Joe Startup Technologies, a start-up led by co-founders Dr. Eric Youngstrom, Professor of Clinical Psychology, and Christopher Mumford, has received $100,000 in commercialization awards from Carolina KickStart, a joint program of the North Carolina Translational and Clinical Sciences (NC TraCS) Institute and the Office of Commercialization and Economic Development.
The Carolina KickStart Award Program promotes entrepreneurship on the UNC campus by supporting the commercialization of innovations in the life science, biomedical and pharmaceutical fields. KickStart is expanding to areas beyond life science. The awards help UNC startup companies meet commercial milestones by providing funding and expertise for technology validation, product and business development. To date, Carolina KickStart has awarded funding to 34 companies, totaling $1,273,351.00.
Joe Startup Technologies, led by Dr. Youngstrom and Mr. Mumford, is developing an app that moves assessment and diagnosis of common behavioral health issues like anxiety, depression, or substance abuse from paper to smartphone. The technology is revolutionary because it can dramatically increase evidence-based assessment and provide daily metrics so patient, clinician, and administrators can track any changes due to treatment.