From the Gap in Healthcare to a Movement

In this episode of What the Tech from Boast.AI, we sit down with Alyssa Mack-Lee, Founder and CEO of Blissminds, to discuss why women's cognitive health has been overlooked by the healthcare system and how she's building a movement to change that.

Blissminds: cognitive wellness products designed specifically for women through major life transitions. Not generic. Not one-size-fits-all. Formulated with bioavailable ingredients (DHA/EPA from microalgae, inulin for gut-brain connection, high-extract chamomile + magnesium) and backed by clinical validation.

Alyssa secured Health Canada approvals. Partnered with clinical researchers. And is running actual trials to measure neurological outcomes.

Boast accelerates the success of innovative businesses globally with software that integrates financial, payroll, and engineering data into a single platform of R&D intelligence.

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Intro and Outro music provided by Dennis Ma whose mixes you can find on Soundcloud at DJ DennyDex.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Hello and welcome to What the Tech Phone Boast, where we talk with some of the brilliant minds behind new and exciting tech initiatives to learn what it takes to tackle technological uncertainty and eventually change the world. I'm Paul Danport, post resident tech journalist, and today I'm thrilled to welcome to the show Alyssa Macklee, founder and CEO of Bliss Minds. At Bliss Minds, Alyssa is building a women's cognitive wellness company focused on supporting focus, mental mental clarity, mood, and nervous system regulation through life stages like pregnancy, postpartum, and perimenopause. At the heart of this mission is personal experience, as Alyssa aims to build a company that she wishes existed when she was diagnosed with ADHD, became pregnant, and was suddenly in a world that lacked critical support pillars to navigate her new reality. Today, Alyssa's products have been accepted into the Natural Products Canada ecosystem, have received Health Canada approvals, and her team has even secured a clinical pilot partner to better understand and measure cognitive and neurological outcomes in women. It's a fantastic mission, and I can't wait to pick Alyssa's brain on her journey to date, and what's on deck is Bliss Mind Gross. So without further ado, welcome to the show, Alyssa.

SPEAKER_01 1:07

Hi, thank you so much for having me. This is so exciting.

SPEAKER_00 1:10

Oh, Alyssa, I'm so pumped to have you. So something that I didn't mention in our intro is that this isn't our first time meeting. I was fortunate enough to be able to get you to do one of my on-the-floor interviews during Web Summit uh about, oh my god, over a month ago? Almost?

SPEAKER_01 1:24

Yeah, oh wow. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:26

It is flying fast. And we also did a webinar with uh the lab 16 batch out of Northhouse and League of Innovators. So we've had a lot of FaceTime. It's been a pleasure getting to know you and just the ecosystem that's supporting you. But aside from that little intro that I gave, I'd love to hear straight from the source. Tell me who Alyssa is and how you gotten to this ecosystem.

SPEAKER_01 1:47

Oh, wow. Um, I mean, that's a that's a loaded question in itself. I keep saying that I have no business building a business. Uh I had no idea the journey that I was about to embark on, and I kind of just fell into the innovation ecosystem. So for most of my career, I actually worked in film and television television. Like I started as a production assistant, changing garbages. I quickly worked my way up to assist the assistant director ladder. And I loved it because like every day I was solving problems, managing chaos, bringing all these huge project projects to life, a lot of money on the line. And like looking back, those skills really translated really well into building a company. Um, by the turning point when I became diagnosed with ADHD as an adult, suddenly so much of my life like made sense. Everything kind of like clicked. And then shortly after I became pregnant. And many of the tools that supported me then um that I relied on were no longer an option for me. And I just remember feeling like I had fallen into a gap in the healthcare system that there were there were solutions for men. There were solutions for women who weren't um pregnant or post bottom, but there wasn't really much that felt designed for women going through those major hormonal and cognitive transitions. So eventually I just kind of stopped asking, you know, why doesn't this exist? And and and started asking, what would it take to build that? And and that's kind of really how Bliss Minds was born.

