CC
Entrepreneurship in Society. >> Welcome back to
through the UW School of Human This is a course that is offered
I'm Jeanan Yasiri Moe. Ecology.
extend thanks to our partners in As we begin today, I'd like to
Office of Corporate Relations, supporting this course, the UW
for their technical support, and the UW College of Engineering
offered through the Ewing Marion financial support which is
committed to advancing academic education in entrepreneurship.
Additionally, we thank our media
Television and their University Place crew for taping today's
lecture.
our special guest today, Heidi I'm quite pleased to introduce
Heidi graduated from the UW AllMadison with a degree inom.
psychology and a certificate in business in 2010.
She started Spill during her
herself was going through a bit junof a hard time but faced ahe
two-week wait to see a
The company that she founded has counselor.
schools and prevented 17 since expanded to over 20
suicides to date. pAfter going through thet
prestigious TechStars' Boston incubator for high growth
start-ups, Heidi grew her team
million dollars and is now to six people, raised a half a
veterans and high schoolers. looking to expand the program to
very little formal education in the area of business, Heidih
offers a no nonsense perspective
like. ofPlease join me in welcomingoks
Heidi Allstop.
Hi, everyone. Looks like I didn't backup my
software. All right.
So I'm Heidi Allstop. Nice to meet you all.
I'm the CEO and founder of
support system online. Spillnow.com Spill is a peer
vent privately about whatever you're struggling with in your
personal life and get feedback
been through similar problems. from a handful of peers who have
roommate problem, you can get feedback from other people who
have been through that issue, all anonymously and all within
24 hours. So, how it works is you go to
Spillnow.com, write out whatever
screened by crisis professionals you're struggling with, it gets
might need further attention. toAfter it's screened, it getsat
sent to a handful of peers from schools across the country.
You can choose if you want to hear from students on your
campus or off your campus.
offering support, feedback, They respresources. 24 hours
Their responses are screened to make sure they don't say
anything detrimental. They don't say go jump off a
cliff or you're going to go to
anything like that. Once they're screened, they're
sent back to the spiller and
So, as mentioned previously, I they feel a little bit better.
through a hard time at college. I was a junior and I was going
through a bad breakup, some depression, just feeling kind of
lonely, and I didn't want to
personal problems. bother my friends with my
where you're like, I really don't want to vent to you again.
And it was around finals time and everyone was really busy.
So I called the counseling
It was a two-week wait for an appointment, and they didn't do
any screening on the phone to make sure I wasn't at that kind
of tipping point. And I remember sitting outside
of Helen C. and looking at
library so stressed out, everyone walking into the
totally inverted, and I wondered how many other people
were feeling the same way I was but we just had no way to
connect because we had so much
And I wanted to change that. pride for not opening up.
these people who are similarly So I figured how can we connect
The first step was to create a struggling?
I thought of the idea of Spill, what if we had an online place
to connect? Literally went inside the
library and started filling out an application for a student
organization. I had no idea what it was going
to be.
those applications, but somehow And I they approved it.proves
So over Christmas break I started building a website so
that we'd have a landing page to
And it was so, I have no go to.
like email your problems to tecstudentspill@gmail.com. was
We'll keep them safe and
People did it. private.
went to the student org fair. 120 people signed up to become
responders, and 10 of them
I was like we don't have a wanted leadership positions.
we'll make one if you want to leadership help. but, sure,
So it just started taking off,
then started telling their and the students at Wisconsin
the time I graduated we had 10 friends at other schools, and by
Some of them even wanted to pay schools wafor it.he program.
And I hadn't done any marketing for it.
It was just purely student word of mouth.
