What Mentwell does
Mentwell is a digital gift card platform for health and wellness services where the receiver gets to choose how they redeem – at any service provider, Australia-wide. Receivers can use it on psychology, GP, or acupuncture appointments or perhaps, reiki, massage, yoga classes or a gym memberships to name a few options.
The Current Landscape
No other business anywhere else in the world has a gifting solution for all health and wellness services and there certainly isn’t one that hosts Eastern and Western modalities on the same platform.
Our closest competitors are Prezzee and Red Balloon, however they are marketplaces whereas Mentwell isn’t. Mentwell gives the giftor the knowledge that they’re showing real care in a practical, pragmatic gift and the receiver gets the confidence and privacy to choose how they use the card, depending on their personal needs.
Red Balloon and Prezzee, have an emphasis on novelty gifting, whereas Mentwell is creating an entirely new sector within the gifting industry that they’re calling conscious gifting or empathetic gifting.
We’re in a time where interest rates are increasing, cost of goods are also going up and we’re lacking in connection with one another. As a result, anxiety is increasing and the currently solutions to gifting like flowers, chocolates, alcohol and tacky experiences don’t fit the times. Mentwell is the solution!
Company Birth Story
Nikki Williams, Mentwell’s founder has run a PR & Digital marketing agency for 12 years and has run a number of other businesses. Towards the end of Covid, she was asked to host an influencer and media event for a luxury gifting company where her and her team were to take these VIPs on a super yacht on Sydney Harbour and enjoy drinking champagne and seafood for the afternoon.
“It sounds like a hard life I know, but usually I would finish a campaign or event like this feeling buzzed, but this time I wasn’t and in fact I felt like something was wrong…” Williams says explaining her lightbulb moment.
“I realised that with the media talking about the difficulty of booking psychology appointments, getting mental health plans and then the government reducing mental health subsidies, that we needed a way to show real, practical care to one another, especially in key gifting times during the year, but also for any time someone wasn’t feeling 100%…” Williams explains.
Williams then took herself on a year-long journey travelling around the world where the idea expanded and grew. A year and a half later, Mentwell was launched and sales started straight away.
The Solution
Mentwell has an ambitious goal to revolutionise the gifting industry to be one that puts people’s needs first.
“I was once gifted 12 photo frames from a $1 shop when I was 8 years old. I didn’t own a camera though…” laughs Williams who reflects on a number of gifts she’s been given that were thoughtless and either went in the rubbish or re-gifted.
Mentwell is a solution that suits the times. Alternative and complementary services are on the rise and in fact 2/3s of Australians are already using them. “We want to teach people that if they’re struggling to get enough time with their psychologist, there are other modalities to try too that will also improve your wellbeing,” further explains the Mentwell team in relation to their educational aspect of the business.
Mentwell has partnerships in the works with Laneway Festival where $1 per ticket is going to their pre-seed raise as well as collaborations with a number of other socially-conscious businesses who want to make sure they’re always putting their employee’s needs first.
“Employment Assistant Programs only have 5% take up in Australia, so clearly employees don’t want to use them due to confidentiality issues or poor experiences. Existing gifting solutions aren’t fit for the times where people need help and we need to show support to one another – Mentwell fixes both of these problems…” further explains Williams.
The team at Mentwell want every one to think of Mentwell as the best gifting solution at the end of the year, but in particular for businesses to see their responsibility in spending their health and wellness benefits effectively. Giving their staff the choice to choose how they want to look after themselves, without any limitation gives us a competitive edge.
A Customer Story
One of Mentwell’s first customers, a music label manager and owner was so excited about the idea that she bought a $200 voucher for her partner who had been going through a stressful time. Not only did Mentwell get a huge thanks from the buyer, but also from the receiver who exclaimed how useful, thoughtful and practical this solution was for him.
Since then this first customer has partnered with Mentwell so that her recording artists can share Mentwell through their platforms and channels as well. “We see a huge potential for the music and hospitality industries using this platform, because they’re the industries without a health and wellness entity, at yet they’re some of the lowest paid industries out there and they care the most about their customers and followers.”
The Team Culture
Mentwell is a team of 5 at the moment and all five members have experiences traumatic events in their life. Williams makes it a business mission to start all meetings with 5 minutes per person to tell us about what is going on for them, how they’re feeling and if there’s anything the team can do to support them.
Williams is also a certified yoga, breathwork and meditation teacher and reiki specialist, so these practices are used to bring the team together and focus as one entity.
“This helps to make sure everyone’s feeling relaxed before starting a meeting and that everyone’s “present”. We’ve found that by taking this time at the start of meetings, they tend to run more efficiently and for less time…”
A founder quote
“The key to healing is human connection and finding the right help, and this is what Mentwell provides…”
Check it out : https://www.mentwell.com.au/
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