SPEAKER_00 3:23

That is incredible. And I'm gonna call back on a few points that you made there that I think really emphasize why, despite what you said at the beginning about what am I doing starting a business, you're actually probably the perfect person, not just for this business, but for any business. But first off, the managing chaos aspect. I think as a founder in any capacity, in any industry, it isn't just tech, it isn't just in the innovation space. It's all about managing chaos. I think um it's also an asset a little bit to have that little bit of ADHD um on your side when you're doing all that. I can relate fully to all of that. Um talk to my team. I'm a one-man murling dervish some days just because I'm like, okay, we're gonna have some great podcast chats. I also want to make sure I get this blog done by the end of the day, but where's the ads that we're doing here?

SPEAKER_01 4:09

So I feel like we thrive ADHD, neurodivergent folks, we thrive in chaos. Like when my when everything slows down and there's nothing happening, like especially like on a weekend, I feel like that's when I start spiraling spiraling, and I'm like, I'm not being productive. I need to be I need to be doing something. I need to always be doing something. And yeah, I like the chaos, and I'm glad you can relate.

SPEAKER_00 4:32

Yeah, it's so funny too, because like it's summer, and in theory, this is a lot of people's like slowdown season. And I remember all year I'm looking forward to, oh, I'm gonna take like a Friday off or a Monday off. And then I'm like, it is so quiet on this Friday or this Monday. And I'm like, why is there not like a house on fire that I need to go address someplace? It's a good thing to have, but at the same time, that's exactly why you think you need resources to be able to balance all of that. But as an entrepreneur, I think you've taken that as a superpower, and I'm happy to hear that it's now coming into some big successes for the business. So, going specifically to what you're doing at Bliss Minds, you said it at the top of the show. There are resources for people who aren't maybe in these different stages of a woman's life that are major milestones and that are major biological changes uh from the top down. I'm not gonna step in it and say the wrong thing. So I'd love to hand it over to you to maybe talk through that a little bit. But why do you think there is such a huge gap in the healthcare uh system for supporting women at these stages who have a little bit of neurodivergence or just need some more support generally? Because I don't even think it's limited to just this realm. I feel like at all steps, men get a lot of attention and we get a lot of the focus in the medical space, but why why?

SPEAKER_01 5:48

Yeah, I mean, women's health has been historically under-researched and underfunded for decades. I mean, just think about the the reason why ADHD has surged in women over the last few years by 300% is because the studies are just coming out now. All of the studies were done on men back in like the 70s and 80s and 90s. That's why so many younger boys were had ADHD. And you just always thought that if uh a woman showed signs of ADHD, it was just hormonal or it was just puberty, and and there was never any a deep dive into that. But so many women, like what makes us different in what we're doing is that we are looking at these challenges through a lens of major life transitions like pregnancy postpartum, premenopause, ADHD. Like these aren't niche experiences, they're incredibly common. Yet we're told that our symptoms are just something that we need to push through, that they're normal. And so we're trying to build these, the science-backed products and education that help women feel like themselves again. And honestly, I think that the the bigger mission here is helping realize like women realize that they are not broken, that their brains are often responding exactly the way that you would think that they would respond to hormones, stress, sleep, um, and life changes all at once. Like I want bliss minds to be the solution and not part of the problem, which is why we're taking this one step further by starting clinical trials that will measure the neurological outcomes in women who are using our products. And the clinical data is what makes us different. And we also have an ingredient that we're exploring that has been studied for decades, but yet to be recognized in the natural health ingredient database. But you can bet that's where I'm spending a lot of my time right now is figuring out how we become that first company in Canada to change that and to bring this research to Canada.

SPEAKER_00 7:46

I love that. And so all of the people who listen to this podcast are gonna eat up that you're really putting data behind all of this. I think that should go without saying you shouldn't go on a mission like this unless you're capturing all the data and unless you're very data focused, because don't make assumptions, especially when it's about people's best well-being. But I love that. But the big thing I want to pull on is that you had said it at the top, not niche. This isn't niche. This is more than half the population, and a majority perhaps, again, I don't know the data myself, but are gonna be going through all of these life events, if not most of them. So it's not niche. The research hasn't been there, the data hasn't been collected to actually back all of that, and it's just glaring. Again, just to put a finer point on what we were talking about earlier. The research has been done, but they've just left out a honest majority of the population in doing a lot of this research. And it's something that, again, is going to be affecting them, not just in a biological way, like in the chemical changes and in the hormonal changes that you talk through, but if you're caring for a new child, that is a mental and emotional change as well. Um yeah, and if you're going through too, just like different stages of life, it's a perimenopause of it all too. Like I just know firsthand from the women in my life who have gone through all of this and are in the active process of going through all of it. So many questions and so few answers. So you're gonna lead the charge on all of this. And I want to actually now start picking about tell me about some of the products and tell me about this key ingredient and just what are some of the tools that you're helping develop to help women accomplish these goals.

