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Neuroflow Tackles Mental Health Stigma with Data

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Veteran-run startup launched with support from Bunker Labs PHL.

After five years in the army and a tour of duty in Iraq that included leading a platoon of 40 soldiers in combat, Chris Molaro, co-founder and CEO of Philadelphia startup Neuroflow, saw the effects of anxiety, depression, and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) firsthand.

Molaro recognized that his fellow soldiers were not receiving proper mental health care due to indefinite diagnoses or they simply felt a sense of helplessness because there was no measurable way to understand if therapy was working.

“Mental health screening is extremely subjective,” Molaro said. “Surveys are error prone and imprecise. If you break your arm, you can see that it’s broken. But if you have depression, it can be difficult to recognize. People tell you to get ahold of yourselves. It seems invisible.”

Molaro enrolled in the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania in 2015, where he met bioengineering PhD candidate Adam Pardes. The two discovered a shared interest in leveraging data and technology to solve large problems. Molaro and Pardes soon began dreaming up ideas on how to quantify the unreliable science behind diagnosing mental health issues.

“The brain is one of the last frontiers of science. We still don’t know exactly how it works,” Molaro said. “As a result, inefficient mental healthcare has both a tremendous human and economic costs.”

According to the National Institute of Mental Health, over 11 million Americans suffer from PTSD, while less than half of them receive treatment. The Center for Disease Control estimates that over $4 billion is spent each year on treating anxiety disorders.

Together, Molaro and Pardes devised Neuroflow, a platform that delivers mental health data in real time. Using third-party heart rate monitors, EEGs, or neuro-headsets, Neuroflow detects instantaneous changes in heart and brain activity to measure anxiety, stress, focus, and relaxation. The platform seamlessly integrates with the wearable medical devices to deliver live data on a computer or phone’s internet browser.

Psychologists and psychiatrists, historically dependent on intuition in clinical sessions, can now use Neuroflow as a powerful, data-driven tool to demonstrate and support decisions when treating anxiety disorders, PTSD, phobias, and more.

“Mental health, unfortunately, has such a negative stigma, like it’s something to be ashamed of,” Molaro said. “We wanted to turn something subjective into something quantifiable.”

Since incorporating in spring 2016, Molaro and Pardes have methodically developed and improved their product, including plenty of new iterations and wrong turns.

“I’m a big proponent of the quote ‘Fail faster, succeed sooner,’” Molaro said. “Change happens, you have to learn from your mistakes and work toward proving your hypothesis.”

The Neuroflow team now boasts nine members, all Philadelphia-based. Molaro looked to his military experience to lead the company, often organizing morning runs and workouts for employees.

“I learned from the army that organizations are much more effective when everyone knows each other and there’s a sense of camaraderie.”

To sustain the company while the platform was in development, Neuroflow won a number of grants and local startup competitions, including the Wharton Healthcare Conference Shark Tank, Wharton Innovation Fund, Wharton Venture Award, the Innovation Award at the Wharton Startup Challenge.

Neuroflow also participated in the Greater Philadelphia Veterans Network Shark Tank, which introduced the founders to Comcast NBCUniversal partner Bunker Labs PHL, a nonprofit organization and incubator for military veteran-led startups.

“Bunker Labs has been phenomenal with the amount of resources they make available to the veteran community,” said Molaro.

This summer, Neuroflow’s beta version is being rolled out to a select group of initial paying users, including two enterprise client hospital systems and private mental health clinicians.

Organizations outside of healthcare are already seeing other potential uses for Neuroflow, too. Molaro and Pardes have been approached by sports teams seeking analytics for mental stress in game situations and law enforcement agencies want to measure trainees’ reactions to emergencies.

With enormous opportunities for funding and growth on the horizon, Neuroflow appears destined to become one of Philadelphia’s most successful med-tech startups. For Molaro and Pardes, though, their mission is just as important as turning profits.

“We set out to change the way the public views mental health and Neuroflow can do that.”

Startup Scene: Detroit, Michigan

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Through the Table Talk Dinner Series, Comcast NBCUniversal’s Entrepreneurial Engagement team takes us across the United States to meet tech entrepreneurs who build innovative products and influence startup culture in their cities. Authentic conversations between founders and product and innovation leaders at Comcast NBCUniversal helped create this series of stories about cities, like Detroit, where tech and entrepreneurship is thriving.

It’s been more than 120 years since Charles Brady King test drove the first automobile made in Detroit down Saint Antoine Street. Today, the city’s culture and pedigree of innovative engineering, design, and steadfast entrepreneurship continues to thrive in a diverse and inclusive community where founders from all backgrounds can find success.

