Knoxville start-up is working with some of the largest players in sports
That company is Onrise which was founded in May 2023 to focus on providing a solution for the mental health needs of athletes.
One of the Co-Founders of Onrise, winner of the “InvestTN Pitch Competition” during the recent “3686” event, described the start-up as a “little company out of Knoxville (working) with some of the largest players in sports.”
Kim Quigley, MD, who serves as Chief Executive Officer, was clearly spot on as we reviewed the logos of groups with which it works that are posted on its webpage. They included everything from all of the major groups in soccer (MLS Players Association, US Club Soccer, Inter Miami CF, United Soccer League Players Association, and USWNT Players), track and field (USATF Athletes’ Commission), American football (United Football League Players Association), lacrosse (Premier Lacrosse League), volleyball (LOVB and PVF), horseracing (HISA and Jockeys’ Guild), and multiple sports (Athletes Unlimited).
If you did not read our teknovation.biz article the day after the pitch competition (see it here), the company was founded in May 2023 to focus on providing a solution for the mental health needs of athletes.
It could result from an injury or the loss of a fellow athlete, coach or parent. Maybe it’s simply that an individual has played competitive sports so long that she or he doesn’t know how to move forward after their playing days are over.
Quigley puts it this way: “What’s your craft going to be if you don’t go professional?” She explains that athletes lose their identity when their playing careers end. “VFL (Volunteer for Life) is a label, not a job,” she says of the well-known acronym for former Tennessee athletes.
A former volleyball player at Webb School and later at Georgetown University, Quigley said a classmate who committed suicide created an “eye-opening experience” that she still remembers. She was a pre-med major at Georgetown and went to the University of Tennessee College of Medicine. After graduation, Quigley did a psychiatric residency at Drexel University in Philadelphia before returning to Knoxville.
The next four years found her working for Cherokee Health Systems Inc. in Claiborne and Union Counties where she learned just how underserved many very rural communities are when it comes to mental health professionals. Later, Quigley was a Psychiatrist with the State of Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Covenant Health as well as Medical Director of Behavioral Health Integration for Statcare Medical Group.
She joined with Derrick Furlow Jr., a former Tennessee football player, to launch Onrise. He serves as serves as the start-up’s Chief Athletic Officer.
Quigley describes Onrise’s approach as “unique.” It connects athletes with the right level of support through a dedicated support team that offers athlete-specific mental health peer support, therapy, psychiatry and 24/7 crisis services. By utilizing retired athletes and clinicians, Onrise’s mental health team understands the unique challenges and pressures that athletes face and provides trusted mental health care and support that is accessible, relatable, and affordable, .
One of the new challenges that student athletes face is Name, Image and Likeness.
“It exacerbates the situation,” Quigley says, explaining that she saw it firsthand with a family member who was going through a highly intensive recruiting process. “Student athletes today have so many opportunities, but new opportunities bring pressure and athletes often face unrealistic expectations from coaches, teammates, fans and even themselves. Onrise is here to help athletes through those unique challenges.”
Onrise raised a pre-seed round through the Georgetown Angel Investment Network and is now raising a $2 million seed round.
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