Office Hours: Headspace Health CEO Russell Glass on Mental Health in the COVID Era

Spencer Rascoff

Spencer Rascoff serves as executive chairman of dot.LA. He is an entrepreneur and company leader who co-founded Zillow, Hotwire, dot.LA, Pacaso and Supernova, and who served as Zillow's CEO for a decade. During Spencer's time as CEO, Zillow won dozens of "best places to work" awards as it grew to over 4,500 employees, $3 billion in revenue, and $10 billion in market capitalization. Prior to Zillow, Spencer co-founded and was VP Corporate Development of Hotwire, which was sold to Expedia for $685 million in 2003. Through his startup studio and venture capital firm, 75 & Sunny, Spencer is an active angel investor in over 100 companies and is incubating several more.

Office Hours: Headspace Health CEO Russell Glass on Mental Health in the COVID Era

The demand for mental health services has, for some time, been on the rise. But entrepreneur Russell Glass says the pandemic accelerated one key trend that favored his business: the adoption of telehealth services like Headspace.

Glass is the CEO of Headspace Health, the product of a recent merger between Headspace and Ginger, which happened at a challenging time during the pandemic, while many of its workers were still working remotely.

Glass spoke with Spencer Rascoff for this episode of “Office Hours” about the two companies merging — and how that, so far, is working out.


“I think in a lot of ways COVID accelerated the awareness of the importance of this, and the adoption rate of some of these things. But it also created significant challenges,” Glass said.

“People's willingness to adopt telehealth went through the roof because they had no choice. They couldn't see their provider that was prior in-person. And we also saw companies saying we've got to do something, because people are really struggling during this period.”

Glass landed in his current role after a long career as an entrepreneur, He was previously the founder and CEO of Bizo, a B2B audience marketing and data platform, and once a vice president of product at LinkedIn.

In 2018, he joined Ginger as its CEO and set the stage for a merger with the meditation app startup Headspace -- a move he considered a strategic move for growth.

“What we recognized here was just this massive global need. And, at Ginger, we had grown 1,000% in the last couple of years, but recognized that the need was so huge,” he said. “And so we started to think, 'okay, if there were a strategic partner that allowed us to reach more people more quickly and allowed us to think more about preventative care'.”

Glass said that part of what’s made it a successful merger, so far, has been the two companies building trust among its workers and their flexibility to work remotely — a product of the company culture he helped forged.

“Because the culture and values fit is so strong, because the mission alignment is so strong, I have extreme confidence and excitement for what we're going to be able to do,” he said. “But it's hard. I don't recommend anybody try to bring two companies together that don't have really, really good culture fits in the middle of a pandemic.”

Want to hear more episodes? Subscribe to Office Hours on Stitcher, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio or wherever you get your podcasts.

dot.LA Engagement Editor Luis Gomez contributed to this post.

https://twitter.com/spencerrascoff
https://www.linkedin.com/in/spencerrascoff/
admin@dot.la

Subscribe to our newsletter to catch every headline.

LA Tech Week Day 5: Social Highlights
Evan Xie

L.A. Tech Week has brought venture capitalists, founders and entrepreneurs from around the world to the California coast. With so many tech nerds in one place, it's easy to laugh, joke and reminisce about the future of tech in SoCal.

Here's what people are saying about the fifth day of L.A. Tech Week on social:

Read moreShow less

LA Tech Week: How These Six Greentech Startups Are Tackling Major Climate Issues

Samson Amore

Samson Amore is a reporter for dot.LA. He holds a degree in journalism from Emerson College. Send tips or pitches to samsonamore@dot.la and find him on Twitter @Samsonamore.

LA Tech Week: How These Six Greentech Startups Are Tackling Major Climate Issues
Samson Amore

At Lowercarbon Capital’s LA Tech Week event Thursday, the synergy between the region’s aerospace industry and greentech startups was clear.

The event sponsored by Lowercarbon, Climate Draft (and the defunct Silicon Valley Bank’s Climate Technology & Sustainability team) brought together a handful of local startups in Hawthorne not far from LAX, and many of the companies shared DNA with arguably the region’s most famous tech resident: SpaceX.

Read moreShow less
https://twitter.com/samsonamore
samsonamore@dot.la

LA Tech ‘Moves’: LeaseLock, Visgenx, PlayVS and Pressed Juicery Gains New CEOs

Decerry Donato

Decerry Donato is a reporter at dot.LA. Prior to that, she was an editorial fellow at the company. Decerry received her bachelor's degree in literary journalism from the University of California, Irvine. She continues to write stories to inform the community about issues or events that take place in the L.A. area. On the weekends, she can be found hiking in the Angeles National forest or sifting through racks at your local thrift store.

LA Tech ‘Moves’: LeaseLock, Visgenx, PlayVS and Pressed Juicery Gains New CEOs
LA Tech ‘Moves’:

“Moves,” our roundup of job changes in L.A. tech, is presented by Interchange.LA, dot.LA's recruiting and career platform connecting Southern California's most exciting companies with top tech talent. Create a free Interchange.LA profile here—and if you're looking for ways to supercharge your recruiting efforts, find out more about Interchange.LA's white-glove recruiting service by emailing Sharmineh O’Farrill Lewis (sharmineh@dot.la). Please send job changes and personnel moves to moves@dot.la.

***

LeaseLock, a lease insurance and financial technology provider for the rental housing industry named Janine Steiner Jovanovic as chief executive officer. Prior to this role, Steiner Jovanovic served as the former EVP of Asset Optimization at RealPage.

Esports platform PlayVS hired EverFi co-founder and seasoned business leader Jon Chapman as the company’s chief executive officer.

Biotechnology company Visgenx appointed William Pedranti, J.D. as chief executive officer. Before joining, Mr. Pedranti was a partner with PENG Life Science Ventures.

Pressed Juicery, the leading cold-pressed juice and functional wellness brand welcomed Justin Nedelman as chief executive officer. His prior roles include chief real estate officer of FAT Brands Inc. and co-founder of Eureka! Restaurant Group.

Michael G. Vicari joined liquid biopsy company Nucleix as chief commercial officer. Vicari served as senior vice president of Sales at GRAIL, Inc.

Full-service performance marketing agency Allied Global Marketing promoted Erin Corbett to executive vice president of global partnership and marketing. Prior to joining Allied, Corbett's experience included senior marketing roles at Disney, Warner Bros. Studios, Harrah's Entertainment and Imagi Animation Studios.

Nuvve, a vehicle-to-grid technology company tapped student transportation and automotive sales and marketing executive David Bercik to lead the K-12 student transportation division.

RELATEDEDITOR'S PICKS
LA TECH JOBS
interchangeLA
Trending