From Startup to $1.25 Billion: The Power of Not Being Afraid of Failure

What does it take to build a company that sells for $1.25 billion? More vulnerability than you might expect.

Shegun Otulana pulls back the curtain on entrepreneurship's glamorized image, revealing the gritty reality behind his journey from founding TheraNest to leading Therapy Brands through its billion-dollar acquisition.

With refreshing candor, he confesses, "I never did think about quitting. The only thing I was worried about was my wife making me quit."

This resilience, coupled with a systematic approach to business validation, carried him through countless difficult days.

The secret weapon in Shegun's arsenal wasn't just perseverance but strategic foresight; what he calls recognizing the "triple combo" of technology inflection, regulatory change, and shifting societal behaviors.

When therapists were transitioning from paper to digital systems, when HIPAA compliance became mandatory, and when SaaS solutions were gaining acceptance, TheraNest was perfectly positioned.

Later, having telehealth capabilities in place before COVID hit created exponential growth when the pandemic forced therapy online overnight.

Perhaps most illuminating is Shegun's approach to acquisitions and leadership during Therapy Brands' expansion.

"I saw what I was doing as me bringing you into a vision that I have, that I needed to explain to you and to treat you with dignity and respect through that process," he reflects.

This philosophy guided him through integrating multiple companies while maintaining relationships with founders at different stages of their journeys; some eager to continue building, others looking for an exit.

Today, Shegun, channels his entrepreneurial energy through Harmony Venture Labs, creating companies that solve meaningful problems while giving back to Birmingham through education initiatives and neighborhood revitalization. His parting wisdom?

"Vulnerability has a lot of empowerments in it that people don't think about...don't be afraid of failing, don't be afraid of being vulnerable".

Step out there, go do the things you believe in.

About the Guest

Shegun Otulana is a Nigerian-born entrepreneur and investor who moved to Birmingham, Alabama, at 18 to attend the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He founded TheraNest, which evolved into Therapy Brands, a leading provider of software solutions for mental and behavioral health providers. In 2021, Therapy Brands was acquired for $1.25 billion, marking one of Alabama's largest software exits.

‍‍Transcript

Carol Park: 0:03

Hi everyone. Welcome to the Courage Unmasked podcast, where we continue to shine the light on vulnerability and the courage of vulnerability. I am super excited about our guest today, Shegun Otulana, because I have known Shagan for a lot of years and his company actually acquired their link at the time, and so that's how I got to know Shagan and really got to benefit, to be under his leadership, his mentoring, and so I'm really excited y'all are going to get to hear from Shagan today. So welcome Shagan to the podcast.‍

Shegun Otulana: 0:47

Thanks Carol. It's a huge honor for you to ask me to do this. I really appreciate it, and I think it's always great when you've had an experience like an acquisition or something like that with someone and you can still because that process is a very yucky, tedious process and you can still be able to talk to each other and have a good relationship afterwards. I think that's a good thing. So, thank you.

Carol Park: 1:17

I totally understand that, and I think that has to do with who you are as a person, your character which again is why I'm so excited that you're on the podcast today. And so, as an entrepreneur, before you became the CEO of Therapy Brands, your brand was the first in that brand and you became the CEO. So, prior to that, the entrepreneurship and the ups and downs, the trials and errors that come with entrepreneurship Was there a certain time, as you were building TheraNest and growing that, that you questioned and perhaps thought about quitting? Or is there a certain time that it was hard and you thought about quitting?

Shegun Otulana: 2:06

Oh yeah, it was hard. It was very hard. I'm not going to try to sugarcoat it because I know these days entrepreneurship has become this thing that we've now assigned a lot of prestige to. Everybody talks about founders like they are the best things in sliced bread. And founders are great. They create a lot of impact in the world, they impact a lot of lives economically and in so many other ways. But I think sometimes it hides their hardship, the difficulty, the pressure, the stress of entrepreneurship. So, I'm not going to sugarcoat it. It was hard. The thing I would say is I never did think about quitting. At no point did I ever think about quitting. The only thing I was worried about was my wife making me quit. I was concerned that at some point she's going to be like that's enough, buddy, let's go get a real job. But she was a huge supporter the whole time and that never actually happened. But while it was very, very hard, many, many, many difficult days, there was no quitting. In all honesty.

