Being a Woman CEO in Mental Health Tech, A Founder’s Story with Maggie Rose Macar

After coping with the death of a close friend to suicide, Maggie Rose Macar had a shift in studies to psychology and began sculpting her passion for suicide prevention in the form of mental health awareness and education. Through the changes in societal norms, and the increased need for low-cost, easily accessible mental health services, Maggie Rose began working with lead developers to create an app in the midst of a global pandemic that offers access to over 25 different specialty services to users across the nation. She remains determined to save the lives of the silent sufferers and inspire the lives of those in need. Through this venture, Therapute was born.

Originally born in Manhattan, my parents moved to a rural area of New Jersey when I was young. While both of my parents are entrepreneurs, I truly never believed that I would be an entrepreneur myself. I have a younger sister, Lilly, who has always been a big supporter, alongside my parents, of my aspirations in life. I went through public school until high school, where I was transferred to Notre Dame High School in PA and graduated one year early within the national honor society and the vision to work in the criminal justice system.

By the time I got to college, I was focused on studying criminal justice. It wasn’t until I lost a close friend to suicide at the age of 19, and went through a process where I needed help coping that I found a therapist willing to work with me at $10 per session. This truly changed my life. I went back to school and switched my major to psychology where I began my advocacy work in mental health. As this continued to grow, and while operating a local nonprofit organization, it became increasingly evident that young people were and are struggling; and need help without the roadblocks to entry. The passion and desire I internalized from losing my friend, became a burning fire to do something to help others. I had no idea how to help, I just knew I needed to do something. This turned into taking our local program with the non-profit to a mobile app that now offers over 25 specialty areas of mental health support, for as low as $10/session, to those in need across the country within our app, Therapute.

Let other people surprise you! I once had a previous supervisor tell me this and took it into my startup. As a CEO, we want to micro-manage every detail because this is our “baby”, however, we must let others surprise us through delegation to grow.