SPEAKER_01 9:18

Ooh. I am I'm really excited about the ingredients. I can't share too much about it because it is in it it is structured into our IP. Um and of course, I don't as much as I want to share that part of it. It's like you never know who has more money than you that can do this a lot faster than you. And you know, I didn't come from money. I didn't uh I I don't have access to as much as you would think. And and women entrepreneurs are also very underfunded, as we've discussed. And so it is a little bit of a challenge in that way. So sharing the only thing that is keeping me afloat right now. Um yeah, I guess. But uh a lot of the ingredients that we do have in there right now that uh is in our products that are Health Canada approved are your um the natural stack that is used uh the that most women are deficient in. So you do have like your iron and your B vitamins and your C vitamins, but we use Inulin for the gut, uh, gut brain connection. So that really feeds your good uh um good bacteria in there. Um, and then we also source our DHA and EPA from microalgae. So we go straight to the source, and those are two of the main ingredients that you need for your cognitive development. And then on our night version, we also use a very high extract of chamomile and magnesium that um you won't find on the shelves anywhere else, which really helps with that nervous system down regulation. So all of our ingredients are bioavailable. And then, of course, the the other ingredient we're exploring right now, which I'll I'll be able to share at a later date.

SPEAKER_00 11:02

That's first off, I totally hear you on the secret ingredient. We don't want you sharing your IP, especially again. The reason we want to talk today is because you're founding this business and you're on the cusp of something great. So we'll keep it under wrafts, but everybody watch this space, is more or less what I'd like to say because Alexa and Blissed Minds, when it's ready to take the wraps off, you're gonna be excited and it's gonna be game changing. A few things too that I want to dig in on, again, is that even if it's a secret, you're taking all the right steps. You're getting the validation from the proper authorities, first and foremost. So partnering with Health Canada, making sure that you have those proper, not even checks and balances, but just validation to make sure that this is a product that is not only gonna be proven effective by others in the community, but it kind of lifts the ship too, so that when you do bring this all to market, you took all the right steps. Part and parcel with that too, going back to kind of that ecosystem that we were talking about, like you said at the top, like you don't necessarily come from money, but you do have a vision and you do have a passion. And so I had mentioned it before, we're good partners with the League of Innovators up in Calgary. And in fact, the whole ecosystem, I'm gonna pull on another point related to that in a few minutes, but the brain power out of that team and the resources that they bring to founders with great ideas is incredible. So for the listeners in this audience who maybe have been apprehensive or not even sure how to start joining with an incubator or an accelerator or some kind of ecosystem partner who can shore up those resources that you don't come with immediately out the gate. You have your idea, then you need some not necessarily funding, but just support to get it off the ground. Explore somebody like the League of Innovators, like the North House team, like that Labs batch 16 that you were a part of. So calling on that. And then the other digression I have from everything that we were talking about was also just I'm realizing now, I have been on a string of interviews with Calgary-based, or at least like Northern Canada-based, healthcare innovators. And I'm so surprised because I'm down in Boston. We have big egos. We think all the biotech happens down here, or all the biomed innovation happens down here just because we've staged that claim. But there's some really, really cool innovative stuff happening up there that it's really blown my mind. I'm thinking of we had Sabina Bruhlman on a few weeks back, we had Dion Kelly, both doing like very innovative stuff, even on the gut health level. When you had mentioned the algae and everything, that came to mind immediately. So you're working in a good innovator ecosystem with female founders in the medtech space. Um, I'm not sure if you've connected with any of the names that I just mentioned off the top of my head, but I'd love to make an intro just separately because I think they would be fantastic resources for you and for anyone in this room. So maybe we can make a little club of uh women who are really just pushing the needle in medical spaces, uh. Specifically in your backyard. I love that. I'm actually even thinking, too. This is we've gotten fully off script from the podcast, but I had Michaela from the Athena Collective, who I believe are based out in Vancouver, but I do know that they have had a presence in Calgary as well. And those are female founders, and again, a lot of them in the medical space. So you clicked something in my mind just having this conversation today that I want to give a shout out to Calgary. You're doing a good job fostering these great ideas. Now let's help Alyssa get Bliss Minds into market and really take off. Because yeah, I think that can be incredible. So now to another question, too. And this one's more about funding innovation. It's related to what we're talking about with the ecosystem and how, again, you need to find partners in the community. But what's it been like in your experience actually building um the funding behind Bliss Minds?