Carol Park: 3:22

And what allowed you to stay the course, what kept you going, especially on those really hard days.

Shegun Otulana: 3:31

I think I'm not sure I have 100 percent what the answer is.

Shegun Otulana: 3:39

I do think some people have a propensity to do the entrepreneur thing.

Shegun Otulana: 3:45

It's kind of how they're wired and what that means is the slightest amount of hope just gets them all fired up and they don't live in the real world, they're living in this alternate reality.

Shegun Otulana: 3:58

There's probably some of that that keeps you going. I think for me there was also a bit of a system to what I was doing and I was learning along the way and that helped because I felt like I was validating things as I was going and I had done the entrepreneurship thing before and totally failed at it and I felt like this time around I was doing it in a better way, so that had helped a lot. So it was hard, but I felt like this time around I was doing it in a better way, so that helped a lot. So, it was hard, but I felt like I was enjoying it and I was learning and I probably wasn't really gauging risk properly also, but I also couldn't really envision myself not doing it. So, I think if there was no external force that made me stop being an entrepreneur, I would probably just have kept on going until I figured it out.

Carol Park: 4:52

So yeah, yeah. So just your mission, your passion, kind of coded in, probably at a cellular level, to have this drive to want to do that. So tell us a little bit about your company that you built and then the transition to you becoming the CEO of Therapy Brands and again I know the story from that is Therapy Brands went on to merge, be acquired and at a tremendous gain, financial gain. So tell us, tell us about that, tell us a little more about your story.

Shegun Otulana: 5:33

Yeah, so I, I I restarted my entrepreneurial journey as a consultant uh, software development consultant but the reason I was doing that was because I was using it as a vehicle to look for problems to go solve in the world.

Shegun Otulana: 5:49

I wanted to find an industry I would enjoy serving for 10 years, plus interesting problems that also could take advantage of technology inflections, and that ended up being the mental and behavioral health space.

Shegun Otulana: 6:06

It was at a time when a lot of mental health practices were looking for that next step of what should I manage my practice with, and so that was what led to the creation of Theranest, and Theranest found success very quickly.

Shegun Otulana: 6:22

It was hard at the beginning, but when things started working, it really just started working, and a few years into that was when I decided to create a holding company, because not only did I want to keep driving the organic growth that Theranest was experiencing, but I also saw it as a time to consolidate some aspects of the industry and go into even other aspects of mental and behavioral health that were in just pure therapy. So I began to look for partners that I could do that with, and I ended up partnering with a couple of private equity groups, and then we created a therapy branch with TheraNest you know the underlying company and therapies as the underlying company and Therapy Brands as the holding company, and that's really what led to Therapy Brands. And then, inside of Therapy Brands, we kept building organically and through acquisitions, which was what ended up what led to the acquisition of Thera Link, when we were looking for a platform for the telehealth space.

Carol Park: 7:31

Yes, it's so interesting I know that you're snowed in in Birmingham today and I'm snowed in in Dallas yesterday and today and the reflection on in 2013, when we started building TheraLink and we had a little video on our website. That was like certain times that you can't get to your office. But so interesting because, as you are well aware, therapists at that time, which was pre-COVID, really were not interested in person and so trying to convince people that no, there's still a need for it. You know, there are times it's not. Yeah, stay in your office. And then COVID hit and overnight everybody had to have a telehealth platform and, of course, by that point in time, we had sold to therapy brands and thank goodness because the need for telehealth overnight just shot.

