Sober Sidekick: The Solution to a $43B Addiction Treatment Industry Thriving Off Patient Relapse

According to the National Center for Drug Abuse Statistics, of the nearly 140 million people who drink alcohol, over 20% suffer from alcohol abuse or addiction, and 25.4% of all users of illicit drugs suffer from drug dependency or addiction. In 2019, a scientific study estimated that 6.7 million to 7.6 million people have opioid use disorder (OUD). According to the CDC, there were 110,394 overdose deaths in 2022. Those are some alarming statistics. Fortunately, people like Chris Thompson envision a future where people struggling with substance use disorder can get the support they need when they need it.  

Chris Thompson is the CEO and innovator of Sober Sidekick and Empathy HealthTech. He saw the need to give people hope, like himself, who struggle with addiction. In his recovery journey, there were many times when he wanted and needed help but didn’t know where to turn. His experiences and passion drove Sober Sidekick, a mobile health (mHealth) substance use recovery app that provides real-time peer support 24/7.  

And with Sober Sidekick, “we've been able to create a way for us to be proactive and provide support at the first sign of trouble, at the first sign of someone needing that extra hand. Because relapses, suicides and overdoses don't happen in therapy sessions, clinics or meetings. Usually, they happen in the moments when people are alone.”  

Impressively, he taught himself to code and developed the first generation of Sober Sidekick. Shortly after its launch, downloads started happening very quickly. His initial lead generation model helped him generate funds to continue moving forward. The model generated money by connecting treatment centers with individuals in recovery from substance use disorder (SUD).  

Thompson encountered a problem that ultimately led to a complete abandonment of their first (and only at the time)  business model. The bottom line was a realization that the business model was in conflict with the members best interest. He did not want to scale a model that is built on admissions and readmissions, as it would mean that the business’s success would be heightened by failed attempts for individuals to recover. 

Thompson explained that it is a flawed system. “There is an ugly corrupt side of treatment centers where their KPIs are based on admissions and readmissions into treatments, not on sustained sobriety.  In this system, the providers who have the highest relapse rates are likely to have the fastest financial success.” It has become big money for some and stirred up a lot of media attention, including a movie about people who get kickbacks for referring patients to a treatment facility. “When your business depends on people relapsing and coming back to you versus helping people get back on track, that's a huge problem. In this system, treatment helping people is not the product or the service. Vulnerable people are the product.”   

Thompson was contemplating a pivot to a value-based care model that worked directly with health systems instead of direct treatment center facilities. The thesis according to Chris was, “We only want customers who have financial incentive to see our members recover. This can be payers, employers, and providers who take on risk. Unfortunately, the majority of the rehab industry is incentivized for their failure.” It was a relatively unproven approach so he faced challenges conveying the concept to potential backers. “At that point in time, we had a VC tell us that if we were committed to scaling the (lead generation) revenue model that we had at that point in time, they would have been willing to lead a round.”  

The decision was hefty. Thompson could scale the current model, generating $900,000 in annual revenue or change to the value-based care model that he felt was best for end-users not treatment facilities. Ultimately, Thompson knew that focusing on the end-user experience and shifting to a value-based care model was the way forward and what aligned with his initial vision. 

That change based on moral principles and personal passion led to a Harvard Business School case study. “The study was about our decision to steer clear of building a business like that.” The students at Harvard weighed in on his decision. “I heard a lot of different perspectives as far as what I should have done. And then at the end, I got to share what we actually did and what my reasoning was behind that. But. the case study kind of ended at a point in time where the result was, no more revenue, no investors.’’ Thompson admits that what they did was, “we burned the boats, to take the island.” 

He is taking the island; his app is changing lives and working to change a broken and flawed system. Currently, 500 to 1000 new members are joining Sober Sidekick each day. “With Sober Sidekick, we've been able to create a way for us to be proactive and provide support at the first sign of trouble, at the first sign of someone needing that extra hand.”  

Thompson adds, “More people are self-reporting their sobriety in our platform than any other platform we know. When people self-report their sobriety, we have the unique opportunity to be the first to intervene when things go off track or appear like they might go off track. So, we've been able to build machine learning models to predict which of our members are most likely to relapse soon. And, then, we can be proactive and preventative to increase their likelihood of success for the future.”  

Unlike the majority of the substance abuse treatment industry the Sober Sidekick app is measuring and basing its success on sustained sobriety. “We are recording wins and losses, and making this information accessible to those who can change the system. Because if you aren't measuring success, then you're never going to have success. You don't even know what actions to take to find success. And what you measure is what you improve. And unfortunately, nothing (before Sober Sidekick) is being measured in this space.” 

Earlier this year, Sober Sidekick’s outcomes were peer reviewed by the Validation Institute. The findings showed a 60% reduction in relapse rate by the 5th time a member engaged with their peers through the platform. 

Thompson knows the right partners are out there–like the American Heart Association who led their Seed round, along with Ikigai Growth Partners, and Nina Capital who share a vision to make a positive impact in people’s lives and lower alarming SUD statistics.  

Learn more about Sober Sidekick and its founder.