Startup Life: Unscripted is a TNG Media newsletter, as part of The Nudge Group, where we feature candid conversations with startup operators about their career journeys and experiences. If you received this email as a forward, you can read all our past interviews and subscribe right here.

Behind the Scenes with Cassandra Loh: Building Bridges in Mental Health Startups

Welcome back to Startup Life: Unscripted! Today we're sitting down with Cassandra Loh, the VP of Partnerships and Solutions at Intellect, a startup with a bold mission to make mental health support widely accessible. Chatting with Cassandra, she gives us the inside scoop on her career transition from established healthcare roles to the vibrant world of startups.

Key interview takeaways:

🔄 Career Transition: Cassandra discusses the pivotal moments that led her from the corporate healthcare realm to embrace the startup world.

🤹 Work-Life-Study Balance: She talks about how she manages the intense pace of startup life while also advancing mental wellbeing at Intellect.

📚 Studies Intersecting with Startup Life: Cassandra touches on pursuing her graduate diploma in Counselling Psychology while working at the startup and how it intertwines with her professional role.

🌐 Healthcare to Health-Tech: She reflects on how her extensive experience in healthcare influences her approach at Intellect and contrasts the environments of traditional corporations and startups.

🤝 Building Community: She recounts her efforts to foster an inclusive environment at Intellect and highlights initiatives like supporting new mothers.

Hey Cassandra, it's great to have you with us today. Let’s kick things off with your story. I’d love to hear about those pivotal turning points or those 'aha' moments that steered you towards becoming the VP of Partnerships and Solutions. Could you walk us through that?

Having worked in various corporate settings for the past decade, I knew for my next role that I wanted to put what I have learned to the test. Through the interactions I had with startups in my past roles, I was intrigued by the passion and dynamism I see in the individuals who chose to work in them, and I was looking out for a product/solution that I would have that much passion for to take the plunge.

I was working with a global insurer, when I came across Intellect's solution. After trying out the product, I found myself an advocate for them within my organisation. Knowing in my gut that I had found THE product, I took the plunge and asked the founder and CEO of Intellect, Theodoric, for a role in the company.

You're now in your current role, working towards making mental health support more accessible. How does a typical day in this role look like, and what is unique about pursuing this mission within a startup environment?

My role looks after three teams, the channel and strategic partnership teams, as well as the solutioning team. A typical day in this role would be a lot of networking with external players in the ecosystem, to understand possible use cases for Intellect's product, and working with internal stakeholders to provide solutions for those use cases.

I would also spend a large portion of my time enabling and challenging my teammates by encouraging discussions and problem-solving. Being part of the leadership team would also mean I spend a good part of my time discussing company directions and strategy with my colleagues.

I think the most unique part about pursuing this mission within a startup environment, is the agility of the company to be able to try solutions and bounce back with improvements after every roadblock. Unlike most corporate settings, there is inevitably less bureaucracy, and a lot more autonomy to make decisions. Of course, with that empowerment comes the need for every individual within the organisation, regardless of their position, to have ownership of their tasks and roles.

You're in the thick of startup life, which is super intense, and at the same time, you're championing mental wellbeing. How do you balance the high-stakes energy of a startup with the calm, focused mission your company has around mental health?

This is a very interesting question. Quoting my founder and CEO, we are a mental health startup. "Startup" would mean the pace is fast in the organisation, and it is important that every employee is a self-starter that takes ownership of their tasks.

However, being a "mental health" company, the culture of Intellect continues to be a supportive one that takes special care of its employees' wellbeing. For example, Intellect offers its employees unlimited coaching credits so that we can speak with coaches/counsellors without worrying about financing them.

It is also rare that we work on the weekends, as the culture has always been to work hard during work hours and unwind/destress when work hours are over. After all, we believe that as a mental health company, we have to walk the talk.

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Startup hustle never slows down, and here you are also tackling a grad diploma in Counselling Psychology! How do you keep everything in sync, and does what you're learning in your studies spill over into your day-to-day at the startup?

Not only am I pursuing a graduate diploma in Counselling Psychology, I also just gave birth to my second daughter 5 months ago! I have to attribute the ability to do so to the supporting family and company that I am blessed to find myself in.

Strong family support gives me the confidence that home is well taken care of when I need to be at work or in classes. Intellect also has been very supportive, and provides employees with the flexibility to manage their time and commitments the best they could within reason.

Personally, I think it is very important to be able to compartmentalise and be present in whatever role I am functioning in, especially when I wear many different hats in a day.

You've got a solid background in healthcare and wellness. I'm curious, how has that shaped the way you approach things at Intellect? Also, I’d love to hear about the vibe—how does the startup scene stand out from the more established corporate world you were part of?

I think my previous roles have equipped me well with the right network and understanding of the healthcare and wellness ecosystem, so that I could better value add at Intellect.

In my previous roles, I worked the ground up from doing operations in Primary Care settings to Hospital settings, and was part of a corporate venture arm before I finally did health and wellness strategy for corporate clients. In each of these roles, I learned invaluable skill sets from conflict management, stakeholder management, and also understood the demands of different players in the ecosystem.

A startup is definitely faster paced, and less structured, both in a good and bad way. While there is less bureaucracy which means things get done faster and you have more voice in each decision, it also means that you are working in a constantly changing environment where the goal post may sometimes seem like it is shifting- but usually that is due to the company pivoting in response to the needs of the industry.

You mentioned that you're passionate about building a strong and inclusive ecosystem. Could you share a story from your journey at Intellect where you've been able to advance this goal?

Intellect's mission is to make mental health accessible and destigmatized for everyone. Although the company's primary product has been catered predominantly to employees, I was able to customise the product to cater to postnatal mothers who are just discharging from the hospital.

The constant cycle of seeking out population groups that would benefit from the Intellect solution, to convincing payers to purchase and implement the solution, and finally seeing end users benefiting from the product, gives me the utmost satisfaction in my job everyday.

Before we wrap up, for those of our readers interested in the intersection of wellness, tech, and startups, what advice would you give them based on your own journey? What is something about the startup life that you wish you knew before embarking on this path?

I would say, find a product you are truly passionate about, so that you are fuelled each day by the same dream to expand the adoption of this product you believe in. It would be unsustainable to view work in a startup as a job; instead, it should almost feel like your own business that you are proud of and personally invested in.

From the Startup Life team

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