Shegun Otulana: 8:44

Yeah, it was crazy. We experienced a crazy amount the need for telehealth overnight just shot. It was crazy. We experienced a crazy amount of need for that, but we were positioned to take advantage of it and the lesson there, honestly, is the need to always look ahead, look into the future when you're building a company, versus just what works now. Sometimes you have to think where society is going, where is technology going, and you kind of have to position yourself to be there before, not too early, because if you're too early then it doesn't work out. But having the telehealth platform and being one of the first to actually offer telehealth just set us up so well when COVID happened, and we were able to still continue to serve our clients and a lot of people kind of came onto the platform because of that event.

Shegun Otulana: 9:37

And it's just a typical story. I tell entrepreneurs about things that propel a startup forward pretty significantly. There were many things that propelled us forward, but that was also one of it, and technology can really propel you forward like a new technology, like we see AI doing today. Even for Terranest. A big part of what propelled us forward was SaaS, because when we started building that was when therapists were beginning to move away from paper. They were beginning to move away from installing the software on their laptop and their computers. They were looking for a web-based software. So, we were kind of able to ride that wave. And HIPAA was also a tailwind coming behind us. Everybody was trying to be HIPAA compliant, and it was a perfect combination of a technology inflection, a society and behavioral change inflection all happening at the same time and a regulatory inflection. It's like a triple combo was really what drove the growth for Theranest and Therapy, brand Regulations, technology and society change. Of course, the big society change that also came was the telehealth society change, because overnight everybody dropped their opposition to telehealth, including the government. The government also decided, yes, we will gladly reimburse telehealth. So that also just really propelled us forward.

Shegun Otulana: 11:06

And you know you can't gauge timing, but you can have a framework in your head that you use to think about the future. And when you think about the future, one of the frameworks you have to have in your head is what is a major change in society's behavior and what does that mean for what I'm building? What is a major change in technology and what does that mean for what I'm building? What is a major change in technology, and what does that mean for what I'm building? Even in the world of therapy that you and I found success in, we know there will be things that will continue to affect that industry with artificial intelligence. What does that mean? What will be the repercussions of that? So, I think those are the things that I would just encourage entrepreneurs and builders to keep thinking about as they think about the future.

Carol Park: 12:31

Yeah, that's fantastic advice, so I also know. So. You started with Theranest. Then you built this holding company Therapy Brands. You brought other therapy products platforms underneath that. So really, you went from, okay, you're the CEO of your own company, now you're the CEO of this big brand that has all these other companies, all these other leaders. What was that shift like as you went from just managing TheraNest to all these brands and the co-founders that came in under those brands? What was that like and how did you manage that?

Shegun Otulana: 13:13

Yeah, that took some learning. Some things I learned quickly, some things I took too long to learn, because managing other founders and other CEOs through an acquisition is very different from the organic growth you experience when you are the person who had everybody on your team. And one of the things I would say we probably didn't do fast enough and in that context was maybe integration took too long. We could probably integrate the companies quickly. There was a core cultural awareness that we always took too long to bring into the new companies, partly because even at TheraNest it was in the culture but it wasn't concrete enough through rituals and when I say rituals, rituals around how you do things, how you hire, how you reward and everything else and you just plug people in and you just plug people in as people come in. So, the third one is they could plug new employees in, but you needed something that could scale so that when we're adding a lot of people at the same time, you could plug all those people in at the same time. So I think those were some of the areas with maybe inexperience I don't know what else to call it would have affected us in making those decisions. But on the entrepreneur side, for folks like you. I saw us going on a journey together. I saw what I was doing as me bringing you into a vision that I have, that I needed to explain to you and to treat you with dignity and respect through that process.

Shegun Otulana: 14:57

Starting from the deal process, right from the first conversation, I felt it was my job to be brutally honest the good, the bad, the ugly. I felt it was my job to be brutally honest the good, the bad, the ugly and to try to capture your own goals for what you were trying to accomplish and then see how the two could fit together within what I was trying to accomplish. But then I also had investors and what they were trying to accomplish, so trying to balance everybody's needs. And there were some challenges there because everybody's needs were different. There were those who were coming on the journey, that were just willing to keep going, and for them the journey was like okay, now let's go do this big thing together. And there were those that kept on the journey and for them it was like, look, I'm actually kind of exhausted and I'm trying to get off the train, so if you need somebody to continue to drive hard, it's probably not gonna be me, and then there were those that were in between and trying to balance all of that.