SPEAKER_01 14:39

I like to think that I'm incredibly resourceful. Um, a lot of the early work has been um, you know, self-funded and supported through friends and family. I have an incredible support system. Like so, so lucky to have my people believe in me in this mission. Um and I feel like I've focused really, really heavy on building the relationships that we talked about, mentorship, leveraging the innovation ecosystems before raising any kind of like significant capital. Um, I've participated in all these programs like LOI, which shout out, they are literally the best. Anybody that can, if you can do it, do it. Um, WeVC Investor Speak Program. I've been in, I just graduated the Innovation Governance Program. I'm with the Forum Mentorship Program, Natural Products Canada, um, and several founder-like communities that have helped accelerate my learning. Um, so we've pursued, you know, non-dilutive funding through opportunities because we want to validate that science and business before giving away more equity than necessary. But my goal has always been to build a company with those strong foundations and infrastructure rather than just grow it all at grow it all at costs and hope that the right person like comes along and like resonates with the mission and the values and that is authentic and real to what we're trying to build.

SPEAKER_00 16:05

I love that.

SPEAKER_01 16:06

So I guess that's my strategy.

SPEAKER_00 16:08

Uh honestly, that is the winning strategy. So for folks who listen to this podcast regularly, I hope I'm not gonna be boring them by repeating anything, but the approach you're taking with like the non-dilutive funding, that's exactly why those programs are there. Not only is it because you don't have to hand over equity, it's that validation as well. Um, you might have heard this when we were on our webinar a week or two back, but the shred program, for instance, you have to be legitimately doing something that is tackling technological uncertainty. You have to actually be advancing something in your field. So the validation from the government, if you can come up with a shred claim, is something that you can and will want to bring to investors down the line when you want to go even bigger, because it's showing that you hit that high threshold and there really is no higher threshold. And the government believes in you, and you're being very wise with your funding. Again, you're going for the stuff, the free money that's out there to actually extend your runway before you even have to think about handing things over. So I think again, tapping into all these ecosystem partners, oh my god, forum too. I we have pals there, so I'm so happy to hear that you're part of that community as well. Get into these different groups, leverage those resources, whether they are actual capital or just human capital, and somebody can give you some tips on like maybe pivot your strategy this way, or maybe do different kinds of research, or just tell you about a grant or something that you could maybe apply for. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:34

You really, you really never know like who you're gonna meet when you walk into a room, um, who's gonna believe in you and who's going to support you and help you. Like, I I I pride myself in not being the smartest in the room, um, but surrounding myself with those that are. And I think that is one of the biggest assets that you can do as a founder is use those resources as much as you can.

SPEAKER_00 17:56

Absolutely. It just only makes sense. It's gonna make it so that you're not working in isolation, you're not driving yourself crazy just chasing dollars. And again, you're getting that validation that when you do need to go to get some raising, you have all the proof points in your back pocket and the receipts to show for it. So I yeah. I'm like, I think you're that's exactly the process that I would recommend to folks.

SPEAKER_01 18:19

So I think I think all of that too, like it's still surreal for me to like we today we just found out that we are nominated uh for the Trailblazer Small Business Award within the Canadian Food Health Association, and we are among um some incredible founders that you know are already established and operating. And we are we haven't even launched our products yet. Like we've sampled them, but we haven't launched them. So I think all the credibility that I've built over this time of being a part of those programs, you know, working towards Shred and Um going to these uh web web summits, femtech, breakfast club, all of these events that are so important to build that credibility within the ecosystem. Because once the industry professionals kind of like see that, oh wait, you you're you're you got you might got you got something here, okay? Like and that starts building, that's where your traction is. It's gonna be so much easier to have that trust and grow your products from there because you've got the credibility built in.

