Becker Private Equity & Business Podcast
How WEconnect Health is Transforming Recovery & Behavioral Health with Daniela Luzi Tudor, Murphy Jensen, and Cameron Chell 4-17-25
Thu, 17 Apr 2025
In this episode, Scott Becker speaks with 3 Leaders from WEconnect Health Management, Daniela Luzi Tudor co-founder and CEO, Murphy Jensen, Co Founder and EVP of Business Development, and Cameron Chell, Executive Chairman. They share their personal recovery stories, the founding journey of WEconnect, and how their behavioral health tech platform is saving lives, driving […]
Chapter 1: Who are the leaders behind WEconnect Health?
He's got a fascinating history and I'm very familiar and just a huge fan of his history. He's also teamed here with Danielle Tudor and Cameron Schell, and they'll tell us about themselves. Daniela, can I ask you to start off by taking a moment to introduce yourself, then I'll ask Cameron and Murphy to do the same.
Chapter 2: What is Daniela Luzi Tudor's background and role at WEconnect Health?
Absolutely, Scott. Thank you so much for having us on. I'm Daniela Tudor. I'm the CEO and co-founder here at We Connect Health. I'm also a person in long-term recovery and have a longstanding background in technology before diving into this partnership with Murphy just over 10 years ago.
Amazing. And I've been following this online for a long time. Cameron, take a moment and tell us about yourself, and then I'll ask Murphy to round out the introductions.
Chapter 3: What experience does Cameron Chell bring to WEconnect Health?
Sounds great. Thanks for having us on today, Scott. I too am somebody that has long-term recovery. I've been a technology entrepreneur for the last 35 years, primarily focused on internet and defense technologies with a heavy kind of leaning towards healthcare and mental health and thrilled to be here today and work with our co-founders.
Well, fantastic. And you must be the Canadian in the audience by the great accent. Is that right? I can never hear it, but yeah, you're absolutely right. Oh, fantastic. Fantastic. And Murphy, tell the audience about yourself and a little bit maybe about your tennis career and also the three of you got to know each other.
Well, I am Murphy Jensen, someone in long-term recovery from substance use disorder and mental health challenges. And I lead that Prior to any tennis stuff, because overcoming those challenges have been the most important and impactful body of work of my life, because I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for great behavioral health solutions like We Connect.
Chapter 4: How did Murphy Jensen's personal journey shape WEconnect Health?
And in my first life, I played professional tennis. Some say I was raised by wolves on a Christmas tree farm in northern Michigan. And we headed down south to Grand Rapids, where I went to high school and played against all the tough Midwesterners out of Chicago at the Midtown Tennis Club. And by 13, I'm playing tennis around the world.
And by 18, living in Los Angeles, and 24, winning the French Open with my brother, Luke. And that's where I, you know, it was the greatest moment of our family's life in representing Michigan in the Midwest to win a Grand Slam.
But something happened in that locker room after the win I had my first panic attack and I had which would follow me for the next 10 years of rock and roll tennis and you know out isolate and the depression and the anxiety and what I learned. through my own recovery journey is that I'm only as sick as my secrets.
And so what I thought was the worst thing that could have happened to me has been the greatest blessing of my life because 10 years ago, I met my co-founder, Daniella Tudor. And she was someone that I was connected to because I was helping my wife's family friend. And he said, Where did you get that great tan?
And I said, Well, I was at Richard Branson's Island for a tennis benefit with all these fancy superstars. And he goes, A girl in my outpatient program who builds out system engineering teams and fancy stuff I know nothing about was there as well.
And and we got together and she shared with me her idea of how we could improve outcomes, save lives and change the world of behavioral health by leveraging
Remarkable. And Murphy, let me ask you this question. In terms of tennis and pro sports, so many challenges. Is that just indicative of the high-stress environment or the drive that athletes have? Because they're well-documented. One of the specials on ESPN or Netflix has another tennis star that had some trouble with substance abuse.
And just extremely common amongst high achievers and amongst our whole population. Talk a little bit about, just give us a sense of that.
Yeah, well, you know, there's a drive. And there's a drive for all of us humans. If you've got a pulse, you're most likely... You know, if you're a human being, you're going to have drives, you're going to have instincts. And I grew up in an alcoholic house and dad got sober when I was about 10 or 11 and that changed the trajectory of our family's life.
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Chapter 5: What challenges do professional athletes face regarding behavioral health?
Didn't know how I was going to start it other than I had my tech background and it just so happened that I won this contest and I see this incredibly charismatic guy on the tennis court
um and coming back from that island and getting that introduction and seeing how we could really complement each other's skills and pair up as a team and then later on obviously cameron joining on as the executive chairman just makes quite the trifecta as as we trudge forward in this industry you mentioned industry trends you know 11 years ago when we started this thing the concept of rewarding people with behavioral health issues was not only foreign
But there was a lot of naysayers in the space. Now you see policies in place that push forward contingency management and incentives to help people with their social determinants of health and help them stay accountable to their care plans. Eleven years ago, the thought of using a mobile application, particularly for folks in Medicaid, was also foreign. And now we're seeing that.
not just as a trend, but we have actual outcomes from actuarial teams that are MCO partners that have demonstrated that people are happier, healthier on a platform like ours. And as a result, they've been able to reduce emergency room readmits by 40%. So big, big trends this year and complete 180 shift in the last decade from what I've seen.
