From Dropout to a16z-Backed - How Daniel Reid Cahn Is Reinventing Mental Health with AI

This might be the most insane AI founder story you’ll hear all year.

Dropped out of high school.

Met the Queen of England. 👑

Helped pivot Instabase by building a transformer before it was cool.

Now? He’s building a foundation model for the human mind — and raised from a16z, Menlo, and Benchmark.

🎙️ We sat down with Daniel Reid Cahn, cofounder & CEO of Slingshot AI, to unpack how he’s using AI to reinvent mental health — without replacing human therapists.

🔍 What we cover:

• Why the future of therapy isn’t GPT wrappers — it's foundation models for psychology
• How Daniel raised millions pre-PMF from top-tier VCs
• Why LLMs are perfectly suited (and dangerously close) to handling our deepest thoughts
• What it really takes to hire top-tier AI and psych talent
• Building a bi-continental company across the US & UK from Day 1
• Why AI therapy could compete with psychedelics — and what keeps Daniel up at night
• The truth about defensibility in AI today: data, distribution… or something else?

💡 Plus:

His founder playbook, ethical design principles, investor tactics, and what he’d do if launching from scratch today.

This is not your average AI story.

It’s raw, smart, and brutally honest.

🎧 Listen now

🔁 Repost if it makes you think. Trust me — this one will.