Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Host: You're listening to the Levy Inspiration Grant Program podcast, where we share stories of business students following their entrepreneurial passions to every corner of the world. I'm your host, Tyler Seybold. Through the program, students at the Kellogg School of Management can travel to any country of their choosing to immerse themselves in a particular topic with an eye toward building a business around it. When they return, they sit down with me to reflect on the experience and share what they learned along the way.
[00:00:28] Host: Like many Kellogg students, Luna Yamashita and Aman Vijay were both drawn to careers that would make a significant positive impact in the world, with their initial friendship forming around a mutual passion for mental health and wellbeing. But when they discovered that they were both also interested in supporting underserved populations in developing countries, their interest turned into a mission.
[00:00:58] Host: Based on their past experiences, they figured that tackling this problem through the workplace would be the best way to reach the most people, leading them on a path to examine mental health support from an employee wellbeing standpoint.
[00:01:12] Host: To investigate this further, they decided to travel to Kenya to speak with different companies of various sizes, from large, multinational corporations, or MNCs, all the way down to local small businesses, even paying a visit to Maasai Mara to learn from their people, all in the hopes of figuring out how to address the growing mental health and wellbeing challenges faced by those in developing countries.
[00:01:35] Host: This is their Inspiration Grant story.
[00:01:37] Luna: Just as context, Aman and I are neighbors and we really bonded initially because of our passion for mental health and wellbeing. Personally, I come from a background where I was a human capital consultant specializing in helping clients build a better employee experience.
[00:02:07] So I did a lot of work on creating employee engagement assessments and creating employee wellbeing programs. I later realized after meeting Aman that he was also working in a mental health startup.
[00:02:19] Aman: As Luna mentioned, prior to Kellogg, I was working in a mental health startup. In India, mental health is an issue which is still at a very nascent stage, but it is picking up after COVID. After working there and seeing the impact that these services can create to actually improving the lives of people, I became even more passionate.
[00:02:37] And when I came to Kellogg, I always had this thing in mind that I would, at least at some level, participate in something where I can work towards my passion towards mental health.
[00:02:46] Luna: We both come from countries where mental health is quite taboo. You initially proposed to me, do you want to start a startup together where we can help create mental health services for developing countries? And that's where it all started.
[00:03:04] Aman: I think most of the passion comes from because like we at Kellogg always want to do something which is not only help us with our career, but is impactful so that we can give back to the society, be it sustainability, climate change, volunteering.
[00:03:20] Aman: And I feel growing up in India, people did not have any awareness about mental health services, and that is like the first step. That is why I was more interested in working in a underdeveloped or a developing country, because I feel markets like U.S. or more developed countries have ample amount of discussion around these topics and ample amount of resources, but the key markets to tap in this category are like probably more underdeveloped or developing countries.
[00:03:51] Luna: We thought of creating this employee wellness app that essentially provides this comprehensive solution for employees to seek mental health services.
[00:03:59] Luna: So it's essentially a seamless experience from diagnosis to treatment and it offers end-to-end services both for the employees and also for the employers. The employee wellbeing topic is something that we're really passionate about, but it was especially the idea of providing that service to a country that doesn't necessarily have that service just yet.
[00:04:20] Luna: So in our case, it was Kenya. We really felt passionate about Kenya because we did a lot of research when we were trying to figure out which country, and we looked at rankings for mental health, and which government was actually trying to push for it, but maybe the implementation wasn't going very well. We realized that Kenya, they implemented a workplace wellness policy strategy in 2019, which is still happening right now, in general, it was not doing very well based on rankings and a lot of mental health professionals. And so we thought that we could make a huge impact there and help people who actually don't have the service just yet, but if we can provide that service through a mobile phone, then that would be a game changer.
[00:05:13] Luna: Some of the questions that we wanted answered during our Kenya trip, the very first one was, is there a significant demand for mental health services among employees in Kenya? We've done prior research before deciding Kenya, so we hoped there would be. We weren't quite sure where to target though, and we had three different levels of companies that we spoke to during our trip. First were the multinational companies, so MNCs, and then we had big, regional African companies like Safaricom, and then local Kenyan businesses. We looked at all three to see where the demand is in those three areas.
[00:05:52] Luna: The second question was, are people in Kenya open to using technology to access mental health services? Our entire business proposal is an employee wellness app, so it's through the phone. Ensuring that people actually have access to the technology was a big one as well.
[00:06:09] Luna: Community is a very big factor in the mental health space of a person, and in my previous organization, we actually launched a community feature where people can come in and talk about their specific problems, how these problems are affecting their day to day lives. So we tried to create that community feature, but it's very different via an app or like, you know, via someone you don't know.