So I wondered how is it that
thing so fast and why? students are picking up on this
college is hard. It turns out, you guys know,
You're away from your friends Ifrom home, your family, your
trying to be so cool in front of
wants to be the vulnerable one your new friends, and nobody
on the edge. who's stressed out and feeling
don't know how to deal with it, so they pour money into things
like counseling that only reaches about 12% of the
population on average.
expensive problem in that one in So it's actually a really
before their sophomore year. four college freshman drops out
dollars to the university, a That's a huge loss in tuition
just in general to society. And a lot of the reasons have to
do with depression, failure to
They're all solvable, but 80% of adjust, loneliness.
consider going to counseling students say they wouldn't even
is kind of ridiculous. even in times of crisis, which
to do it. OSo Spill reaches out to peoplet
where they are: online. It's safe, confidential,
available 24/7. You don't have to call a
counselor at 3:00 in the morning
vent about a bad breakup. So after we started expanding,
we started getting messages from
their lives, saying they didn't drop out of school because of
it, and it was really astonishing to me that so many
people were going through this
it. To date, we've intervened on 19
potential suicides, which is
most proud of right now. probably one of the things I'm
want to become responders. The cool thing is that spillers
help other people after they get They want to pay it forward and
So it creates a very scalable model in that it's a group of
people who is giving back to
So after all of this kind of each other.
concept started, I thought concept and this early proof of
money on this, especially since tsome of the schools are evene
saying how much does it cost, we
So I started a company. Didn't know how.
I wasn't a business major.
psychology major yet. II was kind of slacking.y
And it took off.
actually I'll go to that later, but I guess how it works is when
a student spills or becomes a responder online, the whole
process is online, they serve as
We reach out to the school, tell a lead to us, to these schools.
Then we create a group of students on that campus who act
as the leadership team. They recruit other students to
be involved as responders.
chapter on campus of people spilling and responding to each
other.
students are submitting their Tinnermost thoughts, fears,e
weaknesses, and we're able to collect data on that that is
valuable to the university. These are the people who aren't
going to the counseling center. It's, like I said, the 88% of
the population who isn't going
So we create data reporting on in.
with when and how that school wcompares to other schools.g
So we can say you're loneliness levels in freshman boys are
three times higher than at other
Or we can say did you know that sexual assault spikes on week
13, maybe you should launch some
awareness around that. self-defense courses or do some
schools can push out their local We also sell program upgrades so
put their brand on it, they can rcustomize training, all thatn
jazz. Here's an example of some of the
data analytics that we collect. Things like depression,
confidence, body image, and comparisons between different
schools.
also. So you can see this school has a
huge spike in future worries
So maybe the school should throw around week 12.
something like that. a career-building campaign or
establish this as kind of a standard for how students know
more about that university and
population of students on that know more about what the
For purchasing schools, they see campus are like.
So they understand that if it keeps one student in school or
if it prevents one crisis, it's literally paying for itself.
For us, the opportunity in
High schools is really cool. colleges is cool.
school, that's a hard place to When you think back to high
Also, veterans is an even greater opportunity in that
we're losing more troops to suicide right now than we are in
both Afghanistan and Iraq in
So an update on company standing.
We're at 21 campuses. We'll be at 75 by September.
Everywhere from UC Berkeley to
semester. We've been featured in the New
York Times, TechCrunch, MTV, you
Won Most Investment-Ready Company at the Burrill Business
Plan Competition, and that was
just created that business plan hofor a class like the weekad
before. It still wasn't a company.
Went to TechStars in March of this last year, found out we got
in a week before the
So I literally packed up, moved to Boston, and I've been there
ever since. They have about 150 schools
within a five mile radius there,
I bootstrapped it at first. We got a couple grants and a
little money from TechStars, and
program, we raised $400,000 in then after the closing of the
So the more exciting thing investor money from angels.
we've been presented with an that's going on right now is
company that reaches eight opportunity to partner with a
month. million college students every
ability to spill in their And they wresource.sh out the
So now our challenge is scaling quickly so that we can
accommodate that type of
This summer we're going to be raising a couple million dollars
to do that and also to expand into the military and high
schools.
really relevant to you guys. So that's now but that's not
started, when I was sitting in I want to go back when it
So, I had no idea that I was your seat.