It's simply remarkable. And when you look at this, who's the customer that you're working with here? Or maybe Daniela, whoever's the right person to take this question. Who is it that you folks work directly with? Are you working with health plans? Are you working with individuals? How do you engage?
So we have two separate channels. One is health and government. Under health and government, we work with health plans. The majority of our population in that channel is Medicaid, as well as in partnerships for grants at the state and federal level and behavioral health organizations.
On the employer channel, we both directly sell into companies as a mental health benefit and also partner with brokers, large national brokerages, but also individual smaller brokers in different regions of the United States. So anything you want to add to that, Kim, please do maybe on licensing.
Yeah, no, I think that sums it up really well. And I think primarily my role here is to help grow the company from a capital market standpoint and really trying to scale things out with our investor group. And it's really those, it's the adoption by the greater society
taking a look at the importance of mental health, kind of like how it was in the 80s when people kind of woke up to physical health and how important that was and through the 80s and 90s. And there's this renaissance, if I can call it that, that's happening in mental health. And that's really the opportunity that's in front of us.
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Chapter 6: What industry trends is WEconnect Health leveraging to improve behavioral health?
John and I've seen his work and we've crossed paths. You know what? Tell me what his work is about.
Well, he's a comedian, but he's also written a book about his tennis career called Lucky Loser. And Lucky Loser is someone who's in an alternate tournament and gets in the tournament because somebody drops out. But he talks about the stress of playing on the professional tour. He played at U of I. Then he played at satellite tournaments and pro tournaments across the country.
And it was just really, really fascinating to hear his take on playing professional tennis. He didn't have the success you had anywhere near it. Made it to like 800 in the year, 800 in the world, got to ATP points, stuff like that. But played in Korea and Japan, every place just trying to pick up ATP points. And the level of stress and the burnout of it was incredible.
You've got to realize tennis isn't like being drafted. And if I was being drafted in the top five in the world into the NBA, I'm making $25 million a year. Tennis is a sport. You don't win, you don't get paid. And that's why I'm very familiar with the entrepreneur mindset.
or a startup world is a tennis player is their own individual startup and you get a little funding, you jump on a bus, you get yourself on an airplane and it's brutal. It's brutal and it's a lonely, lonely existence and there's not, you know, you're taking food off of each other's tables and then you're calling home and you're saying you won or lost.
I went to college at USC out in Southern California and if I wasn't playing number one, I had an embarrassment and shame and guilt that I wasn't playing number one or two like my brother was playing there and you know, I was an 18 year old kid with a bunch of 24 year olds. I turned pro after two years.
So I, I know Costa's work and we've crossed paths, but you know, what we're doing here, you know, is so much bigger than what drives me. You talked about over the course of this coming year, what drives me is to, uh, make support and services like we have with We Connect Health easier to access than an accidental overdose or a suicide attempt. I've got a coach down in Texas. I get a call.
You know, I get the unfortunate data. You know, we're serving employers, but I'm also excited that we're serving universities and our kids. And I've been put on this earth for a reason, and that's to help people, help others, until the day I die and stop. And here we got this amazing, nutty, addictive phone. If I'm going to be obsessed with anything, it should be on my recovery.
And so this is the most important work I will ever do. And I get an opportunity to share with the Midwest through the employer channel or through the health plan channel or through the colleges and universities. And now they've got me after dropping dead three years ago from a cardiac arrest. Now you're talking about physical health and mental health. I really look at it
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Chapter 7: Who are the primary customers and partners of WEconnect Health?
And so mental health and our physical health are interconnected and we must take care of both.
Just remarkable. Daniela, I'll ask you to wrap up, even though Murphy's an EGR pioneer, but I'll ask you to move us forward and wrap us up. Daniela, tell us about where you're most focused and excited this year. And what a pleasure to visit with the three of you. Wish you had more time. And I talked to you about, you know, advice for people trying to recover or trying to stay healthy.
It's a lifetime journey. We've seen it up close, family members and others. We empathize completely. We love you for speaking about it. Daniela, tell us what you're most focused on and excited about this year.
I mean, the same as Cameron, and it's the other side of the coin.
So as Cameron mentioned in regards to seeing the outcomes, the cost reduction, the claims, which is what the institutions care about that ultimately engage with us in partnership, the other side of the coin is that that equates to helping people and making people's lives better and making people's lives so good in their recovery and improving their social determinants of health and repairing their relationships with their loved ones
in getting some sort of stabilization. So not only they can just get out of survival mode, but really thrive in life. That to me, that equivalent of that is correlated to the reduction in emergency room stays and costs is my biggest focus to scale that to
increase the eyeballs from a North America and beyond that on a global perspective is super exciting and continuing to improve the technology that the peer support specialists on our team use to connect and really make these members' lives better. And that's what's most exciting to me. So thank you so much for having us on. Really appreciate you. And thank you again.
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Chapter 8: What is Cameron Chell’s role in scaling WEconnect Health?
Danielle, where can people find WeConnect? Let me just ask you that question quickly. Where can they find WeConnect?
WeConnectHealth.io and also in the App Store, both Android and iOS.
Fantastic. I want to thank the three of you, Daniela, Cam, Murphy. What an inspiring discussion by far. I had so many discussions on healthcare and business and everything else. By far the most inspiring discussion I've had in a while. We thank you so much for joining us on this combined episode of the Becker's Healthcare and Becker Private Equity Podcast. Thank you very, very much for joining us.
Thanks, Scott.