Tony Robbins, Calm Alums Launch Safer AI Therapy Platform

When the team behind Mental, a men’s mental health app, noticed one feature generating outsized engagement among users, they recognized a breakthrough moment. That feature was AI-powered interactive audio, and it sparked the creation of a new, more carefully designed therapy platform called The Path, explains co-founder and CEO Anson Whitmer.

The venture quickly attracted an unexpected partner: famed motivational speaker and author Tony Robbins, who became so captivated by the startup’s mission that he joined as a co-founder. The Path has now secured $14.3 million in seed funding, led by Prime Movers Lab, where Robbins serves as a partner. Additional investors include Olympic speed skater Apolo Anton Ohno, boxer Deontay Wilder, and Designer Fund.

Robbins’ involvement deepened organically. After Prime Movers invested, he began advising on branding and strategy. But as his enthusiasm and ideas for the app grew, Whitmer and co-founder Tyler Sheaffer invited him to join as a full co-founder. Since then, Robbins has helped shape The Path into a hybrid therapy-plus-coaching app that incorporates his widely recognized self-improvement methodologies.

Whitmer, who previously worked as an early employee at the meditation app Calm alongside Sheaffer, traces his commitment to mental health technology to personal tragedy. At age 19, he lost a beloved uncle to suicide. That loss inspired him to earn a PhD in psychology, with plans to pursue academic research. But while still in college, another cousin left a voicemail. “I didn’t realize until it was too late. It was also a call for help, and he killed himself,” Whitmer recalls.

Those experiences redirected his career toward translating scientific research into accessible tools. Working at Calm felt like a natural starting point, given the strong evidence linking meditation to improved mental health. Yet after leaving Calm in 2021, Whitmer concluded that even that platform’s impact was insufficient. “Even though we did have a big impact, it’s not really a big enough impact,” he said. “The issue is, people’s problems are just too idiosyncratic. They’re too personal. They’re unique.”

Moreover, universal access to individual therapy or coaching remains impossible; there simply are not enough therapists worldwide. Whitmer sees large language models (LLMs) and AI as the bridge across that gap. “What’s exciting and game-changing is that, for the first time in my career, I’ve seen that there’s actually this possibility for every single person to have the personalized sort of access and care that they need to really get the help,” he said.

This shift is already underway. OpenAI reports that at least 900 million people use ChatGPT for mental health-related queries each week. Yet Whitmer warns that consumer chatbots are “optimized for engagement,” which is fundamentally at odds with the goals of therapy and coaching. These bots aim to solve problems quickly and reinforce ideas to keep users returning. “But therapy/coaching doesn’t work that way. You’re trying to understand the problem deeply,” he explains. The approach involves uncovering assumptions and guiding individuals toward their own solutions.

The Path’s AI is trained “to set up structure, so that later on, you can get to a place where there is resolution,” but always from a foundation of understanding. Whitmer says the platform’s specially trained model achieved a 95 on the Vera-MH mental health safety AI benchmark, compared to a top score of 65 for typical consumer bots. “It’s meant to challenge you. It’s not just meant to agree with you,” he notes. The app’s model is post-trained from open source models and does not rely on major consumer LLMs, meaning it is not merely a wrapper over them.

The Path currently offers users a choice of 11 virtual AI therapists, with customizable preferences for directness and other details. The platform is free while it builds its user base, with plans to eventually charge $40 per month.