Mystic Ventures

What do Peter Thiel, Kevin O’Leary, Tim Ferris, Sam Harris, Michael Pollan, Sting, and Tony Robbins all have in common? They are either advocates for or directly investing in psychedelic medicine and research. The past decade has ushered in a psychedelic renaissance, inspiring a massive push for research, decriminalization, and legalization of these powerful substances. There has been a radical shift in discussions of consciousness expansion, which has broken into the mainstream. With newfound, burgeoning support ranging from academia to medicine, government to business, there’s an extraordinary opportunity to tap into the commercial and social potential of this nascent space. Mystic Ventures believes the world would be much better if more people experienced the healing power of psychedelics. Mystic cares about mental health and human conditions. The fund’s goal is to draw on my experience as an entrepreneur and investor, backing pre-seed and seed-stage startups creating high-quality psychedelic experiences and treatments. I am starting Mystic to support founders who realize the healing power of psychedelics to elevate humanity’s consciousness. I will harness my broad network and abundance of resources to ensure the success of these ventures. Given my reach throughout the investing world and social media, as well as a growing network within the psychedelic space, I am confident that we will have outstanding deal flow and access to any emerging opportunities. We will draw on a wide range of industry experts, from medical professionals to academics, to validate startup theses, but the focus will be on investing in world-class, dynamic founders. Given how early this industry is, it’s difficult to pinpoint precisely how big the market opportunity is— but considering the large, ever-expanding applications of psychedelic medicines and therapies, the potential is nothing short of mind-boggling. The global market for drugs used in mental disorders was $70.1 billion in 2012. Just the antidepressant drug market was valued at $13.69b in 2015. More broadly, in 2019, mental health spending topped $225 Billion in the US alone. Two publicly traded psychedelic companies, both founded in the past five years, Compass Pathways and MindMed (which we were offered pre-IPO access to), have market capitalizations over $1 billion, and many more have nine-figure valuations. In contrast, the global legal marijuana market was valued at $17.7 billion in 2019. Thus, it’s hard to overstate how large and how quickly this space could grow. The priority is getting this fund to market as soon as possible, which is why we chose a Rolling Fund. Whenever possible, I will spin up SPVs for LPs that would like larger exposure to deals or when it's deemed appropriate to do follow-on investments.