SPEAKER_00 19:25

Absolutely. Like Alyssa, how we met was even proof in action of that happening. Again, I was going over to say hi to my buddies at the League of Innovators. You and I got to talking, and I was like, okay, there's actually something really cool happening here. And the validation of I know Joel, I know Rob, no one's better. I think Brittany was around the booth when I came over to say hi, and I'm like, yeah, these people know what they're doing. And I'm like, so she knows what she's doing. And I was so excited that I was able to have you on the show to learn some more. Now I'd love to know, looking forward, what do we have to look forward to? Uh, what are some exciting things? Again, I know a lot is still under wraps, but I am so happy to hear about this trailblazers recognition. You absolutely deserve it. Um, anything else over the course of the summer, maybe, or even going into the fall that you have on your agenda or even just some goals that you'd like to apply?

SPEAKER_01 20:13

Yeah, I mean, this is always the most exciting part, anyways, is what's next. And right now we are preparing for that first official launch. We are continuing our work around the clinical validation and um starting participant acquisition here soon. Um, expanding our partnerships that can help us reach more women. We'd love to use our clinical data to work with, you know, midwives, doulas, naturopaths, practitioners so then they can confidently recommend our products to women who can't or won't use pharmaceuticals for their brain health. We're also exploring more research opportunities that could help advance the understandings of women's cognitive health more broadly. And of course, we just got nominated. That was today. And we will also be so we'll be attending um CHFA in Toronto in the greenhouse and hoping to expand our retail and distribution partnerships there as well. But honestly, if I'm being completely honest, I don't think like the thing I'm most excited about has nothing to do with, you know, revenue or the awards or anything like that. I think it's getting messages which we've gotten already uh to say from women who are saying, you know, I finally feel seen, I feel heard. And that's exactly why I started this in the first place. And if 10 years from now, Bliss Minds helped change the conversation around women's cognitive wellness, I'll consider that a success. You know, building the products is important, but building a movement where women feel understood is way more important to me.

SPEAKER_00 21:46

Alisha, that is music to my ears. Um, another theme that comes up on this podcast when I'm talking to the founders who I think really just have the right mindset is it's not about building a business for the sake of building a business. It's also not about the kind of recognition that is like those trailblazer awards. It's the recognition from the people whose problems you're trying to help provide a solution to. If you have a solution, if solving problems is at the core of what you want to do and you're putting your efforts into that, and you're chasing, again, recognition from on a more cynical side, you could say brand evangelists who end up using a product at the end of the day. But on a more altruistic side, literally the women who need help with a lot of this stuff. That that that's again, it's altruistic. It takes the cynicism out of it all. And I think that's also what gives you the mileage to really go far with a lot of it, too, because you're not just waiting for the checks to come in, or you're not just waiting for the products to go to market, you're making them perfect to solve that problem. And that takes time, but it takes dedication and passion, which you're displaying here.

SPEAKER_01 22:49

So thank you. Thank you. Yeah, I mean, part of this too, like I work in the Canadian mental health uh system too. So I see every single day the women that are coming in uh with these issues and not having the proper support when they're trying to look for clinicians and therapy. And I just want to be like, here's bliss minds. I want to help you and tap into that and just give people all these products. If I could, I'd give them for free. Like honestly. And maybe there'll come a time where we get to do something like that. But yeah, it's all about the impact for me.

SPEAKER_00 23:24

It's all about the impact. That is the golden ticket right there. Alyssa, I think that's a perfect note to end it on. Again, you're gonna drive that impact. I'm so rooting you on for this recognition, and I'm so happy to hear that I'm catching on the day that you're already getting some great news. So cheering you on from down here in Boston all the way up into Calgary. And yeah, I cannot thank you enough for joining us on the show.

SPEAKER_01 23:45

Yeah. Thank you so much for having me. Uh I really appreciate it, and it was a pleasure getting to know you and meeting you in person and getting to do this now. So thank you.

SPEAKER_00 23:53

Absolutely.