How Did You Get the Idea for ALMA?

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I knew that I wanted to do something in the mental health space. As a clinician, it felt very natural for me to go to my people and get to know their issues. The big thing with providers in mental health is that it's primarily an industry of independent solo practitioners. That was the big aha moment when I realized here are these incredible humans who don't have the business skill, the support, the technology they need to meet the surgeon demand for mental health services.

Todd Jackson’s back on the mic this week. (As a reminder, he’s guest hosting a few product-focused episodes this season — all about finding product-market fit.)

Today, Todd chats with Harry Ritter, founder of Alma, a membership-based network that helps independent mental health care providers accept insurance and build thriving private practices.

In our conversation, we go deep into Alma’s early days, and how they navigated the journey of finding traction and scaling.

As you’ll hear in the episode, the Alma team essentially had to find product-market fit twice as they went from physical, co-working office spaces pre-pandemic, to quickly building out their virtual care capabilities.

Here’s a preview of what Todd and Harry cover:

Approaching team building as a solo founder
Refining the idea and getting more insights from your customers through structured interviews, using the technique doctors are trained on
Rallying your team through a pivot
Staying competitor aware — not competitor obsessed
The difference between building a marketplace versus a platform.

Whether you’re in the early stages of starting a company or going through a tough pivot, there are tons of helpful tactics here.

You can follow Harry on Twitter at @harryritter1. You can email us questions directly at review@firstround.com or follow us on Twitter @firstround and @tjack.