Wentworth Grad and CEO Proves That Mindset Matters

They are the builders, the thinkers, and the problem-solvers. In the "Defined by Doing" series, we highlight exceptional alumni who are translating their education into action and redefining what is possible in their fields. From recent graduates to seasoned industry leaders, these stories prove that the Wentworth community is making a meaningful impact at every stage of the journey.

For Tyler Castle, starting his business was all about fostering a good headspace.

Now, his company is helping to save lives.

In 2019, the Wentworth Institute of Technology graduate founded ResolveX, a software platform aimed at removing technological barriers for mental health support professionals.

To gather what he needed to launch the company, Castle didn't just listen to the concerns of those on the frontlines-he lived them.

"I had to make sure I had a real foundation for my business, so I went and got trained as a counselor. I took crisis calls for 14 different hotlines, including those focused on suicide and domestic violence prevention, youth foster care lines, hospital medication reassurance lines, and others," Castle reflected. "Over the course of the past several years, I've taken probably close to 20,000 calls myself."

With a user-friendly and intuitive interface, ResolveX assists call-takers in collecting essential details while freeing them up to quickly attend to those in need.

"These hotlines need to get certain data about the individual on the call to help support them and to assess their safety," Castle said. "But you can't just sit there and ask somebody who's in crisis these things, because they're going to hang up on you."

"There's a lot of training that those frontline individuals get about how to support and help those that need the hotline resources. But we want to make sure that the technology is not infringing on that or making that harder than it has to be," Castle said of ResolveX. "We want to ensure that when a call comes in, it automatically pulls up documentation or connects to a caller's historical records and summaries of past safety plans that they've completed, so that the call-takers can have that information readily accessible."

For all its success, ResolveX is just the latest venture for Castle, who graduated from Wentworth in 2017 with a degree in Engineering. Growing up with parents who owned their own business, he saw himself as an entrepreneur from an early age.

"I was always the kid that was building things or inventing," Castle said. "I always had some sort of business or scheme or way to make money, whether it was selling artwork on the bus in kindergarten and getting brought into the principal's office for that, or flipping rare coins on the playground to then take to a card dealer at a flea market in exchange for whatever was the hottest Yu-Gi-Oh! or Pokémon card," he laughed.

Already a lifelong entrepreneur with a targeted career path in mind when he began to think about college, Castle said Wentworth appealed to him because of the industry-forward educational experiences built into its degree programs.

"I wanted to truly build a startup," Castle said. "So, when it got to the point that I was looking at schools, I knew I needed to fundamentally understand how to create things, whatever those things were, which led me to engineering in general, as well as to the Accelerate program at Wentworth, which really caught my attention as a way to cultivate my business interests."

While participating in the program, Castle teamed up with a classmate to bring forth myriad entrepreneurial ideas. Together, they built prototypes of products aimed at solving real-world problems, including a project called Aqualung, which intended to reduce fatalities for shallow-water diving in developing countries, a product to reduce smoke inhalation in the event of a fire, and 3D-printed prosthetics for kids.

Engaged in the program every semester he studied at Wentworth, Castle said Accelerate was instrumental in helping him fine-tune his career goals and determine the types of projects that mattered to him.

"Our ideas were all in the same vein of social entrepreneurship," Castle said. "A lot of that whole process in Accelerate refined the fact that it wasn't so much the product that I was interested in; it was the people and how they were affected."

"I wanted to understand people at a deeper level and learn how to support them mentally and emotionally," Castle continued. "And so, once I had this realization that the physical engineering projects I was focused on building all stemmed from the same similar drive of empathy, connection, and support, that was kind of how the foundation for ResolveX was built."

Shortly after his time at Wentworth, Castle said he strategically moved to a location that would help him learn more about starting a successful business.

"Once I graduated from Wentworth, I recognized two things: I needed to be around people that were doing what I wanted to do long term, and I needed to find a place that had a lot of those types of people that I could be around," he said.

Armed with a vision and a foundational plan, Castle got to work.

"I spent the first two or three years out of Wentworth just building capital. I was working 100 hours a week between my mainline engineering job and other side businesses," he said. "During this time, I had been talking to my friend about my frustrations with mental health systems and the space in general, and he just looked at me and said, 'You're so passionate about this, so why don't you just build a company that addresses and solves those things?' And so that's what I started doing."

Nearly seven years later, ResolveX remains a beacon for frontline mental health support professionals. Castle said his education at Wentworth bolstered this achievement.

"I am grateful for the exposure to entrepreneurship and to design thinking that Wentworth really helped me develop. In my courses, I was always taught to avoid jumping to a business solution first, and to identify the problem first, and to really explore what the underlying components of that problem are," he said. "And that's how we ultimately ended up building a software company in the mental health space. It's why I started taking calls to really understand that problem in more depth."

Castle has stayed engaged with his mentors at Wentworth and credits the university's Accelerate program in particular for helping nurture his entrepreneurial mindset.

"The program was an open sandbox where the institution of Wentworth pushed back against the walls of structure enough for us to be able to flounder a little bit," Castle said. "It gave us an opportunity to really simulate the experience of starting a business in a supportive environment."

Nowadays, work for Castle is meaningful, and establishing ResolveX has been fulfilling for him both personally and professionally.

"One of the missions, for myself and the company, is increasing awareness in this space and helping people see that there are skillsets that can be learned and taught to care for mental health," Castle said. "We also want to show that healing, support, and empathy are possible and accessible, whether that is for yourself or for others."

If you or someone you know is struggling, the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline offers free, confidential support 24/7. Call or text 988, or chat at 988lifeline.org. The National Domestic Violence Hotline can be reached at 1-800-799-7233, by texting START to 88788, or at thehotline.org. Wentworth students can also connect with The Center for Wellnessfor 24/7 emotional support via 617-989-4390 and choose option 2 when prompted.