I had no idea it would be a real going to be doing this full time
It was more so just, hey, let's enter this business plan
competition and see how it goes.
started realizing that if I wasn't going to take hold of
this, no one else was going to
And actually, senior year I applied for a job with Accenture
saying, hey, maybe I want to do consulting, and, surprisingly, I
got it. And so then I was faced with the
question of do I take a full
provide me with stability or do I do this crazy dream that might
turn out to be a flop?
of my life to date. AndAnd so I thought about it.on
I accepted the job right away,
it. acMy start date wasn't until,on
let's see, August.
Spill, see how it would go. So I did a lot of brain storming
during that time talking to mentors, talking to people who
worked at Accenture, people who owned their own companies,
trying to figure out what do I
My solution was I'll do them do.
I'll work this full time job and both.
No. Obviously, that's not
sustainable.
well, to step back, do you guys Soknow what Merlin Mentors is?s,
So Merlin's amazing.
you even have an idea of a If you have the opportunity and
They gave me a team of four mentors, and, literally, they've
shaved a year off of Spill's
like kind of the bumpers on the developbowling lanes.hey act
And whenever I say, oh, this is a great idea, I want to do this,
they say, no, Heidi, stay focused.
And they kind of steer you in the right direction.
So I had a mentor team, and I really picked their brains on
what to do. One of the solutions they had
was write a list of the best and
of each. worst situation that will come
you want out of your life, and And also make a list of things
Spill's going to give that to tyou, and put an A by it iff
Accenture is going to give that to you.
At the end, you tally up, see how many each gets, and the
winner resides. So I did both of those exercises
and I realized that the worst case scenario for taking Spill
would be that it flops and I
Accenture again. learn a lot and I go apply with
have more to talk about. I go take another interview and
Accenture was that I miss out on The worst case scenario for
slip through the cracks when it has the potential to help a lot
of people, and I regret it in the future.
And I think regret is worse than
chose Spill. potentially screwing up, so I
that said leap and the net will appear, and it gave me so much
faith in my decision in that if I just jump into this, something
good will come of it. And it has.
So this is kind of the laundry
doing this. I feel like if I were to make
this laundry list of what I would have learned in a
corporate job, it would be a lot
It might be formatting smaller.
It might be getting to work on spreadsheets.
I don't know what it would be, time.
the opportunity to be a manager, but I feel like you rarely get
person, be a fundraiser, be a financial specialist, learn
tech, you rarely get that.
to give, though, is that So, I guess, one message I want
glamorous. entrepreneurship is not
trend around entrepreneurship in Right now there's some weird
start-ups. that everyone's got these
company. It's so cool to start your own
Everyone's going to make the Everyone's a risk-taker.
It's not. It's not easy.
It's not glamorous. It's a lot of late nights.
You kind of make the decision of
a 9 to 12? do I want a 9 to 5 or do I want
And I can say that even though 9 to midnight.
more in doing it than I did in it's not glamorous, I've learned
That might be because I didn't my whole college career.
[LAUGHTER] go to class a lot.
a lot. But it does teach you
friends who got the awesome Itcorporate jobs and were all my
excited to go work for Groupon
them, actually I'd say all but or Intuit or whatever, a lot of
And some of the people I one, have quit by now.
asked them do I want to take interviewed at Accenture who I
tried to persuade me that, yes, tAccenture is amazing, do it.
One of them actually came to me looking for a job.
They were like, you know, I'm hating it.
I want to get out and do my own thing, can I work for you?
You get an opportunity to meet
So it's kind of cool. When you start a company, you
start at the top, and there's no
It's really a preference thing. Do you want to start at the
bottom and climb the ladder to
at the top and be able to admit when you need to be pushed down?
I get to travel all over. Madison today.
North Carolina this next week.
Kentucky in three weeks. Phoenix in two weeks.
