Newsletter

Hi! 

Thank you very much for taking the time to read this newsletter. Its my first one and I hope you like it. 

My name is Alex Osborn. I am a Grade 12 student at a Vancouver, B.C. (Canada) high school called West Point Grey Academy-or WPGA for short. Or the PEEG for even shorter. I have attended this school since pre-Kindergarten and like my older sister Claire (now at McGill in second year) that makes me what they call a lifer. And yes I have heard the joke-“14 years Wow-You serve less time for murder”. Some days its funnier than others. 

When I’m not in school I spend a lot of time being active, in particular playing soccer, surfing, skateboarding and golfing. I like to travel, hang out with friends, write software,  listen to music and generally just chill. I also really enjoy trading stocks as well as currencies, from blue chip stocks like Nokia to more speculative things like Ethereum. Over time I have developed a better sense of how to do company analysis and have read several books on technical analysis, most recently a classic called XXX. 

I started Osborn Digital Ventures less to be about stock or currency trading but because I thought it might be interesting to explore new areas of technology as it applies to real world problems and solutions. In particular, I thought that maybe, since I often use the actual products and services that companies target at younger populations, I might have some interesting opinions or perspectives.  ODV may grow into a consulting company, a venture fund, or something totally different but for now its meant to be a bit of all of those things, and more importantly a community for people who potentially want to learn more about stuff that’s cool. 

By writing this newsletter I hope that some (or one) of you learns something that you can apply to your own investing, interests or even personal or professional lives. Hopefully its obvious but I'd like to ensure that it's clear this is not “professional investing advice” These are thoughts from a teenager who as I mentioned is an active and avid user of many interesting technology features and products however I am not an investment advisor. You should not buy sell any securities private or public based on the advice that you read in here. OK, with that out of the way let's get started on the 1st edition. 

If you find something interesting and would like to learn more about it (or are interested in potentially participating in a small investment (my investments will average approx $1000 to $2500-from money I have made investing/trading in cryptocurrency over the last several years) please reach out to me directly and I would be happy to discuss more. 

As those of you who know me know I'm a pretty active person.  As mentioned above, I like doing lots of different things. The truth is I find it very hard to sit still. Part of the reason for that is that I do have ADHD. This is an increasingly common condition among people my age (and those both younger and older by the way) and as a result I find it harder perhaps than some to focus. Actually the thing about ADHD a lot of people don’t know is that it's actually not a inability to focus on anything, it's actually an inability to focus only on the things that don't interest you. That's an important distinction. One that I would like to mention to my teachers from time to time. 

Historically, I would have probably just been told by my parents, the education system, or later on, employers to just sit and focus and work through it and push harder. And while those are certainly occasionally good pieces of advice the truth is people with diagnosed ADHD can benefit materially from some very interesting new technologies and approaches both for the treatment as well as the mitigation of the condition. I'd like to highlight two such companies that are currently working in this field. I've chosen a company that is a small private start up based right here in my own backyard of Vancouver BC group as well as a larger public company based in EU S that I think is working on some very interesting solutions broadly called digital therapeutics. 

Let’s start with the local Vancouver company called Cognito.  Cognito is based here in Vancouver BC. While Cognito is much earlier stage, and is private, it is raising a private round of capital from some well know investors in Canada and I believe represents an interesting investment opportunity. 

Cognito was founded in 2021 by a team of three co-founders. Jason Cridge a Pharmacist, Julien Sellgren (a successful CTO) and Armon Arani (an engineer and entrepreneur). It has raised money from several successful technology and is growing very quickly-almost 30% per month! The company just passed the $1M revenue target so its still small but I believe the growth shown to date is a very positive signal about the company’s potential market and solutions. 

Cognito is Canada's only integrated mental health solution that includes therapy plus a physician plus medication. Patients use the online service with three easy steps number one they complete an online assessment to help describe some of the symptoms or concerns they may have secondly they discuss treatment options with a physician or nurse practitioner who is specifically trained to diagnose mental health conditions IE ADHD an three depending on the prescription or treatment plan prescribed by the physician or doctor the medication is delivered directly to the patients door at no additional cost. This avoids as you can imagine lots of physical visits to the doctors office. Also being referred to various experts are physicians all of whom have long waiting lists, or are completely full. It also allows for long term tracking of symptom reduction or improvement an easily adjustable medication based on objective tools that are used to determine progress. The larger trend of online health has really taken hold in Canada and around the world and I know that many people have enjoyed seeing a doctor from the comfort of their own home. It seems entirely logical to me that treatment for ADHD and other conditions could be seen in a simple way as one sees a doctor for a stuffy nose. Of course this won't treat serious mental health challenges anymore than an online video visit with the doctor could treat something life threatening however as many of us know the bulk of health care visits part of the less serious kind.

The costs of the ADHD program is only $129 per month.  This includes the initial assessment,  the consult with a trained psychiatrist, the prescription and two coaching sessions per month as well. These coaching sessions are given by trained experts who support the ongoing psychiatrist assessments. 

The company is currently raising a small investment round for angel investors and I am thinking I will invest a small amount as I test the product and services offering and to see how the management team performs as the company expands outside of B.C. 

Akili Interactive 

Akili, is a public company, originally founded in 1997.  It went public in 2022 by virtue of what's called a SPAC. SPACs, in which a shell company combines with a private company to take it public, were recently a popular path to the public markets for digital health companies. 

Akili is working in a field called digital therapeutics in which software emulates many of the benefits for patients that typically are administered via drugs. The good kind of drugs I mean, ie Ritalin. 

As many of you may know however, ADHD medication can often have negative side effects or else simply not work effectively for certain individuals. Due to differences in peoples DNA, close to 50% of drug prescriptions are not long term effective. The emerging field of pharmacogenomics attempts to address this-maybe a topic for another day. 

Back to ADHD (sorry for the tangent but there you go...). Recently, the FDA (the US agency responsible for approving all drug interventions) has approved a handful of these digital solutions (ok-essentially online games) for use by children under 18 as a safe and effective treatment for ADHD. 

Akili is backed by famous venture capitalist Chamath Palipathya (who actually went to my Moms high school-sadly she does not know him). The company raised $163 million in its initial offering. Akili has recently launched EndeavorRx, its FDA-clearedtherapeutic for kids ages 8 to 12 who have attention issues. Initial reports of the effectiveness of this solution have been very positive.  "Today's release of Endeavour reflects the combined efforts of the committed Akili team who together made this defining moment possible. Millions of people worldwide live with cognitive impairment without effective treatments," Eddie Martucci, CEO of Akili, said in a statement.

Akili is working on expanding its product line, including offering its ADHD tools for adults as well as testing new therapeuticsfor post-ICU or COVID-19 brain fog and multiple sclerosis-related cognitive impairment. 

"With this milestone completed, Akili has a number of others ahead including a strong clinical pipeline of breakthrough digital therapeutic candidates that have the potential to treat a host of cognitive impairments," Chamath said in a statement. 

Akili currently trades at a price of $2.04, down from $37.00 at the time of its public listing. The digital health market has gone through a significant adjustment downwards with recent public markets and Akili is no exception. However I believe that Akili has enough cash on its balance sheet that with the pending release of its new therapeutics soon to generate considerable new revenue streams, the company’s performance will soon improve and be reflected in an improved stock price. 

I am not planning to buy Akili stock at this time but will be trying their new products, focusing on the ADHD for teens product to be launched in early 2023. For now I am watching the stock closely from day to day. 

Disclaimer: This newsletter does not provide investment advice. Any views expressed are the personal views of the author and should not form the basis for making investment decisions, nor be construed as a recommendation or advice to engage in investment transactions.