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Becker Private Equity & Business Podcast
How WEconnect Health is Transforming Recovery & Behavioral Health with Daniela Luzi Tudor, Murphy Jensen, and Cameron Chell 4-17-25
00:19:28
In this episode, Scott Becker speaks with 3 Leaders from WEconnect Health Management, Daniela Luzi Tudor co-founder and CEO, Murphy Jensen, Co Founder and EVP of Business Development, and Cameron Chell, Executive Chairman.
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- [00:00]
Scott Becker
This is Scott Becker with a special combined episode of the Becker's Healthcare and the Becker Private Equity and Business podcast. I am thrilled today to be joined by three leaders from a company called We Connect. And We Connect is a behavioral health company that focuses on within behavioral health, mental health, substance use disorder as well. So just to give some background, one of the leaders of the company is Murphy Jensen. If you don't know Murphy Jensen, him and his brother were two of the great pro tennis players of my time and I followed them really closely, I think won the French Open, at least the doubles French Open and had a fantastic career. He's got a fascinating history and I'm very familiar and just a huge fan of his. He's also teamed here with Danielle Tudor and Cameron Shell. Shell. And they'll tell us about themselves. Daniela, can I ask you to start off by taking a moment to introduce yourself, then I'll ask Cameron and Murphy to do the same.
- [01:06]
Danielle Tudor
Absolutely. Scott, thank you so much for having us on. I'm Daniela Tudor. I'm the CEO and co founder here. We Connect Health. I'm also a person in long term recovery and have a long standing background in technology before diving into this partnership with Murphy Just over 10 years ago.
- [01:24]
Scott Becker
Amazing. And I've been following this online for a long time. Cameron, take a moment and tell us about yourself and then I'll ask Murphy to round out the introductions.
- [01:34]
Cameron Shell
Sounds great. Thanks for having us on today, Scott. I too am somebody that has long term recovery have been a technology entrepreneur for the last 35 years, primarily focused on Internet and defense technologies with a heavy kind of leaning towards healthcare and mental health. And thrilled to be here today and work with our co founders.
- [01:55]
Scott Becker
Well, fantastic. And you must be the Canadian in the audience by the great accent. Is that. Is that right?
- [02:02]
Cameron Shell
I can never hear it, but yeah, you're absolutely right.
- [02:04]
Scott Becker
Oh, fantastic, fantastic. And Murphy, tell the audience about yourself and a little bit maybe about your tennis career. And also the three of you got to know each other well.
- [02:15]
Murphy Jensen
I am Murphy Murphy Jensen, someone in long term recovery from substance use disorder and mental health challenges. And I lead that prior to any tennis step because overcoming those challenges have been the most important and impactful body of work of my life because I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for great behavioral health solutions like We Connect. And in my first life I played professional tennis. Some say I was raised by wolves on a Christmas tree farm in Northern Michigan. And we headed down south to Grand Rapids where went to high school and played against all the Tough Midwesterners out of Chicago at the Midtown Tennis club. And by 13, I'm playing tennis around the world. And by 18, living in Los Angeles and 24, winning the French Open with my brother Luke. And that's where I, you know, it was the greatest moment of our family's life in representing Michigan and the Midwest to win a Grand Slam. But something happened in that locker room after the win. I had my first panic attack, which would follow me for the next 10 years of rock and roll tennis. And, you know, I'd isolate and the depression and the anxiety and what I learned through my own recovery journey is that I'm only as sick as my secrets. And so what I thought was the worst thing that could have happened to me has been the greatest blessing of my life because 10 years ago I met my co founder, Daniela Tudor, and she was someone that I was connected to because I was helping my, my wife's family friend. And he said, where did you get that gray tan? And I said, well, I was at Richard Branson's island for a tennis benefit with all these fancy superstars. And he goes, a girl in my outpatient program who builds out system engineering teams and fancy stuff I know nothing about was there as well. And we got together and she shared with me her idea of how we could improve outcomes, save lives, and change the world of behavioral health by leveraging technology.
