Company: Soulside Inc, San Francisco, CA
Company Description: Soulside is a nationwide mental health platform, founded in 2022 by clinicians, mothers and AI experts, enabling clinicians to deliver effective mental health support, starting with maternal mental health. Soulside has raised capital from leading tech and healthcare VC funds and has been a part of the prestigious One Mind Accelerator Program and UCSF Rosenman Program for innovative product.
Nomination Category: Individual Awards Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Best Female Entrepreneur – Consumer Services –10 or Less Employees
 Nomination Title: Surabhi Bhandari, CEO
- Which will you submit for your nomination in this category, a video of up to five (5) minutes, explaining the achievements since July 1, 2022 of the nominated woman, OR written answers to the questions? (Choose one):
Written answers to the questions
- If you are submitting a video of up to five (5) minutes in length, provide the URL of the video here, OR attach it to your entry via the "Add Attachments, Videos, or Links to This Entry" link above, through which you may also upload a copy of your video. If you are submitting written answers to the questions for this category, provide them in the spaces below:
Surabhi founded Soulside on 7th July 2022. She assembled and led a team of top clinical and technical experts to launch Soulside commercially in Jan 2023.
Soulside is now the fastest growing maternal mental health service in the US, already available in all 50 states with 10,000+ member-sessions in 18 months. Soulside has proven and published industry-leading outcomes with 24%+ symptom reduction in 8 weeks at 40% lower costs.
In 2023, Surabhi led the business to raise $2.7M funding from leading venture capital funds, including Counterpart Ventures, GreyMatter Capital, and others.
Soulside was also selected for One Mind, the #1 mental health innovation accelerator in the US, including additional $100K investment after a rigorous process.
Surabhi was awarded by the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) Rosenman Institute as a ‘2024 Healthtech Innovator’ for ‘Revolutionizing Patient Care’. <3% applicants are selected for this nationwide award which is funded by the State of California through UCSF.
In 2023, Surabhi received a $100K grant as part of the SPARK Founder Fellowship by VC fund Peak XV for outstanding entrepreneurial achievements. Surabhi was also awarded as an ‘AIXBio Rising Star’ by LifeX Ventures in 2023.
Recently, Surabhi was selected for the 5-member Technology Leadership Council at the Maternal Mental Health Leadership Alliance (MMHLA). She has led Soulside as a semi-finalist at the Confluent AI Global Data Streaming Challenge 2024. Surabhi has been a speaker and industry thought leader at the Mayo Clinic Platform Conference and other conferences in 2023-24.
- Briefly describe the nominated individual: history and past performance (up to 200 words):
Total 200 words used.
Surabhi has been a founder, investor, and management consultant in healthcare and consumer services for over a decade.
Surabhi founded Soulside, Inc. in 2022 with a focus on solving the US maternal mental health crisis. As CEO, she partnered with leading clinicians from Stanford Medicine and UCSF Health to launch an innovative world-class support service.
Prior to Soulside, Surabhi was a founding team member at Lexington Medical (2017-2022), a Boston-based surgical technology company. As Business Lead at the company, Surabhi built the marketing, sales, strategy, and BD functions. She grew revenue from 0 to $70M+ in 5 years with top health system partnerships including Cleveland Clinic and Mount Sinai, and was awarded best performer for 3 consecutive years.
Surabhi completed her MBA from Harvard Business School in 2017 and was selected for the prestigious Harvard-MIT Program in Health Sciences and Technology.
In 2013-2015, Surabhi was a VC Investor with Tier-1 fund Sequoia Capital, where she was the youngest investor to independently source 3 deals, earning strong recommendations from the investment partners.
In 2011-13, Surabhi was a management consultant with McKinsey & Co. across public and private sector clients. Surabhi completed her undergraduate degree in Engineering from IIT Delhi in 2011.
- Outline the nominee's achievements since July 1 2022 that you wish to bring to the judges' attention (up to 250 words):
Total 248 words used.
Surabhi founded Soulside on 7th July 2022. She assembled and led a team of top clinical and technical experts to launch Soulside commercially in Jan 2023.
Soulside is now the fastest growing maternal mental health service in the US, already available in all 50 states with 10,000+ member-sessions in 18 months. Soulside has proven and published industry-leading outcomes with 24%+ symptom reduction in 8 weeks at 40% lower costs.
In 2023, Surabhi led the business to raise $2.7M funding from leading venture capital funds, including Counterpart Ventures, GreyMatter Capital, and others.
Soulside was also selected for One Mind, the #1 mental health innovation accelerator in the US, including additional $100K investment after a rigorous process.
Surabhi was awarded by the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) Rosenman Institute as a ‘2024 Healthtech Innovator’ for ‘Revolutionizing Patient Care’. <3% applicants are selected for this nationwide award which is funded by the State of California through UCSF.
In 2023, Surabhi received a $100K grant as part of the SPARK Founder Fellowship by VC fund Peak XV for outstanding entrepreneurial achievements. Surabhi was also awarded as an ‘AIXBio Rising Star’ by LifeX Ventures in 2023.
Recently, Surabhi was selected for the 5-member Technology Leadership Council at the Maternal Mental Health Leadership Alliance (MMHLA). She has led Soulside as a semi-finalist at the Confluent AI Global Data Streaming Challenge 2024. Surabhi has been a speaker and industry thought leader at the Mayo Clinic Platform Conference and other conferences in 2023-24.
- Reference any attachments of supporting materials throughout this nomination and how they provide evidence of the claims you have made in this nomination (up to 250 words):
Total 54 words used.
Attachments are provided as proofs for the above outlined achievements, as follows:
- 1SB_Support: Letter from VC Investor
- 2SB_Support: UCSF Rosenman Innovators Website announcement
- 3SB_Support: OneMind Program Press announcement
- 4SB_Support: PeakXV Program Press announcement
- 4ASB_Support: PeakXV Website announcement
- 5SB_Support: Confluent Award Press announcement
- 6SB_Support: MMHLA Council Invitation
- 7SB_Support: Conference Speaker Images
- URL: Company Website
- Explain why the achievements you have highlighted are unique or significant. If possible compare the achievements to the performance of other players in your industry and/or to the nominee's past performance (up to 250 words):
Total 249 words used.
2023 was the most challenging year for digital health investments in a decade, with 75% lesser capital raised than in 2021. Female founders raised only 2% of the total capital. As a female founder in digital health, Surabhi successfully led and raised a large seed round for Soulside from leading VCs within one year of incorporation.
She achieved this by proving breakthrough performance with the Soulside service model - 90-day member retention of 91% versus 34% for industry, average engagement of 13 uses/week versus 6 for industry, and NPS of 81 versus 35 for industry.
With these breakthrough metrics, Soulside has become only 1 of 3 players to achieve nationwide coverage, while most alternatives are only available in 3-4 states. With this growth trajectory, Soulside is on track to becoming the largest player in the space within 3-5 years.
Surabhi leveraged her broad expertise to create this unique advantage for the company, combining the latest AI technology with world-class member service and clinical support. Soulside is the only company in the space to receive critical partnerships from organizations across health systems (UCSF, Mayo), funds (PeakXV, OneMind, PlugnPlay), tech companies (Confluent, OpenAI), and patient advocacy groups (MMHLA). Soulside is often the only mental health service partners for these organizations, deepening the advantage over other players.
In her past roles Surabhi has excelled as an ecosystem enabler, but in this role of entrepreneur she is leading from the front to transform an industry and solve a critical need for our generation.
| Attachments/Videos/Links: |
|---|
|
