From Bytes to Bites, A Conversation with Snackpass Co-founder and CEO Kevin Tan

Awaken* newsletter

June 27, 2024

If you’ve ever ordered boba, you’ve probably used Snackpass before. Snackpass is a fast-growing startup that operates a social food-ordering app alongside a suite of software and hardware solutions for restaurant operations.

Boasting a $400 million valuation, Snackpass is backed by a slew of the best investors around, including Craft Ventures, a16z, General Catalyst, First Round, and Y Combinator. I had the pleasure to sit down with Snackpass’s co-founder and CEO, Kevin Tan, to talk about his background and experiences.

JOURNEY TO BECOMING A FOUNDER

My first question was if Kevin did anything entrepreneurial before Snackpass:

I had multiple projects before SnackPass. As a kid, I shot a movie with friends and made a comic book to sell. In college, I picked up programming, which sparked my interest in technology startups. I started that in my sophomore year. I tried a few different projects or companies and started SnackPass in my senior year.

Back in college, Kevin actually majored in Physics, not Computer Science. I asked Kevin what made him decide to pursue software over a career in Physics, and also why he decided to start a company as opposed to joining a big tech company:

I actually initially started in the humanities. After a year of humanities, I went and moved into Physics and started programming at the same time. I chose software because I felt that things were a bit more fast-paced in the world of technology. Also, I didn’t feel that I was going to be a top 1% physicist–though I still really enjoy Physics. As far as pursuing a startup instead of big tech, I did actually apply to Google for an internship, but I didn’t get in. One of my favorite things about startups is that you don’t necessarily need to impress any gatekeepers who hold power over your next job, you can go make your own! That’s something that made me super excited about startups.

STORIES AND THOUGHTS ABOUT SNACKPASS

I remember sometimes to get to the restaurant owners, I would set up a meeting and then trek across campus in the cold and in two feet of snow only for the owner to say “Oh, I rescheduled”, yet I always followed up and went back to meet them.
Kevin Tan

In an article by Free Ventures about Snackpass, I read “In the beginning, they partnered with restaurants by going door to door to mom-and-pop shops and talking personally with the owners. They also posted a bunch of flyers around campus and created referral mechanisms on the app to get the word out.” I asked Kevin what that experience was like:

Back then, we didn’t have any funding. We got rejected from Yale’s incubator, let alone venture capital. But we were able to get pretty far because I was able to code and go door to door to bootstrap our first set of customers. I’ve always had a very determined attitude about things and am willing to brute force it if I have to. I remember sometimes to get to the restaurant owners, I would set up a meeting and then trek across campus in the cold and in two feet of snow only for the owner to say “Oh, I rescheduled”, yet I always followed up and went back to meet them. Obviously, there needs to be a more efficient way to do that, but if you’re trying to learn something very quickly. That’s one way to do it.

Even to this day, we’ll go to new installs and try to embody the customer as much as possible. It’s very hectic behind the restaurant counter. To make a product like ours work, we have to get very deep into how the staff interacts with our tech and how they are receiving orders. Like, were the printers printing? Were they able to confirm the order or did it get missed?

As Kevin hinted in his answer, Snackpass started at Yale, then expanded to other colleges, and is now expanding to all restaurants. I asked Kevin how he decided it was time to expand to new markets:

There’s this blog post from Marc Andreessen about how there are two phases of a startup. One is before product-market fit, where you should do everything to find it. The second is after product-market fit, where you should do everything you can to exploit it. I think you don’t want to scale anything up before you have really strong product-market fit and a repeatable engine for driving revenue or growth. You can have an amazing product, but if you can’t get it out efficiently, that’s going to be a problem.

Whenever I think about the restaurant business, one of the first things that comes to mind is the pandemic. I asked Kevin how the pandemic affected Snackpass:

It was definitely a huge curveball. At the height of the pandemic, people were asking if college campus restaurants would stay in business. People went back home. We saw a big dip in our volume in the same way a lot of local marketplaces did. We used that time to ask how we were going to expand outside of college campuses. The pandemic motivated us to shift our whole business model. We shifted into focusing on building an operating system for these restaurants, and we’re still playing that out today.

