# Maria Barrera

> Maria Barrera is the CEO and co-founder of Clayful, an on-demand chat-based mental health coaching platform that connects K-12 students with certified coaches in under 60 seconds. A Stanford-trained mechanical engineer who immigrated from Colombia at age 10, she moved from aerospace (Boeing, GE) into edtech (Nearpod) before a New York Times article about rising suicide rates in eight-year-olds pushed her to found Clayful in 2021. The company has raised $9.15M in total funding, serves 50+ school districts across six states in 133 languages, and frames mental health as coaching rather than therapy to reduce student stigma.

- **Role:** CEO & Co-founder at Clayful
- **Organizations:** Clayful, Nearpod, Boeing, GE, Rock Health, ASU GSV Summit
- **From:** Colombia
- **Nationality:** Colombian-American
- **Education:** BS in Mechanical Engineering, Stanford University, MS in Mechanical Engineering, Stanford University
- **Known for:** Co-founded Clayful, the first on-demand mental health coaching platform connecting K-12 students with certified coaches in 60 seconds, Raised $9.15M in total funding from investors including Reach Capital, Google Latino Founders Fund, and Charter School Growth Fund, Scaled Clayful to serve 50+ school districts across 6 states in 133 languages

## Career timeline

- **~2009** — Began undergraduate studies at Stanford University, Mechanical Engineering
- **~2013** — Early career at Boeing and GE in aerospace engineering
- **2014** — Joined Nearpod as its first product manager
- **2016-2021** — Led product, strategy, operations, growth, and monetization at Nearpod
- **2021** — Nearpod acquired by Renaissance Learning for $650 million
- **2021** — Co-founded Clayful with Melissa Pelochino
- **2023** — Clayful raises $7M seed round led by Reach Capital (total $9.15M raised)
- **2024** — Featured at Stanford eCorner and ASU GSV Summit; focused on scaling to 10x students

## Achievements

- Co-founded Clayful, the first on-demand mental health coaching platform connecting K-12 students with certified coaches in 60 seconds
- Raised $9.15M in total funding from investors including Reach Capital, Google Latino Founders Fund, and Charter School Growth Fund
- Scaled Clayful to serve 50+ school districts across 6 states in 133 languages
- Was the first product manager at Nearpod, contributing to its $650M acquisition by Renaissance Learning
- Featured speaker at Stanford eCorner and ASU GSV Summit
- Clayful students show 95% attendance rate versus 91% for non-users
- Built a fully remote coaching workforce of 100+ staff including certified mental health coaches
- Named to Rock Health's advisory team

## Latest updates

- **2024-09** — Featured at Stanford eCorner's Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders (ETL) series discussing mental health tech and building mentally healthy startups
- **2024-02** — Appeared on Jack Hammer edtech podcast discussing startup lessons and mental health advocacy
- **2023-11** — Clayful closes $7M seed round led by Reach Capital; platform serves 50+ schools across 6 states
- **2023** — Clayful named among first companies to provide on-demand mental health support to students in 60 seconds

## Links

- Website: https://clayfulhealth.com
- LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/maria-barrera-
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/mariabarrera__
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/clayfulhealth

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/maria-barrera
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-05-06