Our Story

When we first had the idea to create Belongly, we were interested in building a company that brought mental health and tech together. During our early customer development interviews with 150 consumers and mental health providers, we discovered recurring themes that went beyond the product we initially intended to create. Mental health professionals expressed feeling overwhelmed with the high volume of requests for care and unable to provide adequate support to all those in need. They consistently reported feeling burnt out and lacking support systems or networks they could turn to. Lastly, they shared the challenges of the business side of running their practice, having been trained to help people but not necessarily to start and effectively run a business.

On the other hand, consumers we interviewed regularly expressed difficulty finding a therapist with availability, and even when they did, there was uncertainty about whether the therapist would be a good fit. Many parents expressed a strong desire for better referral systems to make the process easier and more efficient.

These conversations and themes resonated with us, and we felt a strong desire to help mental health professionals better serve their clients. We conducted further customer development interviews and found widespread agreement and interest in addressing these issues. As a result, we created Belongly to provide mental health professionals with the tools and resources they need to overcome these challenges and provide better care for their patients.