RecoveryLink’s founders want to destigmatize recovery while proving care management’s market value

Year-and-a-half-old tech startup RecoveryLink is aiming to prove that its market is a relevant one.

The company is the maker of an online suite of tools for people in recovery from substance use, mental health issues, disordered eating, trauma and more, as well as for the organizations serving them. Its trio of founders — CEO Robert Ashford, CIO Chris Hart and CMO Brent Canode — are all in recovery themselves, and realized a few years ago that there weren’t any great-working digital tools to help individuals manage and navigate their recovery.

There are digital health tools and virtual mental health companies, but there were pain points in each of the available businesses they assessed, Ashford told Technical.ly. So, the founders set out to create RecoveryLink.

The platform offers services for individuals, employers and providers, including goal setting, management of peer-to-peer counseling, data collection and other aspects of care. Ashford called it a “real-time insight into what they’re accomplishing” in recovery plans.

The 2021 RealLIST Startup runner up launched in 2019 — and in 2020, as care management adjusted to the reality of the COVID-19 pandemic, these virtual services became even more essential, Ashford said. Not many entrepreneurs wade into the recovery market, he added, whether it be due to negative stigmas around addition and recovery or not wanting to do business in the Medicaid market. But the startup has made the “right tools at the right time,” he said.

“You know, we still get sideways glances when we talk about our personal recovery in pitches or meetings, and it’s interesting to see it in the business side,” Ashford said. “But it’s a conversation we need to continue to have. It’s a viable market, and we need to talk about why we continue to stigmatize these … diagnoses.”

In 2020, RecoveryLink powered about 40,000 one-on-one engagements, the CEO said. The founders, who have technical, academic and business backgrounds, have run businesses before, but are currently bootstrapping while exploring the VC space that’s more prevalent in the startup world. The trio are actively fundraising a seed round this spring.

The startup currently employs 11 people, and a round of fundraising would help accelerate the hiring of some front-end developers, Ashford said. The rest of the year will focus on improving the platform and upping monthly recurring revenue.

Out of all the lessons the founders have learned while building a startup over the last year and a half (and during a pandemic, no less), leaning on their IRL and digitally formed network has been among the most valuable.

“Every day we’re learning more and more what it means to be this type of company,” Ashford said. “We have to be willing to admit we don’t know what we don’t know.”