The creators of a mental health app designed specifically for men, called Mental, noticed that one particular feature—AI-powered interactive audio—was generating an overwhelmingly positive response from users. That realization made them understand they had discovered something significant. Soon after, renowned author and motivational speaker Tony Robbins became so captivated by the startup that he stepped in as a co-founder.

The Path has now secured $14.3 million in seed funding, led by Prime Movers Lab, where Robbins serves as a partner. Additional investors include speed skater Apolo Anton Ohno, boxer Deontay Wilder, and Designer Fund. After Prime Movers made its investment, Robbins began discussing minor details like branding with co-founders Whitmer and Tyler Sheaffer. However, as his enthusiasm and ideas for the app expanded, they invited him to join as a co-founder. Since then, Robbins has helped shape The Path into a hybrid therapy-and-coaching platform that incorporates his widely recognized self-improvement techniques.

Whitmer, who was an early employee at the meditation app Calm alongside Sheaffer, says his drive to work in mental health technology stems from personal tragedy. When he was 19, a beloved uncle died by suicide. That loss inspired Whitmer to earn a PhD in psychology, with plans to pursue research after graduating. But while still in college, a cousin left a voicemail. "I didn’t realize until it was too late. It was also a call for help, and he killed himself," Whitmer recalls. This experience prompted him to shift direction toward work that could bring scientific insights to a broader audience.

Working at Calm felt like a natural starting point, given the solid research supporting meditation’s benefits for mental health. Yet after staying at Calm until 2021, Whitmer felt he could achieve more. "Even though we did have a big impact, it’s not really a big enough impact," he said. "The issue is, people’s problems are just too idiosyncratic. They’re too personal. They’re unique." Furthermore, universal access to individual therapy or coaching remains impossible—there simply aren’t enough therapists worldwide to meet the demand.

Whitmer views large language models and AI as the solution to bridge this gap. "What’s exciting and game-changing is that, for the first time in my career, I’ve seen that there’s actually this possibility for every single person to have the personalized sort of access and care that they need to really get the help," he said. This shift is already underway: OpenAI reports that at least 900 people use ChatGPT for mental health-related queries each week. However, Whitmer points out a fundamental problem with using consumer chatbots for mental health—they are "optimized for engagement," which is the opposite of what therapy and coaching should aim for. Consumer chatbots tend to solve problems quickly for users and reinforce ideas to keep them returning. "But therapy/coaching doesn’t work that way. You’re trying to understand the problem deeply," he explains. The goal is to uncover underlying assumptions and guide individuals toward discovering their own solutions.

Whitmer says The Path’s AI is trained "to set up structure, so that later on, you can get to a place where there is resolution," but always from a foundation of understanding. To ensure safety, the startup’s specially trained AI model has achieved a score of 95 on the mental health safety benchmark Vera-MH, compared to a top score of 65 for consumer bots. "It’s meant to challenge you. It’s not just meant to agree with you," he emphasizes. Notably, the app’s model is post-trained from open-source models and does not rely on major consumer LLMs, meaning it is not simply a wrapper over them. The Path currently offers users a choice of 11 virtual AI therapists, with options to customize preferences for directness and other details. The service is free for now as it builds its user base, but the startup eventually plans to charge $40 per month.