I asked Kevin how Snackpass’s go-to-market motion has evolved over the company’s lifetime:

In terms of target customers, we’ve grown from just SMB restaurants to having some multi-location mid-market brands using us. In terms of how we acquire new customers, we get some inbound by being a market leader. Having a brand name and social proof is very important. Other channels that have worked for us are referrals and social media such as Instagram and Tiktok.

In a previous conversation I had with Gusto’s cofounder, Eddie Kim, he talked about the idea of sometimes needing to turn down larger customers and contracts to remain focused on the target customer. I asked Kevin if he ever thought about this:

Yes, we’ve definitely had to turn down some large potential customers. As a rule of thumb, larger and more enterprise-y customers tend to have more requirements, move slower, and want integrations and things that are not standardizable. These are often one-offs so we don’t get as much leverage with what we’re building.

Unless your strategy is enterprise-focused, you probably want to focus your angle of attack on one segment. There’s a good book called Crossing the Chasm. One point it makes is that the market you go after should be a single entity, one with a common set of characteristics and needs that you can address as a whole. We’ve definitely had to find our niche because there were customers asking all sorts of things. In the world of restaurants, especially, there are so many different varieties operation-wise, that you can get pulled in many different directions. Sometimes it’s tempting to chase revenue, but that can easily lead to a very overreaching product surface area. It’s better to have a narrower angle of attack, generally speaking.

A key differentiator of Snackpass compared to other food-ordering apps is the social components of the app. In Snackpass, you are able to gift points to a friend with each order you make. Once you accumulate enough points from someone, you hatch a mini digital chicken–sort of like a minigame. I asked Kevin for some cool or surprising ways he has seen people using these features:

Oh, there are tons. There’s a feed where you can see who’s sending gifts to whom. The idea behind the feature was to give users a social way to figure out what restaurants are interesting or popular, but we’ve heard some people use it to see who’s flirting with whom. It’s kind of a sneaky way to get a closer look at some people’s relationships. Another cool one is that we’ve heard many anecdotes of someone sending points to all their co-workers in an office and then they not only try out Snackpass but also try out the restaurant the person ordered it from. It’s a win-win.

BUILDING A TEAM

I’ve talked to many founders and culture is brought up time and time again as something that is extremely hard but important to get right. To kick things off, I asked Kevin how to fire people in a way that minimizes the negative effect on the wider team:

I believe this is something that I, and probably many others, can always improve upon. I strive to excel in this area, though I’m not sure if I’ve reached that point yet. Having clear expectations, like a Performance Improvement Plan (PIP) process, is crucial. This way, it’s not a surprise when someone is let go. If we fire someone, even though they may not realize it yet, they’re better off being successful somewhere else than being unsuccessful here. It’s painful at the moment to be rejected or to reject someone, but it’s a necessary step to ensure both sides are in a situation where they can thrive.

I also asked Kevin what Snackpass’s cultural tenets are, and what he does to implement those tenets in practice:

Our slogan is that we are humble and hungry. On the humble side, part of it is being easy to work with, which facilitates collaboration. It’s also about asking questions, acknowledging fallibility, and striving to prove yourself wrong. It’s about starting from a position where you just want to learn and get closer to the truth. Having an ego can blind you to the truth, I’m also guilty of this. Sometimes pride prevents you from admitting you’re wrong, even subconsciously. You have to put that aside to find the right answer. That’s the humility side. The hungry part, obviously, we’re a food company, but we also look for people who have a chip on their shoulder and are willing to work hard. There’s nothing more demotivating than having part of your team that’s really hard-working and driving towards success, and then having others who are indifferent about it. So we generally want a team that is really hungry, ambitious, and genuinely cares about the outcome.

