Headspace's strategic investors were active fans of the product before investing
Sean Brecker · 20VC: Maximising Engagement and Retention on Mobile & Why There Should Always Be Availability To A Free Product with Sean Brecker, CEO @ Headspace · Aug 26, 2016 · at 21:07
Sean Brecker, CEO of Headspace, discusses how high-profile tech and media executives joined Headspace's cap table.
0:00 / 0:34exact quote · 34.1s
720p mp4 · rendered on demand · StarZero watermark
“I think the interesting thing is almost universally across our cap table, our investors are big fans of the product and have had, you know, there's been a sort of profound impact on their lives that, that, that has occurred because of their use of the product. So whether it's, you know, Jim Breyer, whether it's Jeff Weiner at LinkedIn or You know, Michael Linton, who's the CEO of Sony or, you know, some of the other people that you mentioned, more often than not, they have approached us first and foremost as fans of the product looking just to help out and to see how they can, you know, add value and be involved.”
quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →
More from Sean Brecker
Over 2,000 peer-reviewed studies validate the health benefits of meditation
“There have been today over 2000 studies by researchers, and these are, you know, very serious studies, peer reviewed on the benefits of meditation”
Secular positioning is key to mass adoption for meditation apps
“We position this practice in a very modern, you know, secular way. And we do that by design because we believe that you know, that is the key to reaching the masses and sort of lowering the barrier to entry.”
Apple asked Headspace to offer free SOS meditations on Apple Watch
“When Apple released the Apple watch, they came to us and asked us if we would consider putting our SOS meditations, you know, these short form two minute meditations for when you've, you're having some kind of crisis and just really need to sort of very quickl…”
Headspace competes for user time against social media, not other apps
“We don't really view other meditation apps as competition. At the end of the day, what we are doing is we're trying to compete for people's time. The time is, you know, the most precious resource that we all have, especially in today's busy world. And what we'…”
Headspace co-founder Andy Puddicombe records all guided meditation packs entirely unscripted
“When he's actually recording the pack, it's all unscripted.”
Frequent, short meditation sessions are more effective than longer, infrequent ones
“Science and studies have shown that the sort of key to success in, in affecting change in terms of mental health, and you can actually look at this physiologically through fMRI machines, and the key is more around how frequently you meditate as opposed to long…”