In a post announcing the round, a16z partners Vijay Pande and Daisy Wolf lay out why the firm led Slingshot AI's $40 million Series A. They frame the opportunity around scale: roughly half the world's population will develop a mental health disorder in their lifetime, yet quality care remains scarce. Slingshot's answer is "the world's first foundation model for psychology," the technology behind its consumer app Ash. The partners point to the founding team as central to the thesis, including Casper co-founder Neil Parikh, machine-learning engineer Daniel Cahn, and clinical lead Dr. Derrick Hull, formerly of Talkspace. The piece positions Ash as a way to widen access to evidence-based support rather than replace human connection.