Some founders say they want to be completely authentic with their team, sharing their concerns or fears. Others want to always project confidence to avoid worrying the team. I asked Kevin how he prefers to show up:

I tend to wear my emotions on my sleeve and I’m quite transparent. If I’m excited or annoyed about something, I’ll show it. My co-founder, on the other hand, is better at separating her outward expressions from her inner feelings. It’s just a stylistic thing. I’m quite transparent. My co-founder and I balance each other out in many ways, including our aptitudes, styles, and communication methods.

Being a founder comes with a lot of very low lows, so I asked Kevin how he copes with the lows:

I realized that being unhealthy doesn’t make you better at your job. So, I started going to the gym and running. I see time away from the computer as just as valuable. Sometimes, you might be working hard in the wrong direction. It’s better to pause and think for a moment. The concept of working smarter, not harder, is crucial in technology and startups. You can spend years going down the wrong path. It’s important to always be asking questions and self-correcting your direction. This doesn’t always require hours of grinding. Sometimes, it just takes a clear head.

I asked Kevin if his reflection time always took the form of exercise, or if it was anything away from work:

It could be taking walks or reading. There are some really good books that provide frameworks that expand the problem space even further or help me view problems from a different perspective. I like to read a lot. I also like to exercise and play music. It’s just something that isn’t focusing on the immediate problems in front of me. Sometimes, you can think really hard about something, but once you talk it through with someone or test it, you get so much more information quickly. You get out of the narrow set of parameters you’re working with.

ASIAN AMERICAN TALK

Anecdotally, I’ve noticed that a lot of places that use Snackpass are Asian restaurants. I asked Kevin if this lined up with reality, or if it was all in my head:

No, it’s not just you. We’re at a lot of Boba shops, for example. Part of it is because we initially launched on college campuses and there’s a lot of Boba near colleges, especially at Berkeley. I think it’s one of the most dense Boba areas in the country. We started off with just mobile order and pickup, and that has evolved into self-serve kiosks and digitizing the experience without a human in the loop. This has been particularly popular with Asians, especially Boba shops. It’s an interesting question as to why. I think we’ve found that Asian owners and operators are very practical. They see that it saves them money and increases efficiency, so they adopt it.

Next, I asked Kevin to tell me about his Asian background, and how it has impacted his own life journey, especially as a founder:

I was brought up by Chinese parents. They came from China for grad school. My dad arrived with only $50 in his pocket. My mom worked a full-time job while also taking care of me. I also spent a lot of time with my grandparents since my parents were working full-time, so they were also hugely influential for me.

I grew up in Ohio, where there weren’t a lot of Asians, so I grew up with a deep-seated feeling of being different and being an outsider. As a child or a teenager, I wished to fit in more with the mainstream. At some point, I learned to embrace going against the mainstream and being different. To this day, all my heroes are people who are counterculture and really go against the grain. As a founder, having a strong STEM background is helpful and I thank my family for that. My grandfather taught me math several years ahead of what I learned in school. It’s cool to see Asian-American founders like Jensen Huang or Tony Xu rising to the top. If you look at top leadership, a huge amount of them are Asian American, so I’d say that there’s a good match between tech and our culture. But, there’s also a sense of a bamboo ceiling. It takes time to break through that. The more examples there are of successful Asian leaders, the less of a bias there will be.

You know, the recent popularity of Asian culture has been incredible. Take K-pop for example, it’s like the new Hollywood in Korea. I feel like the 20th century was a century of unspeakable suffering for a ton of Asian countries. Our parents, my dad grew up in the cultural revolution and his dad went through the worst century of humiliation. Now, in the 21st century, I feel like they suffered for us to really thrive. Maybe this is the century where you see Asians globally–not just producing semiconductors or T-shirts–but being the cultural center of the world.

SHOUTOUTS

Leaning into the cultural aspect, Kevin wanted to shout out a few of his favorite Asian American artists, namely EDM artist ZHU and the 88rising crew, especially Joji, please go check them out!

