The Last Word: M2G Co-Founder Jessica Miller Essl on the Firm’s Mental Health Initiative and Partnership with UTSW

By Dallas Innovates Staff, Dallas Innovates, December 7, 2022

Jessica Miller Essl and her sister Susan Gruppi achieved 501(c)(3) status for the M2G Mental Health Initiative to change how the world treats mental illness. Now, she says, they’ve raised 70% of a $1M goal.

“We may be in commercial real estate, but at the heart of our company is innovation.”
– Jessica Miller Essl on the firm’s partnership with UT Southwestern Medical Center’s Center for Depression Research and Clinical Care. This year, the firm achieved 501(c)(3) status for its mental health initiative to change how the world treats mental illness.

M2G Ventures, a women-founded North Texas-based real estate investment and development firm, just took a giant leap forward in its mission to change the way mental illness is treated.

The mission is personal for the CRE firm’s co-founders, sisters Jessica Miller Essl and Susan Gruppi, who launched the M2G Mental Health Initiative in 2019 after losing a loved one to bipolar disorder in 2017.

Now, through a partnership with UT Southwestern Medical Center’s Center for Depression Research & Clinical Care, the sister’s mental health initiative is making strides in rethinking how we view those living with mental health conditions while creating healthier lives overall.

Dr. Madhukar Trivedi (right), the renowned founding director of UT Southwestern Medical Center’s Center for Depression Research and Clinical Care, is working to identify biomarkers of depression and resilience with a new study. So far, the CDRC site in Fort Worth has enrolled 90 participants.

The real estate firm said it has reached 70% of its $1 million goal in its third year of fundraising after a recent gala—Art of the Mind—that raised more than $260,000.

The real estate firm made news today in commercial real estate, too.

The female-founded company announced it’s expanding to Austin. With the help of Pennybacker Capital’s former director at the helm of the expansion, M2G says it’s poised to revolutionize industrial and mixed-use projects with innovative investments in Central Texas.