Investment banker Stephen Hays nearly died after attempting suicide in Las Vegas. (“I booked a room at the Cosmopolitan solely because they had balconies,” he recounts.)
So when he got out of rehab in 2018, he had a new perspective on, well, everything.
For one, he had reexamined his decades-long struggle with addiction through the lens of a new diagnosis, bipolar disorder. But Hays, 39, was also debating his own role within the financial community, rethinking his entire career and life’s purpose. He realized there was a venture fund for everything on the market—healthcare, tech, etc.—but not one strictly focused on something that affects everyone: mental health.
So Hays founded What If Ventures, a VC fund investing in early-stage startups centered on mental health and addiction recovery solutions. Today, it counts more than 250 limited partners. He also launched a podcast called Stigma in which entrepreneurs and thought leaders share their own mental health journey. (It’s taped over 30…
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