- [04:25]
Scott Becker
Remarkable. Murphy, let me ask you this question in terms of tennis and pro sports, so many challenges. Is that, is that just indicative of the high stress environment or the drive that athletes have? Because, you know, they're well documented. One of the specials on ESPN or Netflix has another tennis star that had some trouble with substance abuse and just extremely common amongst high achievers and amongst our whole population. Talk a bit about, just give us a sense of that.
- [04:57]
Murphy Jensen
Yeah, well, you know, there's a drive and there's a drive for all of us humans. If you've got a pulse, you're most likely, you know, if you're a human being, you're going to have drives, you're going to have instincts. And I grew up in an alcoholic house and dad got sober when I was about 10 or 11 and that changed the trajectory of our family's life. But that doesn't mean that the trauma of dads alcoholism didn't have an effect on me or my brother. His bedroom was three feet from mine and he's never had a drink or, and, or a drug a day in his life. But nobody gets out of that house without their own scars and we are both motivated. We are extremely motivated. Dad gets sober, changes everything. But where did that motivation come from? You know, my fears, my doubts and my insecurities and, you know, whether it's you're an athlete or someone that works in finance or. Or in tech or, you name it, you're driven. And we have these instincts for survival and they can be for our benefit, but we live in a wild world today. It's a different world than you and I grew up in, where it's so difficult to get into the right university and so important to our kids to get into the right spot and do well and to be perfect. Being perfect is an impossibility. I can strive for that on the tennis court or off the tennis court, but I'll never quite get it. But in that moment, winning the French, you know, I gotta say, my insides did not match my outsides. What I mean by that is I'm the best in the world on the outside, but my insides were scared to death was what of what was to come, you know, would I be found out. The fear of being found out and in my head had told me that I didn't measure up for some time. And I guess that's the dichotomy you're talking about.
- [06:48]
Scott Becker
No. Thank you. Thank you so much. And Daniela, talk a little bit about the trend you're watching in behavioral health today. And also maybe give us a moment on the starting story of We Connect. Daniela.
- [07:03]
Danielle Tudor
Absolutely. So, as Murphy mentioned, we mend our Necker island and my side of the story is very different of how I got invited there. I entered a contest online that said submit your top three bucket list items based on the most creative answers. Will select someone to go to Necker island and meet Richard Branson. And I was just a few months into my own recovery journey. Huge life change. And I had the spark of an idea to bridge accountability, human connection and a reward system into one platform, one service to really help people struggling with substance misuse and behavioral health challenges. Didn't know how I was going to start it other than I had my tech background. And it just so happened that I won this contest and I see this incredibly charismatic guy on the tennis court and coming back from that island and getting that introduction and seeing how we could really complement each other's skills and pair up as a team. And then later on, obviously, Cameron joining on as the executive chairman just makes quite the trifecta as we trudge forward in this industry. You mentioned industry trends. Eleven years ago, when we started this thing, the Concept of rewarding people with behavioral health issues was not only foreign, but there was a lot of naysayers in the space. Now you see policies in place that push forward contingency management and incentives to help people with their social determinants of health and help them stay accountable to their care plans. Eleven years ago, the thought of using a mobile application, particularly for folks in Medicaid, was also foreign. And now we're seeing that not just as a trend, but we have actual outcomes from actuarial teams that are MCO partners that have demonstrated that people are happier, healthier on a platform like ours. And as a result, they've been able to reduce emergency room readmits by 40%. So big, big trends this year and complete 180 shift in the last decade.
- [09:03]
Scott Becker
From what I've seen is simply remarkable. And when you look at this, who is sort of that. Who's the customer that you're working with here? Or maybe Daniela, whoever is the right person to take this question. Who is it that you folks work directly with? Are you working with health plans? Are you working with individual individuals? How do you engage?
- [09:24]
Danielle Tudor
So we have two separate channels. One is health and government. Under health and government, we work with health plans. The majority of our population in that channel is Medicaid, as well as in partnerships for grants at the state and federal level and behavioral health organizations on the employer channel. We both directly sell into companies as a mental health benefit and also partner with brokers, large national brokerages, but also individual smaller brokers in different regions of the United States. So anything you want to add to that, Kim? Please do. Maybe on licensing.
