as the lead clinician; Northwestern Mutual's Bell & Wright Financial Group partner James Bell, who serves as chairperson; chief operating officer Mara Frier and lead trainer N’Zinga Khalid.
Advisers: Board members Celeste Jackson, Sharon Grant, Star Cunningham and Lauren Hubbard
Investors: Beloved Masterpieces LLC, Terry Family, Jrue and Lauren Holiday Social Impact Fund
Capital raised: $62,000
Capital sought: $200,000
Ideal exit: HouseCall Wisconsin said it doesn't currently have an exit strategy.
Company name: HouseCall Wisconsin LLC
Headquarters: Milwaukee
Year founded: 2020
CEO: Montrèal Cain
No. of employees: One full-time employee, more than 70 therapists and community-based responders serving as subcontractors
Website: www.housecallwi.com
