Banking & Finance  May 27, 2016

Boomtown grad VisibleHand raising funds to enhance software

BOULDER — VisibleHand, a graduate of the latest Boomtown Accelerator class, is raising money to adapt its software to additional markets and streamline its onboarding process, according to one of its founders.

“We’re looking to raise between $500,000 and $750,000 in the funding round, and we’re decently along the way, both in terms of what’s in the bank and what’s been committed,” said company president Matt Morris. “We’ll also use it to do some study of our software and the efficacy of our program on patients’ behavioral outcomes.”

VisibleHand has developed a mobile app designed to improve behavioral health care in acute and post-acute care settings by using improved data collection, analytics and clinical decision support.

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“A third of seniors suffer from dementia and 15 percent have major mental issues, and people end up in long-term care due to behavior problems,” he said. “When they get there, a lot of the frontline staff have no behavioral training. So our app helps the care staff to know what to look for, document it and get real-time guidance on how to respond. It allows clinicians to see what is working or not working for an individual patient — and test out new hypotheses, many of which are provided by the front-line care staff.

“It’s like having a behavioral expert in your pocket.”

VisibleHand still uses space at the Boomtown facility in Boulder but its “home office” is now in Morris’ home in Denver while he seeks co-working space. Several associates also work out of an office in Columbus, Ohio, “doing the Midwest, East Coast stuff,” he said.

Morris started VisibleHand in late 2014 along with his father, Harvey, a clinical psychologist who consults with long-term care facilities. Matt Morris entered a Ph.D. program in clinical psychology at Emory University in Atlanta but started working with startups before he could complete it.

VisibleHand “at first was an LLC, but we transferred it to a C-corp when we started in Boomtown in February of this year,” Matt Morris said. It was one of 10 startups to complete the Boulder-based accelerator’s program in April, and was described by Jack Donenfeld, Boomtown’s general counsel and co-founder, as “one of our most exciting companies.”

Morris said the company is looking for people “looking to invest in socially responsible companies, looking to help our aging population or those with behavioral or mental needs. Our main thing is looking for partnerships. That’s the best strategy for our business right now rather than trying to scale it ourselves.”

“Seventy percent of us end up in long-term care,” he said. “Let’s make it the best we can.”

Dallas Heltzell
With BizWest since 2012 and in Colorado since 1979, Dallas worked at the Longmont Times-Call, Colorado Springs Gazette, Denver Post and Public News Service. A Missouri native and Mizzou School of Journalism grad, Dallas started as a sports writer and outdoor columnist at the St. Charles (Mo.) Banner-News, then went to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch before fleeing the heat and humidity for the Rockies. He especially loves covering our mountain communities.
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