Selena Gomez’s Mental Health Startup Couldn’t Pay Its Employees Last Month

Forbes

Gomez’s mom, Mandy Teefey, told employees recently that she took out a loan against her home to keep Wondermind, the mental health company she cofounded with her popstar daughter, afloat after twice missing payroll in recent weeks.  Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jemimamcevoy/2025/05/10/why-selena-gomezs-mental-health-startup-couldnt-pay-its-employees-last-month/  Subscribe to FORBES: https://www.youtube.com/user/Forbes?sub_confirmation=1  Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:  https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript  Stay Connected Forbes newsletters: https://newsletters.editorial.forbes.com Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes More From Forbes:  http://forbes.com  Forbes covers the intersection of entrepreneurship, wealth, technology, business and lifestyle with a focus on people and success.

Transcript

00:00Today on Forbes, Selena Gomez's mental health startup couldn't pay its employees last month.

00:08WonderMind, a mental health startup co-founded by singer, actor, and business mogul Selena Gomez,

00:14is in the midst of a crisis after apparently running out of cash and failing to pay its

00:18employees, vendors, and freelancers starting in late March. For now, the Los Angeles-based company,

00:25which employs around 15 people to publish articles, interviews, and podcasts about mental

00:30health topics, is being kept afloat by Gomez's mom, Mandy Teefy, who is WonderMind's CEO.

00:37Teefy told employees on Thursday that she took out a loan against her home to pay back its

00:42outstanding debts. Employees have been repaid for one missing paycheck, but are still waiting on

00:47another, while freelancers and vendors are owed tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands,

00:53of dollars. A WonderMind spokesperson says the company has, quote, rectified the situation and

01:00that everyone who is owed money should have received it on Monday, meaning yesterday. In a written

01:05statement, the spokesperson told Forbes, quote, like many startups, WonderMind has been working

01:11through its own set of growing pains, adding that, quote, in the coming days, we will be transitioning

01:16into a new chapter for WonderMind and continuing our important work and mental fitness that helps

01:21hundreds of thousands of people. Teefy declined to comment for this article, while a representative

01:27for Gomez did not respond to Forbes' request for comment. Gomez, who is 32 years old, is one of

01:34America's richest self-made entrepreneurs, worth an estimated $700 million. Her fortune is largely tied

01:41up in her rare beauty makeup line, which she started in 2020 and had nearly $370 million in revenue in

01:482023. She launched WonderMind in 2021 with her mom and Daniela Pearson, the founder and CEO of women's

01:56newsletter The Newsette. Inspired by the founder's own individual mental health struggles, Pearson

02:02previously described the site to Forbes as, quote, a sexier, more entertaining competitor to

02:07sites like Psychology Today and WebMD. During a panel Gomez and Teefy did about WonderMind last March at the

02:15Austin-based conference South by Southwest. Gomez said, quote, it honestly stemmed from a conversation

02:21we both had with each other, and it was about our journeys, and we ended up relating a lot to each

02:26other, and it was a turning point. She said this prompted them to question, quote, how can we do that

02:31for other people? In 2022, a year after its launch, WonderMind raised $5 million at a $100 million

02:39valuation in a Series A funding round led by Serena Williams' Serena Ventures, with participation from

02:46Sequoia Capital, Lightspeed Ventures, and the family office of real estate billionaire Barry Sternlicht.

02:52Despite the initial hype, and its now wealthy celebrity co-founder, WonderMind seems to be in

02:58dire financial straits, according to recordings and emails obtained by Forbes, as well as interviews

03:03with three current WonderMind employees, all of whom who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear

03:08of retribution. In addition to money owed to staff members, two of these employees say the company

03:14owes $60,000 to a PR firm it previously worked with. One said WonderMind owes tens of thousands of

03:21dollars to freelance writers, some of whom haven't been paid in over three months. Two current employees

03:28say problems began in January 2023. That's when Teefy became sole CEO. Pearson had been running the

03:35company with her as co-CEO, but exited that same month. It's unclear why. Both she and the company

03:41declined to comment on her departure. Either way, that's when Teefy, who had reportedly managed Gomez's

03:48career for many years, took the reins alone. These two employees argue Teefy did not have the

03:54operational knowledge to make the brand succeed. According to these employees, Teefy turned down

03:59crucial brand deals if they wanted her daughter to be involved, including a multi-million dollar

04:04deal with Airbnb, which they say contributed to the company's financial problems. For full coverage,

04:11check out Jemima McAvoy's piece on Forbes.com. This is Kieran Meadows from Forbes. Thanks for tuning in.

04:24you

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