A Denver teletherapy startup with strong product but flat acquisition
A Denver-based mental health teletherapy startup connecting licensed therapists with patients across 12 US states, with plans to expand nationwide. The company had launched in late 2023, raised a Series A in early 2024, and had strong product retention metrics, but acquisition had stalled at 320 to 360 new patient signups per month for 7 consecutive months when they engaged Elatre.
Why patients seeking therapy could not find them
Three issues blocked growth. First, the brand was invisible inside AI search. When patients asked ChatGPT, Gemini, or Perplexity to recommend teletherapy options, larger competitors like BetterHelp and Talkspace dominated the answers while the Denver startup did not appear. Second, Meta ads were running at a cost per signup of $186, with creative that had run unchanged for 9 months. Third, the patient onboarding flow had a 38% completion rate, losing the majority of signups between the initial questionnaire and the first therapist match.
What we built across AI search, ads, and onboarding
On the AI SEO and GEO side, we built topical authority around therapy modalities, insurance coverage, and state-by-state therapist availability. We published 64 long-form articles over the engagement covering topics like cognitive behavioral therapy, EMDR, anxiety treatment options, and insurance navigation. Each piece was structured with schema markup, FAQ sections, and citation-ready paragraphs designed to be quoted by answer engines. We monitored citations weekly across the 5 major LLMs and adjusted content as gaps appeared. On the paid side, we rebuilt the Meta ad account with 18 creative variants per month, segmented by patient pain point (anxiety, depression, relationship, trauma, life transitions). On the software side, we rebuilt the patient onboarding flow with a custom-engineered questionnaire that adapted questions based on prior answers, integrated insurance verification at the point of signup, and matched patients to therapists in under 90 seconds.
Nine-month results across signups, cost, and AI citations
By month 9, monthly patient signups reached 2,847, up from 340 at the start. Cost per signup dropped to $34. Onboarding completion rate moved from 38% to 81% after the rebuilt flow launched. The brand received 312 AI search citations per month across ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews, up from zero. Organic search traffic grew from 12,000 to 184,000 monthly sessions. State coverage expanded from 12 to 31 states because the lead flow finally supported the expansion. Average patient lifetime value moved up by approximately $240 because better matching reduced early dropoff.
How the rebuild positioned them for the Series B
The company opened a Series B round during month 8 of the engagement, with the new acquisition and retention metrics serving as the core thesis in the pitch. The round closed at month 11 at a 3.2x valuation increase from the Series A. Elatre continued as the marketing and engineering partner through the post-Series-B expansion.