Erik is joined on this episode by Steve Schlafman (@schlaf), partner at Primary Venture Partners, and David Marcovitz, addiction psychiatrist at Vanderbilt University.

They talk about the opportunities and challenges facing startups looking to tackle mental health and substance use disorder. They tell Erik what they would focus on if they were building a company in the space and some of the different models for treating addiction that could be amenable to a startup.

The three of them move on to talking about some of the challenges in selling to employers, large health providers and state governments, and how those potential roadblocks affect their view of the best business model for startups in the space.

They also talk about some of their personal experiences with these topics as well as the macro-level changes over the last several years around mental health and substance use disorder.

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Venture Stories is brought to you by Village Global, is hosted by co-founder and partner, Erik Torenberg and is produced by Brett Bolkowy.