And I get to see and feel the difference I'm making in the
world.
me, so if your motivation is I So that's really motivating to
because my boss will be mad at need to get this project done
reference, that's one thing, me and I won't get a good
need to get this thing down, but, for me, motivation is I
might not be able to use our otherwise a hundred students
So people, entrepreneurship teachers always ask me to give
tips, and I don't know. I'm still figuring it out too.
But this is what I do know. I would say figure out what you
want in life and do whatever
So if you want to be an accountant, be the best damn
accountant you can and go for it.
Entrepreneurship is not for everyone.
It sounds morbid but write your own eulogy.
So what do you want to be remembered for?
I think that was a really cool
with me. tip I got senior year that stuck
for at my funeral? What do I want to be remembered
They're really not that scary at Don't be afraid of risks.
Trust your instincts. Don't worry about what other
people think of your choice.
have jobs were just mortified Sthat they were living in theirt
parents' basement, didn't want
who cares? anyone to know, but it's like,
They care about their own thing. None of your classmates care.
a glamorous path of a great, Don't worry if you're not taking
Do whatever floats your boat. If it means starting a company
or entertaining an idea for a problem you want to solve, do
that. When the bird and the book
disagree, trust the bird. I love that quote.
Really, there is no book for
Just follow your heart. And if you're stuck in a
difficult decision, I really, really like the exercise if
writing down the worst possible situation, addressing it before
it even could happen. If you're uncertain at all about
your future, consider being a creator.
Some people just don't do entrepreneurship because they
haven't even thought of it. They haven't even thought that I
could do something that would impact a ton of people.
And in reality, it's just a big word for problem solving.
Think of a pain point in your life and how you can fix it and
how you can scale that to help
point. other people with that pain
decide to go into entrepreneurship, is Four Stepso
to the Epiphany.
read that already, but it's a great guide for testing ideas so
that you don't waste a ton of time making them perfect.
If I would have never creating a
email your problems to really ugly Google site and said
never would have come. studentspill@gmail.com this
web developer to make that site, If I had spent 20 grand paying a
farther along. we wouldn't have been any
Ask anyone you know. Test your concept immediately.
prestigious position. Your mailman might have better
input in your idea than a CEO of
Spend time on actions that a Fortune 500 company.
I feel like in business school, or in school, so many times
you're forced to write business plans or think through all the
steps to getting there, but in
turn out that way. reality they're not going to
word doc and say, okay, I want You're not going to open up that
follow these steps. Do stuff that actually produces
results.
system because entrepreneurship Find a is really lonely. support
You're starting something and you're funneling all of your
time into it, and if you don't
believe in you and it, it can get really closed really quick.
Start a rejection folder or box,
come out. I have so many rejection emails
and someday I'll look at it, but
tough skin and don't think about for now, let it go in, grow some
Email me if you have any it.
I'm happy to talk to you if you want to talk about a business
idea or how do I go about even
Happy to help. starting this.
in. Doesn'And that's about it.you're
So I guess I will open myself up
Terrific, Heidi. for questions.
comments. ThWe want to thank Heidi.our
[APPLAUSE]
that I just look for their hands And the students know
so that you can go ahead and ask to go up, and I pass off the mic
I have a couple to get us started, but if I see some
hands, I'll hand this off pretty
Go right ahead. q>> Hi..
Thank you for coming. My name's Eric.
I was just curious, you said you
background going into it, and I'm in the Business School so I
know how daunting that can be even after learning some things,
but how did you go about
marketing and finance? learning all of the things about
online and research, or did you outsource it to other people?
How did that go for you?
of funny. >This is maybe my bias, but ifnd
you start with a business background you almost have to
unlearn it because they teach you so many formal steps that
just aren't real. Like our marketing plan doesn't
contain Facebook advertising and
It's like, okay, have the students chalk the sidewalks.
Put up posters on campus. Hand out swag in the dorms.