[00:06:37] Aman: So for example, you can search your problem on Reddit and see that a lot of people are facing these issues or have a similar feeling that you have. And that can give you some relief, but the kind of community support they had in Kenya was unparalleled. We actually discussed about this and I feel like it's very difficult to create something like thatfrom like a tech app perspective, which can give similar outcome as what they have,
[00:07:04] Luna: That is though our biggest takeaway was, okay, we really want to focus on the app and the fact that it's mobile and we want efficiency, we want accessibility. Going to that trip, we realized we forgot that key factor, community, where that personal touch where you get to form bonds with other people is just as important when it comes to mental health and employee wellbeing. So that's something that we have to work on.
[00:07:30] Aman: Just to like take a step back, Kenya and most of the developing countries are very community-focused. Personally, I grew up in an Indian joint family of fifteen members, so you had like 15 members in your household itself. And some of the people we interviewed in Kenya, one of the workers with the tour operator, had 51 real brothers and sisters. There's such a huge community right there, and you are, actually, never alone with your thoughts and whatever you are thinking, you are just sharing with everyone.
[00:08:12] Aman: They don't feel the need for such mental health services because they always have like people around to talk to, which I also felt in India growing up. So there's a limited, requirement over there, and also these people are very spiritual in nature. So when you talk about mental health and all these things, they are like very faithful that, okay, whatever will happen will happen for good, et cetera, et cetera. So the main target that we identified in terms of demands would be MNCs, which can use better level of technologically advanced mental health services and some awareness marketing campaigns, and then regional big businesses where we can at least push such services.
[00:08:55] Aman: A few years back I was reading abook which explained how human brain developed and the fight, flight, the three F responses. So basically how it developed was, you know, a few thousand years ago, let's say you are traveling around a jungle and you see a tiger in front of you, so that's like an actual problem which threatens your life. Those responses got developed, maybe your body will get more anxious or stressed, so that you can respond to the immediate danger that you are facing. But over time, society developed enough that we don't have any immediate dangers, per se, but we are majorly stressed by something of the past or something in the future.
[00:09:40] Aman: But if you look at it at present, you don't have any immediate danger, but still you have stress and anxiety. However, I felt that people in the Maasai village actually have those immediate dangers on a day-to-day basis. One of the person we interviewed actually fought a lion to save two of his cows, and he was showing us the scar.
[00:10:01] Aman: So they were actually facing those immediate dangers for which the responses were developed, but they were actually not that stressed and anxious on the day-to-day life. Whereas we in a like, you know, more developed and complex society don't face such dangers, but are just probably overthinking some stuff and becoming more anxious and stressed about that.
[00:10:21] Luna: My biggest takeaway is that one, it validated our hypothesis, which is mental health in Kenya is not sufficiently addressed in the country just yet. I think that's something that we can hopefully contribute to. I think, especially the people who are living in the city and came from the big companies, our app would really help them.
[00:10:47] Luna: With the other, more local businesses, I think we learned a lot from them in terms of, okay, it's not just about being able to get a diagnosis and being able to get treatment from a mental health therapist and being able to seek professional service.
[00:11:02] Luna: That's also important, but that human touch, that community, that is honestly, what's keeping that community alive and we need to find a way to do that through technology. Well, it doesn't have to be through technology, but being able to provide that is something that we need to really figure out.
[00:11:19] Luna: I feel definitely this was a very enriching experience going into a completely new country and doing the research and getting these insights, which I feel is like the first step of any entrepreneurship journey: understanding the market, identifying market gap, understanding the requirements of what the customer needs. So I feel way more confident that, not only for this, if I have to research any topic, I have the skill set to go in and just deep dive. I definitely agree. I think it definitely increased my confidence.
[00:11:57] Luna: I never actually thought I would have the opportunity to actually go to a country and test these business ideas. so this, Levy grants provided that opportunity for us, and it really empowered us really to be able to actually test our ideas, do the research, and then, I was surprised by how many connections we were able to make.
[00:12:18] Aman: The first thing I want to tell everyone is really taking that risk and challenging yourself. Surprisingly, I was expecting a lot of people to immediately turn the other way and not be interested in giving me their time, but people were so open to helping us. Going to a different country for the purpose of research of something that you want to start was something that I never thought of before I heard of Levy Grant. I would say that it's a very very tangible thing to do. It's a push initially, but all of the Kellogg students who are here are capable enough if they have any idea and if they want to research and test this out, I would highly recommend take up this opportunity. And in the end, you will definitely have a skill set that you can be proud of and use throughout your life.
[00:13:18] Host: The Levy Inspiration Grant program is made possible through the generous support of Larry and Carol Levy and is managed by the Entrepreneurship Program at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. To learn more about the Levy Inspiration Grant Program, and other ways we support student entrepreneurs, visit our website at kell.gg/entrepreneurship. That's kell.gg/entrepreneurship. I'm your host, Tyler Seybold. Thanks for listening.
