BY JESSICA DaMASSA

Headspace Health’s CEO Russell Glass and The Shine App’s co-Founder & co-CEO Naomi Hirabayashi give us the inside story on deal that makes The Shine App’s award-winning, inclusive self-care and mental health platform a part of the Headspace Health family.

This is Headspace Health’s second acquisition this year, and we find out why they chose to ‘buy instead of build’ when it came time to refine and enrich the inclusiveness of their meditation, self-care, and mental health care offerings.

The Shine App brings 45,000 subscribers and 90 enterprise clients to the table, but what Russ points to as ‘stand-out’ is the quality of the content that Shine is built on, and the depth of understanding that their team has realized when it comes to the unique mental health issues that are facing minorities and other traditionally underserved populations. For example? Naomi talks about “representation burnout” which is its own brand of burnout that is often-experienced-but-not-often-named by people who suffer the pressures of being the “lone representative” of a minority population in a vastly homogenous workforce. Wow.

Tune in for more on what this acquisition will mean for Headspace, what Naomi and her co-founder Marah Lidey intend to do as new Headspace employees, how Shine will help Headspace’s Leadership Training program, AND some extra surprise bonus gems. Apparently, the BIGGEST DEAL yet for the full integration of Headspace-plus-Ginger is on the horizon and, OF COURSE, I find out if Russ got a chance to meet John Legend as part of Headspace’s Super Bowl commercial shoot.