Ellie Mental Health PLLP has become one of the fastest growing mental health companies in the United States by combining a customer and clinician experience focused approach to care with a franchise business.
Founded in 2015 and based in Mendota Heights, Minnesota, the Inc. 5000 list ranks 1,193, with revenue growth of 544% from 2018 to 2021.
Erin Pash, co-founder and CEO of Ellie Mental Health, told BHB that the company’s focus on customer service and creating a better employee experience for practitioners is where Ellie’s story lies. He said that hearing it resonated with him.
Rather than single-handedly undertake the task of expanding the company nationally, the company chose to market the Ellie Mental Health franchise. Since its launch in August 2021, the company has since sold and awarded over 400 clinic sites to approximately 130 franchisees in 32 states.
Currently, Ellie Mental Health directly owns and operates 20 locations in Minnesota, with plans to open five more locations by the end of 2022.
The company currently has seven franchise stores open and plans to open 30 franchise stores by the end of the year. Also, new clinics are expected to open every week in 2023, Pash said.
Pash says the decision to choose to franchise was a reflection of what has made Ellee Mental Health so successful in the past. Pash and her team identified three factors in her: a passion for mental health, Ellie her excitement for modeling, and her entrepreneurial spirit.
Ellie Mental Health sees franchisees who have been franchise owners or entrepreneurs in the past and are ideal candidates. Franchisees must also be firmly rooted in the community and understand the impact of mental health treatment.
“In mental health, it’s hard to get buy-in because people can’t be trusted as easily as they are in medical health,” Pasch said. You can talk to them and figure out who your high school’s local soccer team is and all that stuff.”
Franchisees do not have to be mental health professionals, but they must come to Erie Mental Health with a clinical director who is a mental health professional. make it a thing By pairing entrepreneurs with mental health professionals, each party can focus on what they are good at.
“Being a therapist doesn’t make you a good business owner,” Pash said.
From a practitioner’s perspective, Pash said the company’s aim is to provide the security and support of being part of a larger institution, as well as the creativity and flexibility to practice like a private practice. said.
The Minnesota Market serves as Ellie Mental Health’s ‘guinea pig’. This market allows Ellie to develop new approaches, strategies and test them. We then develop financial proforma and training to codify these innovations and support franchisee implementation.
Earlier this year, Ellie Mental Health secured an investment from private equity firm Princeton Equity Group. Princeton Equity Group’s other investments include Massage Envy, D1 Training and medspa810, according to the company’s website.
In addition to providing telemedicine to patients, the company has partnered with Ellie Mental Health to develop its own app for patients and businesses to provide employee health consultations.
Pasch said the app should be live by the end of the year.