Also, if you ever find yourself looking to order food, consider using Snackpass! They often have great discounts and you can earn loyalty points which can be used to redeem free items. You can download Snackpass on any of the major app stores.

If you own a quick-serve restaurant, please check out Snackpass’s offerings at https://www.snackpass.co/. Snackpass’s platform is trusted by many mom-and-pop shops as well as brands such as Sharetea, Somi Somi, and Pokeworks.

Thank you for coming to the newsletter, Kevin!

Stories

Lucy Liu Stars in “Rosemead,” a True Story of Immigrant Mothers Facing Fear and Mental Health Challenges

Lucy Liu is once again bringing us a powerful performance with Rosemead, a film that has been picked up by Vertical for a December theatrical release. The story follows a mother who begins to see troubling changes in her teenage son, opening the door to a deeper look at fear, love, and mental health.

Recently, the film gathered strong early interest after drawing a full audience at a special screening held at the Metreon in San Francisco. Hosted by Dave Lu, the event sparked conversations about topics often avoided in public spaces, especially within immigrant communities.

With its growing list of festival honors, positive reviews, and a narrative inspired by real events, Rosemead is already being recognized as one of Liu’s most powerful and personal performances to date.

Image Source: BBC

A Story Built on Fear and Family Pressure

At the heart of Rosemead is a mother who becomes concerned as her son’s behavior shifts in unsettling ways. What begins as quiet anxiety slowly grows into a frightening urgency as she realizes the situation may be more dangerous than she imagined.

As her fear rises, she faces the painful question of how far a parent can go to protect the child they love. The tension builds with each scene, making her inner struggle feel both real and universal.

The story takes place within a Chinese American household where cultural expectations and unspoken worries create additional layers of pressure. Lucy Liu captures these emotions with precision, while newcomer Lawrence Shou brings a raw, unpredictable intensity that deepens the film’s emotional impact.

Image Source: The Traveler’s Take

Building Momentum Through Festival Wins

Before reaching theaters, Rosemead had already made a strong impression on the festival circuit. Its premiere at Tribeca drew praise for its gripping approach to storytelling and its standout performances.

The film’s momentum continued as it won Best Narrative Feature at the Bentonville Film Festival, adding to its early recognition. It gained even more attention after earning the Prix du Public UBS audience award at the Locarno Film Festival.

During its time at Locarno, Lucy Liu also received a Career Achievement Award that highlighted her long-standing influence in the industry. Vertical’s Peter Jarowey praised her work for its emotional depth, while also recognizing director Eric Lin’s bold and confident vision in his feature debut.

Image Source: Yahoo

A Strong Screening at the San Francisco Metreon

The event at the Metreon brought together creators, film lovers, and local community members for an open discussion about the upcoming release. The gathering served as a space for people to share expectations, explore the film’s themes, and talk about the real-life issues it aims to portray.

The audience noted how the film reflects real family struggles, especially those found in immigrant households. Its grounded approach to fear and uncertainty sparked discussions about mental health and cultural expectations.

After the screening, conversations centered on Liu’s controlled yet deeply affecting performance. Lawrence Shou also drew attention for his breakout role, adding to the anticipation for the film’s one-week run in selected theaters this December.

Experience the film in theaters and see why it’s already drawing strong early interest. Rosemead is set to premiere in select theaters on December 5, 2025 in New York City; December 12, 2025 in Los Angeles, and more cities to follow on January 9, 2026.

Image Source: Nikolas Liepens

Nov 25, 2025
4 min read

Stories

The Story Behind Inspire To Create Media: How Trysen Kaneshige Uses Art to Heal and Connect Community

Born and raised in Kauaʻi, Hawaii, Trysen Kaneshige never imagined that a series of brain injuries would redirect the course of his life. Art, which had once been a hobby, became his lifeline—a way to heal, process, and reconnect with the world around him.

What began as a personal form of therapy soon turned into a mission: to use creativity not only for his own recovery but to uplift his community and share stories that mattered.

