The COVID pandemic in 2020 was a pivotal event for Ashley Edwards, CEO of MindRight, and her team. Although MindRight was founded in June 2019, the need for virtual mental health coaching solutions skyrocketed in the US by the following year. Yet, MindRight required a robust technological infrastructure to manage this market demand. This was the beginning of a four-plus-year relationship between us and MindRight.
MindRight, a US-based tech startup that provides culturally responsive and trauma-informed mental health coaching to youth and young adults, raised $1 million in venture capital funding in August 2020. They were ripe to expand their reach and provide virtual mental health support for US citizens, 24/7. With this goal in mind, MindRight’s need for a technical team that could build out their solution led to them finding us through a simple Google search.
They started by onboarding one of our developers from Lagos, Nigeria, who became MindRight’s lead software engineer. Soon, another developer joined the team, and today, MindRight’s technical team comprises three developers from Tunga.
The Journey
As MindRight evolved, so did its technological needs, leading us to swap developers to better match their emerging direction strategically. This move, seamlessly managed, highlighted our commitment to adaptability and the power of the right fit in tech collaborations.
However, we cannot take all the credit for our healthy relationship. The journey hasn’t been without uncomfortable changes and occasional hiccups. One thing that has remained consistent is the proactiveness and initiative of our developers, who form the backbone of MindRight’s business. This underscores the importance of trust and teamwork in our successful partnership.
Natalie Polanco, MindRight’s Operations Manager, has consistently praised our team’s effort and testified to have had a great experience working with us and our developers.
Our collaboration with MindRight isn’t just a story of business growth; it’s about making meaningful strides in mental health support through tech.
The Transformation
When MindRight approached us, they had been operating officially for only about six months. Therefore, their primary goal was to build a team of high-quality software engineers who would build out their solution. They also wanted a team ready to commit to taking their company to the next phase and could provide a service to improve and efficiently maintain their platforms continuously.
MindRight got precisely what they wanted: a development team that is in sync with their administrative team enough to be involved in planning and implementing new features and maintaining existing applications. With the MindRight platform built on the MEAN stack, we provided them with three full-time developers proficient in MongoDB, Express, Angular, Node.js, Javascript, and Typescript. Today, MindRight can make mental health support accessible to people via text message.
With all three of their developers residing in Nigeria, we have worked with them to ensure a smooth overlap of work hours with the New York time zone where the rest of the MindRight team is situated. Adeyemi Adekorede, a senior software engineer who has been with MindRight for over three years and currently leads the software team, speaks of MindRight as “an excellent company that genuinely cares about its users and staff.”
Our collaboration with MindRight highlights the dynamic synergy of adaptability, growth, teamwork, and problem-solving. From the outset, the seamless integration of developers into strategic roles and alignment of our technical expertise with MindRight’s evolving needs has been central to the expansion and effectiveness of the mental health platform. Together, we have demonstrated the profound impact of collaborative problem-solving in technology-driven partnerships.
