Mental health startup Forte wants to turn employee wellness into practical change

This story was produced with support from the Howard County Economic Development Authority, which operates the Maryland Innovation Center and helps entrepreneurs and businesses of all sizes access the funding, guidance, and connections they need to grow in Howard County, Maryland.

A Howard County startup is pushing to make mental health at work a routine, not a crisis-only service.

Forte brings private sessions with mental health professionals to the office via an app, which connects users with coaches who can help them with subjects like stress management and work-life balance.

As stress and burnout rise, Forte CEO Vineet Rajan says that it’s not enough for workplaces to simply track employee well-being — they also need access to the insights it generates. By aggregating trends in mental health while keeping individual conversations confidential, employers can use the data to make meaningful changes.

“We’re trying to help the employer that provided this benefit for their employees to understand how they could help meet their employees where they are at,” Rajan told Technical.ly.

Those insights can show, for example, that stress levels were higher during a certain period or that parents can experience more stress when their children are home during the summer. 

Then, companies can put that info into action by offering work-from-home options for families or readjusting productivity goals. 

While the company partners with hundreds of organizations across the US, it’s landed a niche that’s helping it take off — faith-based organizations and school districts.

“These organizations found us, and they like using our service, and they tell others about our service,” Rajan said. “So that market is growing fairly quickly.” 

Forte aims to frame mental health as an ongoing practice, like physical fitness, rather than clinical care focused on addressing a specific issue, Rajan said.

Tiered access to coaching

Forte once offered just an unlimited plan that allowed employees to meet with coaches online as often as they wanted. Now, there are also options for meeting only a handful of times a year at flexible session lengths. 

Forte’s subscription platform gives employees access to pre-recorded wellness content and conversations with trained coaches. The company recently introduced a tiered pricing model aimed at making the service more affordable. 

Individuals can apply online to become a Forte coach and complete a $300 certification program. The process takes more than two months, Rajan said, combining live sessions with experienced coaches and self-paced modules. 

Coaches don’t need to be licensed mental health professionals, though many have that background, Rajan said. Developed with Johns Hopkins University professors and mental health experts, the training ends with a final exam before coaches can start meeting with employees.

Employees can connect with coaches via Forte’s app. The service matches employees to coaches based on an initial survey, but employees can switch coaches as needed. 

Subscriptions start at $5,000 per year for companies with up to 10 employees, plus a 10% onboarding fee. For larger organizations, annual pricing can reach the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

“It allows smaller organizations and organizations that don’t have a huge budget to be able to access Forte in ways they couldn’t before,” Rajan said.