It's like real life practical stuff that just has the brand of
marketing.
common sense and do what you So I would just say follow your
intimidated by the formalities know works and don't be
doesn't really matter. of all the business jargon that
when you have to impress You can worry about that later
I'll bring you the mic. Actually, as I'm walking down,
Heidi, let me throw out a question that I've got.
You had mentioned the revenue that Spillnow.com generates,
some of it from selling the data
other organizations that care that youabout that.ools and
Are there other revenue generating sources for the
organization? Do you charge individual
participants for logging on and getting counsel?
You may have mentioned that, and
No, we don't charge the I mstudents at all.t.
So, basically, it's like a
school can use the website for freemium model in that the
on-site chapter that's thriving and pushing out their resources,
they pay for it.
primary revenue stream because So that's kind of right now the
So the data reports aren't data takes a while to collect.
semester. You've got to wait a year.
I may follow up on that.
Hi. My name's Darian Pearlmutter,
and my question for you is kind of going off of both of these.
Did you learn and start developing your marketing based
off of a business model that you
you start realizing you needed saw things working for, or did
of your experiences as you went along since you kind of startedf
from scratch? >> Yeah.
It was pretty much just based on
I looked at other kind of comparable companies and what
they were doing, but their
for you. decisions aren't always right
beginning, a lot of it was just really low cost, like what makes
sense.
chalking the sidewalks. PWe get such a better responsed
from that and it's so much
learning as I went. cAnd I feel like when I wentof
through TechStars, that was kind
in that they taught us what kind of the formal business education
start a company. of street smarts you need to
business plan with us and tell They didn't go through a
It was more like let's do it, and then we'll teach you when
you screw up, and we'll teach you when you succeed.
Heidi, are you at TechStars right now?
So we're located there, but the program finished in June.
Okay. Great.
I know somebody who's going through it right now and I was
just wondering if you were
Yeah, I'm on the same floor so I know those companies.
Oh, excellent.
about $400,000 plus, can you You mentioned that you raised
process? talk a little bit about that
What did you share with them? How dThat's a lot of money.cts?
Yeah, it was painful. Raising money sucks.
I was lucky enough after
you, put you on stage and you pitch in front of 400 investors
which is scary especially because you're onstage with 10
other top-tier companies that are like MIT graduates, they
have patentable biomedical
about feelings. stIt's a little bit, it wasalk
daunting. I'd say most of our investors
are people who believed in the
So they're more patient money, team and the mission.
expect a 10-fold return within they call it, in that they don't
It's more like eight years. So, yeah, just a lot of talking
to people, picking through my network, and usually if
someone's not interested, they'll connect you with someone
who is interested.
ladder. So it's ki>> Great.mbing that
We have a question back here. >> Hey, Heidi.
Hi. >> I just wanted to ask you more
about how do you decide where to
How do you decide that you're going to break into a new
university, and what do you make
about having an actual framework sure is there because you talked
Yeah, so it's usually the of thstudents who decide.mpus?
So we'll get a nomination from a
to be a responder from the school or someone will sign up
they want to start a chapter. schSo we do have kind of a if
strategic plan in that we want
close to each other so that the marketing dollars go farther and
so that word of mouth kind of spreads it to all of those
campuses. So our focuses right now are in
New York and Massachusetts in that there are so many colleges
within such a small area. But it is, honestly, the
students decide.
I'm Nahal. >> Hi.
I have a question about how you actually started building your
website.
how did you know how to do it? What was that process like and
typed in free websites. >> Yeah, so[LAUGHTER] Google and
And, surprisingly enough, Google sites came up
first.
template and so chose it. And I don't have any codingretty
experience. So that was the first minimum
viable product, and then the
contractor in town which second one I went through a
companies that build websites, basically I contacted a bunch of
proposals. build software, had them give me
proposals ranged from $2,000 to $65,000.
So deciding who I wanted to build it was a huge process.
And then I kind of worked with
right, and it wasn't. I ended up going on the cheapers
side. So I had to learn from my
mistakes. But then it evolved so fast.
