Today's entrepreneur: Jo Aggarwal, CEO of Wysa

Good investors make you think you can achieve your goals

Today's entrepreneur is Jo Aggarwal, co-founder and CEO of AI-powered mental health startup Wysa, which use a mix of humans and AI to treat patients.

Wysa's users are connected with an AI-based 'emotionally intelligent' AI that will helps them through a combination of evidence-based cognitive-behavioral techniques (CBT), dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), meditation, breathing, yoga, motivational interviewing and micro-actions. They also get access to a human coach or therapist, who assists them in achieving their goals.

The company recently announced a $5.5 million Series A financing round of funding.

Aggarwal is solving some of the world's most pressing issues with tech enabled, direct to user solutions. She is passionate about disintermediating goverments and corporates, creating efficient permissionless paths to support for those in need.

She previously worked on employability and youth empowerment during conflict in the Middle East, for which she won Stevie/Global Telecom Business Innovation Awards for her tech dev work.

I am a(n):

Entrepreneur

Companies I work or worked for:

Pearson Education, Tata Group

Achievements (products built, personal awards won):

Stevie Silver Award; Global Telecom Business Innovation Award; built Wysa that has prevented hundreds of suicides and helped millions with mental health

If you're an entrepreneur or corporate innovator, why?

I want to change the world.

My favorite startups:

Wikipedia, Whatsapp

Why did you start your company or why do you want to innovate inside your company?

To have a bigger canvas to experiment on, to live and die by market feedback and not internal politics.

What's most frustrating and rewarding about entrepreneurship/innovation?

Frustrating: being a human battery for everyone else.

Rewarding: Ability to design an organisation around one's values.

What's the No. 1 mistake entrepreneurs/innovators make?

Seeking validation from anyone except user behavior.

What are the top three lessons you've learned as an entrepreneur?

1) Revenue is to be celebrated, not fundraises

2) Company lives and dies with momentum - if market doesn't give it to you, create other permissionless constructs to keep moving forward in 2-week cycles.

3) Good investors make you think you can achieve your goals. Bad investors try to turn you into the last big exit in the space.