As he experimented with murals, branding, and design, Trysen discovered that each project could bridge culture, healing, and connection in ways he had never anticipated. Through perseverance and collaboration, he began working with brands like Volcom, Olukai, and Soulection Radio, while also leading projects for schools, nonprofits, and community organizations across Hawaii.

From these experiences, Trysen founded Inspire To Create Media, a healing-centered creative agency that blends streetwear aesthetics, cultural storytelling, and design to create work that resonates far beyond the islands.

Finding Inspiration in Adversity

Trysen’s path to entrepreneurship was shaped by necessity and resilience. “I wasn’t able to work a regular job since I would have a lot of migraines or dealt with depression etc. It’s been challenging but I’ve learned to be resilient and not give up. What also inspired me was to create something for my community and for the next generation that is after me,” he recalls. The setbacks could have ended his creative ambitions, but Trysen chose to focus on what he could control: his art and his recovery.

Instead of succumbing to frustration, he saw opportunity in every challenge. He began creating small pieces, testing ideas, and using art as a method to regain focus, confidence, and purpose. These early efforts helped him realize that healing and creativity could coexist and even amplify one another.

What started as a personal journey of recovery soon became a mission to uplift others. Trysen wanted to leave something meaningful for his community and for the next generation, showing that creativity could transform not only individual lives but also the cultural landscape of Kauaʻi.

Overcoming Challenges Without a Safety Net

The road to building a creative business was far from smooth. Trysen faced difficult challenges that he considered walking away from everything, grappling with both the physical and emotional toll of head injuries. Each day was a battle between self-doubt, pain, and the desire to keep moving forward.

Beyond personal health struggles, he had no investors, no team, and no corporate backing. Every decision, every financial risk, and every project came solely from his determination and willingness to learn through trial and error. “If I had someone that saw what I was creating in the beginning, it would’ve been easier,” he admits.

Gratitude and persistence became his anchors. By embracing the lessons from failures and small victories alike, Trysen built a foundation that was resilient, flexible, and authentic. This mindset allowed him to continue pursuing his vision even when support was scarce and the path ahead was uncertain.

Turning Achievements Into Community Impact

Despite obstacles, Trysen’s journey is marked by achievements that combine personal growth with community recognition. He takes pride in consistently showing up, even on days when recovery felt impossible, and in taking creative risks that shaped the identity of his agency.

Inspire To Create Media has earned acknowledgment on multiple levels—from Proclamations by Mayor Derek Kawakami highlighting community murals and workshops to features in local newspapers chronicling his evolving projects. These recognitions validate his belief that creativity paired with purpose resonates far beyond personal satisfaction.

For Trysen, the real measure of success is impact. Each mural, logo, or art initiative tells a story and strengthens the connection between people and place, leaving a lasting mark on Kauaʻi’s cultural and creative landscape.

Building a Healing-Centered Creative Vision

At the heart of Inspire To Create Media is a philosophy that creativity can heal, connect, and inspire simultaneously. From large-scale murals to branding and apparel, every project is designed with intention, reflecting local culture while appealing to a global audience.

Trysen explains, “Art became my way to rebuild, reconnect, and serve. What began as personal recovery grew into a mission: to use art as a tool for transformation for myself, for my community, and for the next generation of island creatives.”

Today, Inspire To Create Media continues to expand its reach, bridging art, healing, and business. Trysen’s story proves that even the toughest setbacks can spark the most powerful creativity—turning personal recovery into a force that inspires communities, cultivates connection, and demonstrates that a small island studio can have a big global impact.

Follow Trysen’s journey:

📍 @trys.creates | @inspiretocreate.media

Nov 14, 2025
4 min read

Stories

Building Meraki: How Vivian Kwan Turned Passion into Purpose

The first time Vivian Kwan realized she could build something on her own terms was during her college years in the U.S. — a time that completely shifted her perspective on what a career could be.

She found herself surrounded by students who were running side hustles, freelancing, and starting companies before graduation. It was a stark contrast to her upbringing in Hong Kong.