- [10:02]
Cameron Shell
Yeah, no, I think that sums it up really well. And I think, you know, primarily, you know, my role here is, is to help grow the company from a capital market standpoint and really trying to scale things out, you know, with our investor group. And it's really those. It's the adoption by the Great Society, taking a look at the importance of mental health. Kind of like how it was in the 80s when, when people kind of woke up to physical health and how important that was. And through the 80s and 90s, and there's this renaissance, or if I can call it that, that's happening in mental health. And that's really the opportunity that's in front of us. And it's an incredibly unique product with, with tremendous efficacy and a lot of proprietary technology that Daniela and Murphy have built out here that that's literally helping people now recover their lives and their families.
- [10:50]
Scott Becker
So simply remarkable. And I'm going To ask each of this question, ask you 30, 60 seconds on this. And Cameron, we'll start with you. Then I'll go back to Murphy. And then, Daniela, what are you most focused on and excited about this year? It could be your own perspectives. Doesn't have to be exactly the company prescription, but where are you most focused and excited this year?
- [11:08]
Cameron Shell
Well, for me, what I'm most excited about this year, which I think is going to be certainly different than Murph and Daniella, is the fact that the markets and the larger companies are really, including health insurance companies, are really grabbing a hold of the actual platform of contingency management and looking at the data to say, oh my gosh, look at this, this doesn't save lives, but look at the, the efficiency that this is creating. Look at the cost that this is savings. Look at the necessity that this is putting into our workforce. Look at the benefits that this has within our workforce to attract new people and to keep our best people moving forward. And to, to me, that's really exciting because it, it takes kind of like what we all already knew, you know, kind of like, you know, getting enough sleep is a good idea, but until you don't get enough sleep and it's cute, you don't really realize until you get caught up in your sleep and you're man, I'm thinking better, I'm feeling better. And it's the same thing with mental health. And so to have this, this large shift that, that, that the markets are now saying, hey, wait a minute, this is essential and we need to really get behind it and back it to see the company really now start to scale after 10 years of work that Murph and Daniel, that to me, that's really exciting.
- [12:18]
Scott Becker
It's amazing. Murphy, I'm going to turn to you with two quick questions. I couldn't agree more with it with Cam, your thoughts on this. We speak so much to our children about constructive lives and physical mental health being the two core parts of life. Being live a constructive life and really focus on your physical mental health. And I love your take on it. You know, the world has adopted first physical health. The mental health is so important and still work in process. Now, Murphy, Murphy doesn't realize this, but he and his brother were two of my heroes growing up as a Midwestern tennis person. And I'm going to ask you two questions, Murph, and one of them, Murphy, you might not be able to answer, but John Costa, who's on the Daily show, recently wrote a book about his tennis experience and Playing on the pro tour. Have you seen that book? Are you familiar with John Costa, who's a comedian who also played professional tennis for a period of time? And the reason I ask is he grew up in Michigan himself. Was it John?
- [13:14]
Murphy Jensen
And I've seen his work and we've crossed paths, you know. Well, tell me what his work is about.
- [13:20]
Scott Becker
Well, he's, he's a comedian, but he's also written a book about his tennis career called Lucky Loser. And the Lucky Loser, someone who's an alternate to a tournament and gets in the tournament, somebody drops out. But he talks about the stress of playing on the professional tour. You know, he played a, you know, he had a play in Santa, he played at U of I, then he played at satellite tournaments and pro tournaments across the country. And it was just really, really fascinating to hear his take professional tennis. You know, he was, he, he didn't have the success you had anywhere near it. You know, made it to like 800 in the year, 800 in the world. Got to ATP points, stuff like that, but played in Korea and Japan every place just trying to pick up ATP points. And the level of stress and the burnout of it was, was incredible.