Shegun Otulana: 15:52

Obviously it was a challenge. And then the other challenge was each person dealt with it inside their own organization differently and that also affected how those people and those organizations dealt with us at the at the main company level. Because if the founder and CEO were totally honest with their people and they carried them along, it made our life easier. If it was just like took a total disruption and like left a bad taste in the mouth of the people that were inheriting, then we had to fix that. So it was all across the board and the thing is you just learn, you just accelerate your learning process in that at that stage in that journey, I dealt with it the way I like to do with everything, which is look for resources, look for people, learn very fast, put yourself in the shoe of the other person and just be vulnerable and open and say this is where we are, this is what we're trying to get to, and that's the journey we're on and that's kind of how I dealt with it.

Shegun Otulana: 17:04

The thing I always made sure was that there was no point in time where carol would look at me and say you lied to me about x, y and z? Um. To me, that was the thing I just wanted to make sure didn't happen. I, I didn't promise you all that anything would be easy, but I didn't promise you all anything that I couldn't make happen, but I just promised you so I could get what I wanted, and and so I, I wanted to do whatever I did, with a clear conscience, um, but at the end of the day, we still wanted to bring everybody together to go build this huge thing, which we did end up doing together.

Shegun Otulana: 17:47

Yes, you did While still carrying along the investors that I had not brought along. Because the reason I brought the private equity guys along into creating therapy brands was because I knew there was risk to go build this big thing. I'd already taken a lot of personal risk building Theranist and I needed them to do two things for me. One I needed to sell some of my company to them. So the way it works is and you guys know this because you guys went through it I sold some of terranist to them and then we all kind of create therapy brands, uh, together. Selling some of their ns to them helped me secure myself financially and my family before I went on this crazy, risky, bigger thing which ended up working out and you know, was financially very, very rewarding. Uh, but that that was kind of how that journey went and how that came about. But I didn't want to lose myself in the process, if you get what I mean.

Carol Park: 18:50

Yeah, I know that of you and I think you have always been a man of your word, that you have always had integrity. Your insides match your outside, and so I think that was part of what I started the podcast with. And so I think that was part of what I started the podcast with. It was a real privilege to be under your leadership, under your mentorship. And then I do know that the company Therapy Brands then did a recap of correct me if I'm wrong, but I think it was $1.2 billion.

Shegun Otulana: 19:24

It ended up selling to KKR for $1.25 billion.

Carol Park: 19:25

$1.25, yeah, $1.2 billion, you ended up selling to KKR for $1.25 billion $1.25 billion and then, at some point in your journey then you've decided to leave from that and start something else. So that entrepreneur spirit that continues to be alive and well in you, Shagan so tell us I can't do anything else.

Shegun Otulana: 19:47

Carol, it's like, honestly, a lot of my energy comes from building and being an entrepreneur, so I can't imagine. It's an addiction. It's in your genes.

Carol Park: 20:02

It is in your genes for sure, so tell us what you're doing now.

Shegun Otulana: 20:06

It is in your genes for sure. So tell us what you're doing now. So you know I'm a I, I really I'm a background how I grew up, you know, probably plays a part in this, but I'm a fundamental believer in the power of economic empowerment to change lives. I don't think money is the most important thing in life, but I do believe economic freedom, whatever it means, is a powerful force in human nature, in human life, in human interaction. In human nature, in human life, in human interaction. And I think entrepreneurship is the best path to economic freedom, whether that's for the entrepreneur or for the people that the entrepreneur brings along in the journey. Not only that, it is what ends up creating a lot of what we see today.

Shegun Otulana: 20:54

You and I are in this call because some entrepreneur decided to build Zoom and on and on. So it's always been fascinating to me and I'm always looking at the world and thinking in terms of what does the world need that I can create? And then the wealth that comes from doing that, what good can I use to do in the world, and both for me personally. Obviously there are also other benefits that come with economic freedom, but the art of creating, of carrying people along of doing something in the world that didn't exist before you created. It gives me a ton of energy.