“Back home in Hong Kong, the path was pretty clear: study hard, land a stable job, and climb the corporate ladder,” she recalls. “But in the U.S., I met people who were building something entirely their own. That inspired me to think differently.”

Curious and driven, Vivian began experimenting — running a small photography business and creating content for fun. That experiment grew into Meraki Group, a boutique talent management agency representing a diverse roster of lifestyle creators — and now a 7-figure business built entirely from the ground up.

Redefining Success as a First-Generation Founder

When Vivian launched Meraki Group in 2021, she had no network, no outside funding, and no PR machine behind her, just the belief that creators deserved better representation.

As a first-generation Asian immigrant, Vivian was raised to stay quiet and keep her head down. “But entrepreneurship requires something different,” she says. “I had to learn to advocate for myself and my talents loudly and unapologetically.”

Without big teams or resources, she leaned into what she could control: being hands-on, transparent, and relationship-driven. That boutique approach became Meraki’s unique selling point: brands and creators know they can reach Vivian directly, and that trust has allowed Meraki to thrive against the odds. Today, Meraki has closed 300+ brand campaigns with brand partners like HOKA, REI, Shark, Columbia Sportswear, Libman, Google, and UGG.

The Challenge of Balance

Motherhood has always run parallel to Vivian’s entrepreneurial journey — two worlds that demand her heart in equal measure. In the early years of Meraki, she often found herself caught between deadlines and bedtime stories, client calls and school drop-offs. The guilt was relentless: every hour spent growing the business felt like time borrowed from her children.

But over time, her perspective shifted. She began to see that showing her kids what fulfillment looked like was one of the greatest gifts she could give them. Building Meraki wasn’t just about proving something to the industry — it was about showing her children what resilience, purpose, and self-belief looked like in real life.

“My kids deserve a mother who’s confident and happy,” she says simply. “That thought keeps me grounded when things get hard.”

A Year of Growth and Gratitude

In October, the Meraki community came to life in a way that no Zoom call ever could. Vivian and her team hosted their annual NYC dinner — an intimate gathering of creators, brand partners, and friends who had helped shape the agency’s journey. The room buzzed with laughter, warm reunions, and stories that stretched back to Meraki’s earliest days.

For Vivian, it was a full-circle moment. Many of the guests were creators she had signed during the uncertainty of the pandemic — people she had championed from afar before ever shaking their hands in person. Watching them share a table, swapping stories and ideas, felt like witnessing the agency’s spirit materialise in real life.

It wasn’t a night of flashy sponsors or curated photo ops, but of genuine connection — the kind that has quietly fueled Meraki’s success from day one. “What I’m most proud of isn’t the growth,” Vivian reflects. “It’s loyalty. Many of my creators have been with me for three or four years. In an industry where talent often comes and goes, that kind of long-term commitment means everything.”

What Comes Next

As Meraki continues to grow, Vivian is laying the groundwork for a new chapter — one that strengthens the agency’s foundation while amplifying its impact. She’s focused on expanding her team and refining systems to preserve Meraki’s signature boutique quality, even as it scales.

“I’m being intentional with this next chapter,” she says. “Before stepping deeper into consulting and mentorship, I want to make sure the agency continues to run with the same care and creative integrity it was built on.”

With that foundation in place, Vivian plans to open limited consulting slots and launch educational programs for creators and emerging talent managers. Her goal is to nurture the next generation of creative leaders — empowering them to build with heart, purpose, and the courage to redefine what success can look like.

Follow Vivian’s journey:
📍 LinkedIn | Instagram

Nov 7, 2025
4 min read

Stories

The Founders Behind Anise Health: How Two Women Are Reimagining Mental Health for the Asian Community

When Nisha Desai and Alice Zhang met at Harvard Business School, neither of them expected that a casual conversation about their frustrations with therapy would spark the idea for something much bigger.

As they juggled graduate school and their own mental health, they often felt therapy wasn’t built for people like them – they spent more time explaining their background to their therapists than actually healing.

