Georgina Gnan

WORK HISTORY

EDUCATION

ABOUT GEORGINA GNAN

Hi! I’m Georgie, a psychology researcher turned social impact founder.I’m co-founder of Youmi, a mental health startup supporting the supporters: the friends, partners, and family members who carry the emotional load long before services do.Before building Youmi, I spent over a decade as a mental health researcher, working across clinical, health and community psychology, marginalised communities, social networks, and participatory intervention design. That work gave me something incredibly valuable as a founder: a deep understanding of gaps in the system and where the real unmet needs are.The insight behind Youmi is simple but overlooked- You can’t improve mental health outcomes without supporting the people who support someone through it- Yet this group is consistently under-recognised, under-resourced, and under-supported.I transitioned from academia into entrepreneurship because I wanted to turn evidence into impact at scale. Research can show us what needs to change, but startups can actually build it.Now I have two missions:1⃣ To build Youmi into the go-to support platform for anyone supporting someone struggling with their mental health.2⃣ To help reshape how we design mental health technology: slower, more ethical, more equitable, and always grounded in lived experience.And when I’m not thinking about mental health or product design, I’m usually hanging out with my two chaotic dogs, who are excellent reminders to take breaks and not overthink everything.If you’re working in mental health, tech for good, social impact, research or health equity, I’d love to connect.