Who Raised $10M Overnight? Spoiler Alert: "It Wasn't Me."

A Venture Backed Mystery

The Frontier Psychiatrists newsletter and associated media brands (YouTube, TikTok, music on Spotify, podcast, books of both poetry and nonfiction) have Owen Scott Muir, MD, DFAACAP, as editor-in-chief. I also co-founded a clinic business in New York called Fermata. We focus on neuromodulation in that clinic and provide services like treatment with SPRAVATO. You can imagine my surprise when I learned:

“Fermata” Raised $10 Million in a Series A Funding Round.

For those who are not in the world of venture-backed businesses, fundraising is quite difficult. It's difficult for most people, especially if you're doing it for the first time. Some people, particularly those who've done it successfully before, can put together a deck, wave their hands fast, and raise tens of millions of dollars from their former investors. They have a track record of having done well before. Most startup founders are not going to succeed. As I've written, most clinic businesses are not great startups—they need some technology!

It's also worth noting I'm a huge fan of Silicon Valley. I am referring to the TV show. I can understand how you'd get confused. I could say Silicon Valley, and you would think I'm referring to the place or the financial environment. I was referring to the parody TV show. Disambiguating things? It matters. The briefest summary of Silicon Valley is about a tech company called Pied Piper. This tech company makes some mistakes. This terrible logo is one such mistake:

Even if you have a relatively easy time raising funding, getting a “priced round” done requires significant diligence. Investors need you to demonstrate your business plan, produce a raft of legal documents, sign off on a bunch of representations and warrantees— “ the business is not murdering puppies.” Those representations and warranties, if breached, would form the basis for subsequent legal action. You have to represent and warranty that you're not in a criminal enterprise at the time of the funding. I know, that would seem obvious, but, you know, Theranos and FTX. It's not so much about the crime; it's about the representation that your actions are not criminal.

One of the things that I've never heard of is what happened this morning. I've never heard of somebody raising money without trying to do it. Imagine my delight! “Fermata” raised $10 million in a Series A round.

Without having to do any work whatsoever on my part! What luck! However, I began to get more suspicious when I looked into what was presumably our press release on the topic. One thing? The logo changed. I'm not completely opposed to it, but you can see there are just subtle differences between the Fermata logo I went to bed with and the Fermata logo I woke up to.

Here's what our prior logo looks like:

However, in the press release, things had changed:

I mean, I don't hate that logo, but it's …different. Also, we probably would've had to hire a design firm and have answered a bunch of questions about our brand identity and go back and forth on the logo itself. It seems surprising that that could've happened overnight without my input. As much as Carlene, my wife and practice partner, is an independent thinker, she would've elicited my input on this. Things were beginning to look, as my 8 1/2-year-old children would have it, sus.

Reading the actual press release itself, I noticed there is something skibidi about it. The first problem, when it came to my celebration of fundraising without any effort or representation or warranties whatsoever, was the fact that, somehow, we were no longer in the mental health business. We were a glorified pest control company. It didn't say pest control. It said something more reassuringly venture backed:

Fermata is focused on the application of data science and computer vision solutions to challenges faced by…

That sounds like something I would do: AI, computer vision, data science, that's all on brand for me. It is a little odd that I didn't have to do any of the work to raise that money, or talk to any investors, or represent anything, or warranty anything. It may cause problems for subsequent funding rounds if there are no representations or warranties I've made, But that's just me being a worry wort I'm sure. Maybe I should keep reading…

commercial agriculture.

Oh no.

I appear to have made a terrible mistake.

It has now developed an adaptive computer vision platform designed to automatically detect pests and diseases at their earliest stages.

It's AI pest control.

It has nothing to do with me.

Oh my God. This is so embarrassing. OK, what are they calling their product? I'm sure it's good.

This early-detection platform, known as Croptimus™, enables growers to reliably mitigate these issues in advance of the point crop loss becomes inevitable and further reduces the amount of time and money spent on traditional scouting.

It's called Croptimus™. It remains to be seen whether that's a reference to Optimus Prime from the Autobots or to Maximus, the gladiator from Gladiator. But still, automated pest control is not what I'm doing.

This must be another company. Oh my God.

Like Pied Piper in the show Silicon Valley, which had another company with the same name, a literal horticulture business, you've got to be kidding me.

On the one hand, good for them; this seems like a wide open “space.” On the other hand, I'm kind of embarrassed. On the third hand, which I would have if I were a pest, I suppose at least I didn't misrepresent or warranty anything that would be problematic in a contract matter. That could lead to subsequent litigation if the world were beset, for example, by a plague of locusts.

Oh, Croptimus™. That's why there's a C in the middle of the logo. This is all making more sense now.

Croptimus™, represented by a C, looks down to find all the pests. And they need a break from pests. You know, a Fermata—a pause (in music) of an undetermined time.

It's a different company altogether. I'm happy to see the Israeli tech scene bringing computer vision solutions to horticulture, even though I'm not involved with it in any way, shape, or form. I'm a little upset that they stepped on my corporate brand, and there may be some subsequent trademark issues, although not so much about Croptimus™…

Congratulations to Fermata, the computer vision horticultural company. I hope you can execute under your literal vision. As for Fermata, we may have to include Health in the name. Or come up with some other solution.

I'm proud to announce that Fermata (Health) continues to offer the best rapid-acting mental health treatments in Brooklyn, New York, and will not possibly be responsible for any plagues—including locusts or other vermin—unless things go dramatically and unexpectedly amiss in the world. That is a matter I am more than willing to represent and warrantee. Regarding this other Fermata, I will take a cue from Shaggy—Just say it wasn’t you!

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