Stephen HaysFounder

United States - Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex

I am a husband, a father and I'm grateful to be living a life of purpose. Addiction and mental illness almost took my life in 2018. I was fortunate enough to get help, but many people don't. I'm on a mission to fix that by driving capital into startups bringing mental health and addiction solutions to market.

I created What If Ventures, a VC fund focused on mental health and addiction focused startups. After decades struggling with addiction, and type-1 bi-polar disorder, I was able to experience a trans-formative change in my life with the help of my loving wife and children, my father, and close friends.

In August of 2019, I launched a podcast called Stigma. The podcast is a series of interviews with people in and around the recovery community. Some clinicians, some founders, and some people I've met along the way in my recovery journey. We share our stories so that others will feel like they can not only share their story, but get help if needed. The vulnerability of sharing, reduces our shame, which in turn leads to stigma reduction. Stigma is a big reason why some people never get help, and our goal is do reduce Stigma.

Before all of this, I founded and was the Managing Partner of a VC fund called Deep Space Ventures, where I led 25 early stage investments, which to date have yielded 7 exits, a TVPI of 2.8x and multiple companies that have raised capital at follow-on valuations above $100,000,000.

Before starting Deep Space Ventures, I was an investment banker for nearly 7 years on Wall Street. I focused on helping large companies raise capital and execute mergers & acquisitions.