Authored By Chloé Morrison

https://youtu.be/x7b3fWWMYpk A Chattanooga startup has raised nearly half a million dollars and is leveraging technology to improve the mental health profession. Motivo connects students and mental health professionals with clinical supervisors through a live, HIPAA-compliant video platform. People working toward licenses in the mental health profession are required to work with supervisors and Motivo aims to make that process more seamless. Founder Rachel McCrickard said she and her team are leading the way in this field. "We are first to market," she said. "There's no other online platform providing clinical supervision online. This legislation allowing it is so recent...People aren't even aware you can do it online." McCrickard is a former therapist who went through a long process to get credential for the profession. That process involves working with a clinical supervisor during the last year of graduate school and for the first two to four years in the profession, she said. There wasn't a supervisor for her in Chattanooga, so she had to travel and meet with that person. That cost time and money. But when Georgia changed its laws and allowed the process to be done through secure online video conferencing, McCrickard had the idea for her business. Motivo aims to cut out pain points like ones McCrickard experienced and provide more options for users who may otherwise be limited by geography or hours of availability. McCrickard didn't have a technical background, so she started small and tested the concept with her own money, she said. The image below shows the company's startup path. TechStars In July, McCrickard joined Atlanta-based business accelerator TechStars, which she and her team are still taking part in. That program is over on Oct. 15, and she's still evaluating the next steps. "Some of our staff is from Atlanta," she said. "Atlanta is proving to have some pretty good partners but Chattanooga does as well, so we're not sure yet [about where we will stay]." But either way, McCrickard will always be back in Chattanooga at some point because she has family here, she said. Making money People who need to be connected with a clinical supervisor use the platform, and, for now, the user pays for the session at the time of the meeting. Motivo pays the supervisor while taking a cut from each session. But that model is changing. "Just now we are moving away from an on-demand model to a subscription-based model," McCrickard said. With that model, users will pay for session credits ahead of time. For example, a user might purchase two sessions a month. The on-demand model allows users to pay as they go, but that makes revenue flow more unpredictable. "We might have paired 80 different people with supervisors but we don't know when they will have their session," she said. Transparency Health Chattanooga's Transparency Health has invested $100,000 in Motivo. Transparency co-founder Rebekah Elkins Sharpe said she'd been casually following Motivo and when she and her team finally met up with McCrickard it seemed like an ideal fit. "When we are looking at investments, one of our top criteria is going to be about the founder and the team," Sharpe said. "Rachel surpassed all the things we are looking for." Transparency wants founders who are "motivated, determined, passionate" and will "run through walls" to make progress, Sharpe said. They found that in McCrickard. "Second [we look at] the product and the product market fit," Sharpe said. "Because she's a first mover in the space, and it's something we see as a need, we got really excited about it and wanted to partner with her."