They realized it wasn’t just them – there’s a gap in mental healthcare that left many in the Asian and multicultural community feeling unseen and misunderstood.

That shared realization became the seed for Anise Health: a platform built to make therapy culturally attuned, accessible, and truly effective for the AAPI community.

A Problem They Both Knew Too Well

Before their paths crossed, both founders had already seen the same issue from different directions.

Nisha, who grew up in Florida in a family of healthcare entrepreneurs, had always been drawn to questions of access and equity in care. After studying finance and marketing at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School and earning her MBA from Harvard, she worked in healthcare investing and later in digital product management at Humana. It was there, while helping build a mental health app, that she started hearing a troubling pattern from thousands of users – the same barriers she had personally faced.

Nisha recalls that people weren’t saying therapy didn’t work. They were saying it didn’t fit, that they didn’t feel understood.

Alice, meanwhile, came to the same conclusion through her own deeply personal experiences. Born in China, raised across Japan and Canada, and now based in New York, she calls herself a “third culture kid.” Her multicultural background gave her adaptability, but also a sense of never fully belonging anywhere.

That feeling resurfaced when she sought therapy during business school. Despite being fluent in English, she found herself translating her own emotions for her therapist – explaining why criticism from parents felt like love, or why pursuing excellence felt non-negotiable.

Alice remembers feeling exhausted after each session, explaining her background again and again, and leaving each time feeling unseen.

Alice Zhang (left) and Nisha Desai (right)

Building a Culturally Grounded Model of Care

After that pivotal conversation at Harvard, the two women began mapping out what culturally attuned mental health care could look like. They spoke to clinicians, patients, payors and community leaders, testing how cultural nuance could be integrated into evidence-based therapy and coaching.

They envisioned a new kind of care model: one that didn’t require clients to educate their therapists or set aside their cultural identity at the door. Instead, therapy would start from a place of understanding.

“Alice and I really built Anise to be what we believe our community has needed during our upbringing. What we kind of wished for ourselves through our own personal journeys with therapy.”

But building what didn’t yet exist came with challenges. They had to prove — to investors, clinicians, and even the broader healthcare system — that cultural context wasn’t just a “nice to have,” but essential to effective care. Many mental health professionals hadn’t been trained to deliver culturally adaptive therapy, so Anise Health had to design that framework from the ground up: provider training programs, accurate diagnostic tools, tailored care plans, curated resources and a scalable model for personalized, culturally attuned care.

Their persistence paid off. What started as late-night brainstorming sessions between classes evolved into a fully fledged mental health platform that blends clinical rigor with cultural empathy.

Growing the Movement

Since its founding, Anise Health has facilitated over 10,000 paid appointments and built a network of 60+ licensed providers across multiple states. The company is now expanding through insurance partnerships that make culturally attuned care more affordable and accessible.

Behind the scenes, Nisha leads operations and product design, while Alice drives partnerships and provider training.

Their complementary strengths, coupled with a shared sense of purpose, have helped Anise Health raise $6.4 million in funding and gain recognition as one of the top 10 most innovative Asian Pacific-led companies to watch by NYSE, Y Combinator, and Gold House.

Redefining the Future of Mental Health for Asian Communities

For both founders, Anise Health’s success goes beyond numbers. It’s about shifting how mental health is understood and delivered, starting with a community that has long been underserved and stigmatized.

“Our goal isn’t just to make care available,” Nisha says. “It’s to make it effective, culturally relevant, and sustainable within the healthcare system.”

By creating a new gold standard of culturally attuned care, Nisha and Alice aren’t just helping Asian Americans access therapy that finally feels like it speaks their language – they’re reimagining what inclusive mental health care can look like for everyone.

Learn more about Anise Health at anisehealth.co

Nov 4, 2025
5 min read

JOURNEY TO BECOMING A FOUNDER

STORIES AND THOUGHTS ABOUT SNACKPASS

BUILDING A TEAM

ASIAN AMERICAN TALK

SHOUTOUTS