Recently, local entrepreneurs and community leaders joined startup champions from Comcast NBCUniversal for an in-depth discussion on the future of innovation in the city.

Attendees agreed that the variety of businesses sprouting up in Detroit is comprehensively unique. Detroit’s recent revival is well-documented and much of it can be attributed to the role of Motor City entrepreneurs in sectors such as technology, manufacturing, and food.

“There is also a lot of entrepreneurship in non-tech sectors in Detroit that are building jobs and employing people from backgrounds that are often overlooked within the tech ecosystem. I think that’s part of the Detroit revival story that’s often left off the agenda,” said Rachna Govani, founder of Foodstand, a community-based app that helps users build healthy eating habits.

Indeed, the city’s manufacturing and automotive heritage continues to play a massive role in Detroit’s renaissance and entrepreneurial culture.

Shiva Bhardwaj grew up in his dad’s auto service center and saw firsthand the transition to electronic systems in vehicles and how it impacted the automotive technician industry. After internships with top companies in Silicon Valley, the Ontario, Canada native came to Detroit to found Pitstop, an inventive device and platform that performs and reports diagnostic tests on cars, making it easy for technicians to quickly assess and service cars.

“So many people here are tied to the auto industry and it affects how you focus on mobility and the future of transportation,” Bhardwaj said. “In Silicon Valley, it’s all about service level interests, whereas Detroit’s core market is people and that’s important.”

Making a positive impact on people’s lives is also an intrinsic motivation behind Detroit’s entrepreneurs.

Matt Gira, founder of Fathom Drone, a smart underwater drone, said Detroit’s startup scene changes fast and often. Having a global leader like Techstars in the city, in addition to strong local resources like TechTown, help the ecosystem grow and thrive.

TechTown, Detroit’s longest-standing entrepreneurial incubator, is working toward providing inclusive resources for any and all up-and-coming founders. TechTown’s office space supports 160 businesses from a wide array of industries, while servicing more than 400 clients with a full suite of entrepreneurial resources, labs, and events.

“Now is the first generation of tech development in Detroit, so you have a unique opportunity to not only build a company but an ecosystem,” said TechTown’s Managing Director of Technology-Based Entrepreneurship, Paul Riser. “In other cities, you have to figure out the puzzle or wedge yourself into what’s been built. In Detroit you have a chance to build something that people will be talking about historically.”

Another strength lies in the city’s rich diversity. The Detroit-area is one of the most heterogeneous in the country, boasting large African-American and Middle Eastern populations. Many Detroiters are working to match that diversity in the startup community.

“Let’s focus on inclusion. Think about inclusion in everything you do. If you’re not helping others, go back and start again,” said Andrea Agnew, Vice President of Human Resources for Comcast Spotlight, based in Detroit. “If you change the behaviors, the diversity numbers will come on their own.”

Detroit startup leaders, though, are looking to push diversity beyond the make-up of founders and staff.

“We’re extremely intentional about how we adhere to diversity and inclusion for resources and opportunities,” said Riser. “We also want to engage women in tech as much as possible and be a model from within by how we treat our own staff.”

Be Part of our Global Military Entrepreneur Story

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Add Your Story to Comcast NBCUniversal’s Project in Celebration of Your Community!

Comcast NBCUniversal is looking for stories from military community entrepreneurs that encourage, inspire and celebrate the transition from serving your country to building a business. To do this, we are launching an exciting project with SeenIt, a video collaboration tool, and we want you to join us!

We invite you to help amplify the dedication and entrepreneurial spirit of our nation’s more than 2.5 million veteran and military spouse founders. Simply use your smartphone to create and upload videos to tell us who you are, what you’re building, and any advice you have for fellow military community members who want to follow in your footsteps.

Then, we may connect your story with those from other military founders in a video Comcast NBCUniversal will post to ComcastPartner.com and share through @Comcast on Twitter.

Here’s how it works:

1. Download or open the SeenIt app on your iPhone or Android device.
2. Sign up or log in and allow all popups e.g. microphone and push notifications
3. Enter the Project ID: militaryentrepreneur
4. Head to the ‘Script’ section to find out what our themes are and start filming your shots. You can shoot this through the app or upload from your device. It’s up to you! Just remember to film horizontally.
5. Enjoy and have fun!

If you have any questions, please contact Jeanette Pierce from Comcast NBCUniversal’s Entrepreneurial Engagement team.