Eventually we brought on Jason. Actually, I'll show you my team.
Jason's the middle guy who's our
actually redid the whole site VPand made it prettier.hen
We're still going through a site
So, yeah, you can do it even redesign, but it's a process.
experience. tIf you have an opportunity tol
get technical experience, I'd say do it.
If you start a business and you don't have tech experience, you
are kind of limited in that you have to vet people a lot more
and you have to, it's kind of like am I getting screwed right
now because I don't know how
of code. much it costs to write 20 lines
even some preliminary coding If you have an opportunity to do
completely. >> We have a student back here
who has a question, but I'm recognizing your team and I was
curious earlier, it looks like
worker on board who is in charge you have a licensed social
Do you have other mental health professionals on board or are
you kind of farming that out in another way?
So we have a psychologist on
Meredith is the social worker, our board of directors, and then
Florida United Way which is a 211 national suicide prevention
lifeline crisis center that takes calls 24/7.
They also do crisis chat. So for us it was a perfect
partnership in that they already
emails. So we just kind of outsourced
that. They screen all the emails, and
it's a good partnership.
that actually then becomes a >> So just to follow on that,
nonprofit, that United Way. >> Yeah, so they love it because
it's a little extra spending
contract with them is a fraction cash for them, and for us our
let alone having three social of thworkers 24/7 on-call.rker,
And it's also a good way to triage the liabilities to
professionals rather than just
professional. investing i>> Hi.particular
Hi. >> Thanks for being here.
So I was actually just browsing through the brag wall on Spill,
and you've got a lot of positive
I was just wondering about the feedback.
people who respond to the spill questions, what kind of training
they go through in order to be
So we've changed it a lot. part of the team.
trained on campus if your school It used to be that you get
that that wasn't scalable. has a chapter, and we realized
Any of you could take an hour right now and get trained to be
a responder.
reflect feelings, active Basically, you learn how to
and then you take a quiz on the lpresentation to make sure you,
paid attention. It's one of those annoying
quizzes where you have to keep
everything right. And then you're basically live
in the system, and you can be a responder.
Responders typically respond to about five to 10 emails a
semester. So most people do it in
conjunction with another
good way to boost your resume and you don't have to do much.
Right over here, Heidi. >> Yeah.
Hello.
My name is Patrick. I'm actually a veteran here, and
I just was wondering if you could go into a little bit more
information on how you plan on
veterans because I've actually addressing this thing to
out of the service at the time. lost a friThank you.tually was
Yeah. It's going to be a huge
undertaking.
veterans with other veterans who I guess the goal is to connect
problems. So whether it's losing a friend
to other people who have lost or
know any of the military terms, but one of those cannons in the
field.
with a military-based school so we can actually wet our feet in
the student veteran population. And then from there it's either
to go to the VA or the military.
security, but it's such a bureaucracy that it's going to
be hard to tackle.
Do you have any suggestions? I don't know.
can go through. >I know here we actually have a
program called Vets for Vets, and it's the chapter and all of
that which I'm a member of. But there's also places like the
Veteran Center which offers free
And I just wasn't sure if you have any way of trying to reach
out to the VA or other companies
because it does sound like it's toa really good idea, and evenis
while I was in the Persian Gulf we had internet access.
It's not like we really had counselors in the ships.
So it would have been something that's very valuable I thought.
Yeah. I think so too.
And it's also, I get that feedback from soldiers and
veterans a lot that it's
question is people don't always do what they say they'll do, and
right now our primary demographic is we have about 75%
of the people writing in are
And in the army or in the military it's a lot different.
It's like 16% female. So I wonder, if people use it,
what steps we have to go through
it because, in reality, we have foa lot of data on what theirith
soldiers are struggling with, and that could be kind of a
honeypot for hackers. So I want to make sure we go
through all those steps.
Patrick. >> What's your name again?
name? >> Patric>> Kirby. your last
Patrick Kirby could be your team member.
