After reshaping the mattress industry with Casper, Neil Parikh is now tackling a different kind of restlessness, mental health. The med school dropout turned entrepreneur who helped make sleep stylish and stress-free with online mattress sales is back with a bold new venture, Slingshot AI, a company building tools to make therapy more accessible.
Slingshot’s flagship product, an AI-powered chatbot named Ash, has officially launched alongside a follow-on Series A funding round. Co-led by Radical Ventures and Forerunner Ventures, and backed by previous investors, including Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Felicis, and Menlo Ventures, the round brings the company’s total funding to $93 million. The funds will support the continued development and rollout of Ash, which has already been tested by more than 50,000 beta users over an 18-month period.
A therapy tool built with clinicians
Parikh co-founded the company with Daniel Cahn, a machine learning engineer with experience building mental health tools in the UK. Unlike general AI models trained on internet data, Ash was developed specifically for therapy, using a combination of clinical data, psychologist-designed prompts, and reinforcement learning to ensure safe, reflective engagement. Importantly, Ash is designed to guide users through self-exploration, similar to how a therapist might prompt deeper insight.
The need for accessible mental health care has never been more urgent. Parikh and Cahn’s vision is to bridge the therapy gap by offering a tool that’s available 24/7, cost-effective, and rooted in evidence-based techniques. Ash draws from multiple therapeutic approaches, including CBT, DBT, ACT, and psychodynamic therapy. To reinforce clinical safety, Slingshot AI has formed a Clinical Advisory Board that includes respected experts like Dr. Thomas Insel, Dr. Devika BhushanDevika Bhushan, and Patrick Kennedy, a former US congressman and mental health advocate.
Early research backs AI therapy promise
The company’s strategy reflects both innovation and responsibility. Critics of AI in therapy often cite concerns about safety and data privacy. Slingshot AI acknowledges those concerns, and Ash is designed to redirect users in crisis to human professionals. As an added safeguard, Ash’s development was informed by practicing clinicians, distinguishing it from general-purpose AI models like ChatGPT or Google’s Gemini, which could be risky if applied inappropriately in sensitive mental health contexts.
There’s some early academic support for the idea that chatbots can be helpful in mental health care. At Dartmouth College, researchers created a similar tool called Therabot, and in trials involving over 100 participants, all showed improvement, including a 51% average reduction in depression symptoms. Even users who hadn’t previously benefited from therapy saw positive results, suggesting that AI could complement or even initiate access to care for those left out of traditional systems.
Leaner, smarter, and more accessible
Despite those promising signals, Ash enters a competitive and still-skeptical market. Other platforms like Talkspace, BetterHelp, and Woebot Health are exploring similar frontiers. But Slingshot’s clinical foundation and carefully trained proprietary model may set it apart.
Parikh’s track record adds weight to Slingshot’s promise. At 22, he dropped out of med school to launch Casper, turning it into a billion-dollar sleep brand with subway ads, celebrity endorsements, and even a book on the science of sleep. After Casper went public in 2020 and returned to private ownership two years later, Parikh stepped away and began investing in startups, especially in the mental health space.
For now, Ash is free to use on iOS and Android, with potential plans for a subscription model priced like a streaming service, and future distribution through employers or insurance.