See the Female Founder Month Celebration video project created in partnership with Seenit!

Comcast-Pennovation Challenge Winners Consider Building a Business

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With no intention of becoming founders, Viewpoint team members may have created a viable new product and started their future company.

A group of students from the University of Pennsylvania entered the inaugural Comcast-Pennovation Challenge with no expectation of starting a company. But when their team, Viewpoint, won the joint entrepreneur competition from University of Pennsylvania’s Penn Center for Innovation and Comcast NBCUniversal’s machineQ network, the course of their future may have shifted.

The Comcast-Pennovation Challenge asked teams of students and faculty from Philadelphia’s colleges and universities to develop new Internet of Things (IoT) technology that would utilize machineQ’s actionable intelligence network for smart cities. MachineQ relies upon long-range, low-power sensor technology to seamlessly transmit crucial data between parties.

The Challenge was organized by the Penn Center for Innovation and Comcast NBCUniversal’s Entrepreneurial Engagement team, and is an example of what the company will be doing to partner more with startups in its new LIFT Labs for Entrepreneurs programs.

Viewpoint proposed a strategic system to collect and share structural stability data for Philadelphia’s bridges and overpasses. The team is composed of students Kevin Martin, Chelsea Meyers, Grace Moore, and Jono Sanders from Penn’s Masters in Integrated Product Design program, and Evan Oskierko-Jeznacki from the university’s department of Historic Preservation at the School of Design.

“Everyone has a different background and our interdisciplinary approach was really important in bringing so many perspectives and skillsets to the table,” Martin said. “It helped us find a well-defined program and develop a solution that pushed us to a different level and helped us win the competition.”

The road to creating Viewpoint, though, was not so clear cut. The team first brainstormed and analyzed a number of ideas, ranging from cold change management and leak detection to environmental health monitoring and crowd data at large events.

After looking into broader infrastructure issues and interviewing members of the Philadelphia Streets Department, Viewpoint saw a clear need for a new approach to maintaining Philadelphia’s bridges and overpasses.

“The Streets Department has a very limited budget and most of their spending is reactionary after things go wrong,” Martin said. “We want to give them the tools to use preventative maintenance, which is vastly less expensive, before a problem occurs.”

Before attending Penn, Martin was an engineer for the U.S. Navy in South Philadelphia. His work background influenced Viewpoint’s approach to infrastructure.

“In the Navy, preventative maintenance is so important – it’s how we keep our ships running,” he said, “I wanted to know why we aren’t doing the same for our infrastructure.”

Viewpoint presented a system that uses sensors to monitor concrete health over time and relay the data to officials and crews so they can repair bridges before concrete failure.

“There are thousands of bridges in Philadelphia – not just the big steel ones over the Delaware – but highway overpasses, which a lot of people don’t think about, and other raised roadways that consistently need maintenance,” Martin said.

Viewpoint completed a rigorous interview process to understand what users needed and how to deliver it using machineQ.

“Given the extent of aging infrastructure in the United States, the Viewpoint team has identified a unique, underserved market need and developed a technical solution more compelling and sophisticated than we see from many fully-funded IoT companies,” said Alex Khorram, GM, machineQ. “We are excited to help the team grow their idea into real-world pilots with the potential to become a commercial product.”

While Viewpoint team members didn’t begin the project with the intention of founding a new business (and are still plenty busy with school), they will continue to work on Viewpoint in their free time with help from Comcast and Penn. For their winning proposal, the team received a $3,000 cash award, six-month membership to  the Pennovation Center, and participation in Penn’s I-Corps business plan creation program.

If they are able to create a viable product, Viewpoint might be able to help cities across America repair the country’s 614,000 bridges before they fail.

Bunker PHL and Comcast NBCUniversal Partner to Help Veteran Families Build new Businesses

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Bunker Labs is a national nonprofit organization for military veteran-led startups. Now with 15 chapters across the U.S., Bunker Labs provides veterans and military spouses with connections to the people, resources and support they need to start and grow their businesses.

Comcast NBCUniversal is proud to be Bunker Labs’ first National Corporate Sponsor and Founding Sponsor of Bunker Labs PHL in our hometown of Philadelphia. Here, companies like GROUNDit, Starchup, and NeuroFlow  are among the hundreds of local founders who have realized their dream of building a business with support from Bunker Labs.

For a closer look at Bunker Labs PHL and how it’s shaping the lives of local veteran entrepreneurs, watch this video that debuted at the organization’s annual Bunker Muster event.