[LAUGHTER]
Heidi, I'm wondering if you could tell us a little bit more,
because we haven't talked about this in class, about working
with your board.
who serve on your board, but it You isn't an area that we'velks
explored in this class. Who are they?
How did you put them together?
So they're these guys. What do they want from you?
former CEO of Sonic Foundry; So Rimas Buinevicius, he's the
chancellor of UW; Laurie Benson, John Wiley, the former
Dr. Michael Spierer, who's a former CEO of Incacom; and
How we put them together, basically my Merlin Mentor team
was huge in this in that they were kind of growing me as a
person and an entrepreneur to this step where they were like,
okay, we've given you all we
who have expertise that can help can, and you need some people
So someone who knows about how you.
Wiley. to navigate school systems: John
growing huge companies, and someone who knows all of what
psychologists are thinking. So they helped me identify these
people. I pulled them together, asked
them if they'd serve on my board
Just emailing John Wiley and which was kind of intimidating.
me but will you serve on my being like, board?u don't know
And they've all just been phenomenal.
What we do is we give them a
it, and then we meet every two percentage of equity for doing
And they participate in three-hour long meetings and
kind of steer me in the right direction.
And we had one yesterday. It was fantastic.
These are the people who, they're the ones who push me to
think big.
another round of fundraising. I think we're going to raise
$800,000. And they say, I think you should
raise $5 million. And I say, wait, what?
And so those are the kind of
think about. conversations they make you
It's been great. Yeah.
A lot of my cohort in TechStars has had different experiences
with board members where they're
investor on there, but I think controlling, maybe there's an
together this board early on was my mentors' goals in putting
are on my side and will like getting a bunch of people who
so that when investors do come looking out for my best interest
stacked the board. in, we've already kind of
prestigious group, no question, but also want to draw attention
to the fact that, as Heidi said,
diversity in terms of the kind this is a group of real
And you said they're compensated of intelligence that they bring.
Equity. >> By equity in the firm.
So it's part and parcel with any
to be creating, be it a enfor-profit or a nonprofitant
organization, you would need to be putting together a board that
would be providing advice to you
ideas. and pushing you on those big
Counselors. No, it's funny because I don't
want to be competing with them, but that doesn't mean that they
don't see us as competition and that they don't feel threatened.
In reality, we don't want to be a replacement for counseling.
We just want to be peer support for every day problems.
If you look at our numbers of what people spill about, it's
like roommate problems, relationship problems, school
stress, loneliness. Those are the top four.
And, I guess, there are no other
what we're doing. enThere are online crisis chaty
centers, but since we're not
really view them as competitors. focused at crisis we don't
So, yeah, I know it seems naive to be like we don't have any
competitors, but that's why we're trying to move fast
because it's going to be easy for someone else to come in.
The good thing is that we have
students are struggling with two years worth of data on what
the competitors. that kind of pushes us ahead of
Heidi? >> Any final questions for
Thanks. So another question I have for
you is when you have a computer between you and a student and
they have very serious questions
sexual assault, suicide, how do you go about doing that and how
do you make it really personal
How do you go about that? >> Yeah, so that's where we, in?
the training we really use a lot
teach people how to be of counselor-like techniques to
crisis situations that's empathetic listeners, but in
center steps in. actually where our crisis triage
follow up with the student. SSay, hey, just wanted to check
in with you to make sure you're doing okay.
They ask the question, are you
It sounds funny but that's a feeling suicidal?
it's one of the best practices crucial question to ask, and
direct about it. in suicide prevention is being
they encourage them to call in They ask that question, then
with a counselor online. their direct line or to chat
figure out where that person is And, in at, what level.basically
If they're a level three, which is like extreme crisis, I have a
bottle of pills in my hand I'm
took them, in that case we break going to take them or I already
the local police. cAnd they would take it fromct
there.
it. >> Any final notes for Heidi?
Well, I know that the entire
so much for coming to our class. class joins me in thanking you
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