- [14:03]
Murphy Jensen
You got to realize tennis isn't like being drafted. If I was being drafted in the top five in the world into the NBA, I'm making $25 million a year. Tennis is a sport. You don't win, you don't get paid. And, and that's why I'm very familiar with the entrepreneurship or startup world, is a tennis player is their own individual startup and you get a little funding, you jump on a bus, you get yourself on an airplane and it's brutal. It's brutal. And it's a lonely, lonely existence. And there's not, you know, you're taking food off of each other's tables and then you're calling home and you're saying you won or lost. I went to, went to college at USC out in Southern California. And if I wasn't playing number one, I had an embarrassment and shame and guilt that I wasn't playing number one or two. Like my brother was playing there. And you know, I was an 18 year old kid with a bunch of 24 year olds. I turned pro after two years. So I, I know Costa's work and we've crossed paths, but, you know, what we're doing here, you know, is so much bigger than what drives me. You talked about over the course of this coming year, what drives me is to make support and services like we have at with, we connect health easier to access than an accidental overdose or a suicide attempt. I've got a coach down in Texas. I get a call. You know, I get the unfortunate data. You know, we're serving employers, but I'm also excited that we're serving universities and our kids. And, you know, I've been put on this earth for a reason, and that's to help people, help others until the day I die and stop. And here we got this amazing, nutty, addictive phone. If I'm going to be obsessed with anything, it should be on my recovery. And so, you know, this is the most important work I will ever do. And I get an opportunity to share it with the Midwest through the employer channel or through the health plan channel or through the colleges and universities. And now they've got me after dropping dead three years ago from a cardiac arrest. Now you're talking about physical health and mental health. I really look at it. You know, my heart stopped three years ago, and Demar Hamlin from the bills, and I become friends. But what. What caught. Everybody wants to know what caused Murphy's cardiac arrest, you know, and. And guess what, ladies and gentlemen, on the Becker's podcast, this is where it's at. We did the genome sequencing and mapping in my heart cells at Stanford University with Dr. Wu, and he told me Murphy's heart cells respond to stress differently than a normal heart cell. How about that? It's really important that I take a pause and take a timeout and take my company. Daniela and my board allowed me the time to recover, you know, so from my heart to yours, I love you to pieces, and I'm grateful to still be here. And so mental health and our physical health are interconnected and we must take care of both.
- [17:11]
Scott Becker
Just remarkable. Daniela, I'll ask you to wrap up, even though Murphy's an EGR pioneer, but I'll ask you to move us forward and wrap us up. Daniela, tell us about where you're most focused and excited this year, and what a pleasure to visit with the three of you. Wish you had more time. And I talked to you about advice for people trying to recover or trying to stay healthy. It's a lifetime journey. We've seen it up close. Family members and others, we. We empathize completely. We. We love you for speaking about it. Daniela, tell us what you're most focused on and excited about this year.
- [17:46]
Danielle Tudor
I mean, the same as Cameron, and it's the other side of the coin. So, as Cameron mentioned, in regards to seeing the outcomes, the cost reductions, the claims which is what the institutions care about that ultimately engage with us in partnership. The other side of the coin is that that equates to helping people and making people's lives better and making people's lives so good in their recovery and improving their social determinants of health and repairing their relationships with their loved ones in getting some sort of stabilization so not only they can just get out of survival mode, but really thrive in life. That that to me that equivalent of that is correlated to the reduction in emergency room stays and costs is my biggest focus. To scale that to increase the eyeballs a North America and beyond that on a global perspective is super exciting and continuing to improve the technology that the peer support specialists on our team use to connect and really make these members lives better. And that's, that's what's most exciting to me. So thank you so much for having us on. Really appreciate you and thank you again.
- [18:59]
Scott Becker
Daniela where could people find WEConnect? Let me just ask you that question quickly. Where can they find WEConnect?
- [19:05]
Danielle Tudor
WEConnect Health IO and also in the app store, both Android and iOS.
- [19:12]
Scott Becker
Fantastic. I want to thank the three of you. Daniela Cam Murphy, what an inspiring discussion by far. I had so many discussions on healthcare and business and everything else. By far the most inspiring discussion I've had in a while. We thank you so much for joining us on this combined episode of the Becker's Healthcare and Becker Private Equity podcast. Thank you very, very much for joining us.
- [19:34]
Cameron Shell
Thanks Scott.