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
Former Walmart exec, VC founder who was second attorney for Google joining Kauffman trustees
Editor’s note: Startland News, in its capacity as a nonprofit digital magazine, is financially supported by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. Two high-powered women are expected to bring diverse business, investment and education backgrounds to the table of one of Kansas City’s leading entrepreneurship engines. Susan Chambers, a five-time “50 Most Powerful Women in Business”…
Video: Rightfully Sewn threads ‘United Nations of Sewing’ concept into fabric of Crossroads
A new studio space in the heart of Kansas City’s creative community will thread the needle for expanding capacity for Rightfully Sewn to help diverse, at-risk women, as well as support its nonprofit mission, said Jennifer Lapka. The program, which trains women to be seamstresses for local designers through a two-year experience, is set to…
Clockwork founder Christian Arnold: When to explore new workspace for your startup
Editor’s note: The opinions expressed in this commentary are the author’s alone. If your startup is ready to graduate from your home office and the local coffee shop, you have a lot of considerations for that perfect workspace. Yes, real estate is typically the second highest business cost, but the right space has the power…
