Mental health startup StartTalking announces partnership with QuikTrip
October 14, 2016 | Meghan LeVota
Editor’s note: In response to readers’ desire for quick-hitting stories, Startland News is launching a new segment, “News Flash,” to enable more coverage. Let us know what you think!
Lenexa-based StartTalking has announced a pilot partnership with QuikTrip that will make its service available to all 3,000 QuikTrip employees in the Kansas City area.
The mental health startup will provide its telehealth and online therapy services via QuikTrip’s employee assistance program, confirming the firm’s value, said founder Mark Nolte.
“We’re still very much in startup mode, but this validated our business model and proved that it can be done,” Nolte said. “We’re grateful for the opportunity to learn a lot in the pilot about what works, what doesn’t and what protocols to take in the future.”
Launched in 2014, StartTalking was inspired by Nolte’s own struggle with depression. The software provides immediate online counseling and therapeutic sessions through online messaging and encrypted video. His software is designed to catch depression and anxiety in its early stages, before things get critical.
A Liberty-based behavioral therapist from Clinical Counseling Associates Inc. will be providing the online therapy to QuikTrip employees. The therapist and Quiktrip employees will be able to access the video platform on their smartphone or laptop with StartTalking’s technology. Nolte said that QuikTrip was interested in his firm services to help cut down on travel and absentee costs.
A medical device salesman of more than 20 years, Nolte said the market for telehealth psychotherapy is around $2 trillion, and that Americans spend about $24 billion on psychotherapy.
2016 Startups to Watch
stats here
Related Posts on Startland News
Bardavon bid to revolutionize workers’ compensation just got a $15 million boost
Timing is everything, said Matt Condon, announcing this week $15 million in new financing to help scale his Overland Park-based company’s reach into markets from coast to coast. “Our national expansion is coming at a time when employers across the country are recognizing that they must play a lead role in the transformation of health…
KCultivator Q&A: Mother inspires Davin Gordon to remove ‘can’t’ from the conversation
Editor’s note: KCultivators is a lighthearted profile series to highlight people who are meaningfully enriching Kansas City’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. The KCultivator Series is sponsored by WeWork Corrigan Station, a modern twist on Kansas City office space. Kansas City’s future depends on whether the business community invests in homegrown talent, Davin Gordon said. “It doesn’t have…
AltCap winner launching its first Rightfully Sewn-label little black dress at TEDxKC Women
Winning $10,000 in this week’s AltCap Your Biz Competition will help Rightfully Sewn expand, Jennifer Lapka said — a move coming on the heels of the social endeavor releasing the first dress under its own label to support the Crossroads-based seamstress training program. “It’s a stylish, well-made LBD (little black dress) that women can wear…
On the TechWalk runway: This is what real KC Women in Tech look like
Tech careers are available to everyone, said Ventura Rangel. Kansas City Women in Technology, a nonprofit dedicated to growing the number of women in technology careers, played host to its second annual TechWalk fashion show, showcasing female tech professionals on the runway, said Rangel, event director for KCWiT. The goal is to inspire young girls…