Brian Femminella is the Co-Founder & CEO of SoundMind, a Founder Institute Silicon Valley portfolio company that is merging tech and music to help those struggling with mental illness. SoundMind is an audio and visual music therapy and brain exercise app designed to help lower concentration of stress hormones, increase memory resilience, and mitigate emotional and auditory triggers.
While studying at the University of Southern California, Femminella was inspired to research mental health therapies to support a close friend dealing with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). He found music to be one of the most powerful outlets in healing from anxiety, depression, PTSD, and other mental illnesses. In learning this, Femminella and his co-founders knew they wanted to leverage the power of music to help people Relax, Reset, and Refocus.
Watch the full video interview with SoundMind Co-Founder Brian Femminella here, or see the highlights below:
Key Insights:
- The state of the modern mental health crisis
- How music therapy is complementary to meditation
- How to measure mental wellness as an outcome
- Key features of the SoundMind app
- Industry predictions for tech + wellness
- Femminella's advice for aspiring and early-stage entrepreneurs
- Where SoundMind is headed next in 2022
CEO Brian Femminella notes that Founder Institute was among the first to believe in SoundMind, back when the company started only a year-and-a-half ago. Now, the company is backed By Rough Draft Ventures (powered by General Catalyst), Gaingels VC, elite healthcare and tech leaders, music creators, and more.
SoundMind is on track to release a creator platform that features users' favorite artists helping them to relax, and the stories behind their music. Femminella also teased a new interactive feature in our interview, which he described as Snapchat's "Snap Map" adapted for SoundMind, saying,
If you're a Snapchat user and you've ever looked at Snap Maps before, imagine if you can do that but have people in your industry that are going through the same thing. We're going to open up those 'Snap Maps' to you, but in SoundMind.
CEO Brian Femminella assures that 2022 has a lot more exciting updates yet to come, for the company itself and its community of users.
SoundMind is the only place where you can find audio and visual therapy, tailored to your needs through the power of sound. To learn more, visit SoundMind.app
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