Hustle culture can be exciting and motivating, but it leaves little room for focus on mental health, particularly for Black entrepreneurs in a socially unjust system. Digital Grass developed a six-week South Florida GROWTHerapy program to help destigmatize and promote mental health services in the tech and innovation communities. They combined statistics, feedback, and results into an illuminating study.

Entrepreneurship is empowering and rewarding but can often be overwhelming. For Black entrepreneurs in South Florida—and, indeed, all across the United States—the difficulties of owning a business are compounded with social injustices, a lack of support or collaboration from other communities, and several other factors that can create “mental blocks.” To analyze and explore productive therapy for the mental health of entrepreneurs, Digital Grass developed the GROWTHerapy program and compiled a study from the experience.

GROWTHerapy is a six-week program that provides free one-on-one and group therapy services to fifty South Florida entrepreneurs. The program’s framework takes five (5) “Cohorts” of ten entrepreneurs and focuses on Black experiences of entrepreneurship, personal and professional relationships, social injustice, and much more. 

Outcomes with the GROWTHerapy program are inspiring. An impressive 85 percent of entrepreneurs saw an increase in revenue and productivity by Week 4, and 70 percent saw an increase in their own revenue by 20 percent or more after completing the program. Seventy-five percent of participants have made referrals for upcoming Cohorts.

We hope to expand the GROWTHerapy program to college athletes and high-performance individuals within the tech and innovation ecosystem. We are also working with a prominent university in Florida to create an ‘Entrepreneurial Therapy’ Certification for therapists,” said Michael Hall, Founder Digital Grass, LLC

GROWTHerapy is a South Florida-based entrepreneurial program formed in 2020 in response to mental wellness impacts of social injustices and diversity, equity, and inclusion in the technology space. With generous funding from the Knight Foundation, Digital Grass was able to develop GROWTHerapy.