Shegun Otulana: 21:27

So after Therapy Brands, I started HVL, which is Harmony Venture Labs, and it's a venture studio. And a venture studio is really very similar to a venture capital firm, except that you also create the companies. So not only do you ideate and look for problems in the world, you also now create those companies and you bring founders along to build those companies with you and you fund them and you kind of go from there. So that was the next thing I did after Therapy Brands there. So that was the next thing I did after Therapy Brands. I started HVL as a venture studio, not only to do the thing that I always now want to do, but I also felt like it could be a catalyst for economic growth and venture growth in my own city that I had found myself in America Birmingham. So that's what I've been doing. And then out of HVL, we've created several companies and today we still work with many entrepreneurs, we work with corporations, we work with universities to try to find problems to go solve in the world and build companies around.

Carol Park: 22:37

Yeah, that's amazing and I'm so glad your passion, your purpose, is still out there in this world. Can you tell us, even if it's just one aspect because I know that you are giving back to Birmingham and so anything that you can share with us of how you feel like you're trying to make a difference in the city of Birmingham?

Shegun Otulana: 23:03

Yeah, so beyond just entrepreneurship and creating companies, which also creates wealth for us, there are other things we're doing, I think, for my family, the things that give us energy, because they are the things that have impacted our own lives education and entrepreneurship. So a lot of what we're doing is around I would broaden entrepreneurship to say economic empowerment. So a lot of what we're doing is around education and economic empowerment. So we do a lot with scholarships and just teaching other entrepreneurs beyond just scholars. When I say scholarships I'm talking about like universities and endowments and things like that and then we also work with entrepreneurs to help them create companies. We have something called Blight Free. That's also in Birmingham. That's a company my wife Mary runs that is trying to give people economic freedom through home ownership.

Shegun Otulana: 24:08

So we go into some of the blighted neighborhoods in Birmingham and we try to remove the blight, either totally tear down the homes, because a lot of bad things happen in those really, really blighted homes we fix them, we rebuild them and then we're trying to turn more people to homeowners, primarily first-time homeowners in some of those neighborhoods. So those are some of the things we're doing, but there are several things that we also get involved in as individuals and other families. That's important to us, but we also believe in working with other organizations, so we're pretty involved with the Community Foundation here. Mary is on the board of United Way of Central Alabama, and there are just many other things like that that we find ourselves involved in. That's really just about lifting other people up. We've been very fortunate. So have we picked the lane that gives us a lot of energy? Yes, because you can't do everything, but in many ways we also try to touch many other lives as much as we can.

Carol Park: 25:17

I know you have done just that. I know you have done just that and, again, I'm just so grateful for your time today, for the energy, the love, the compassion, the empathy, the leadership that you put out there into this world. I'm grateful to have known you and to still know you, and so thank you, shagan, for being on the podcast.

Shegun Otulana: 25:47

Any parting words for our listeners. I think I would just tell people the title of your podcast is a good way to choose to live life. To be courageous and courage sometimes does require unmasking yourself, which means being vulnerable. Vulnerability has a lot of empowerment in it that people don't think about. You can't see yourself sometimes as well as other people can see you, and if you can find people that you can really choose to be vulnerable around you, get better for it. Vulnerability means that you don't have to be the smartest person in the room, and because you're willing to get people that are smarter than you around you, you probably go much, much further and faster and farther than you think you would. So I would just leave people with the message that don't be afraid of failing, don't be afraid of being vulnerable. Step out there, encourage, go, do the things you believe in, that you really want to use your life for, and let serendipity do its thing, and it's going to be a wonderful thing at the end of the day.

Carol Park: 27:04

Couldn't have said it better myself. Thank you again, shagan, so grateful for you and wishing you continued success.

Shegun Otulana: 27:13

Thank you. Thank you, carol, same to you.