CEO Spotlight: Mark Frank of SonderMind
Mark Frank, Co-Founder & CEO of SonderMind
Mark Frank is the CEO and Co-Founder of SonderMind, a growth company that is focused on making mental health services more accessible and accepted for everyone. Currently, SonderMind sits at 110 employees but is growing quickly. Mark started out at West Point and served as an Logistics Officer in the Army for five years. After the Army, Mark earned both his MBA and Masters of Engineering Management at Northwestern University. After grad school, he was an Associate Investment Banker at Morgan Stanley for two years before serving as Founder & CEO at Next Oncology. After six years at Next Oncology, he sold the company in a deal that brought a 12X return to investors. In addition to founding SonderMind and Next Oncology, Mark has also started SafeImageMD and TermScout, as well as served as the Managing Director of the investment company, Goldwing Capital. For our September Company Spotlight, we asked Mark a few questions about growing his company, what he’s focused on for 2020, and his journey as a CEO during a pandemic.
Please describe what your company does today.
SonderMind's mission is to redesign behavioral health by improving access, utilization and outcomes. Our first goal is to create new access points and support for people who can't easily access care. Traditionally, it's incredibly difficult to find a therapist that has availability, meets your specific needs, and takes your insurance. It's also the status quo that therapists in private practice have a hard time getting credentialed and reimbursed for sessions. They want to care for clients, not spend their time on billing and marketing. SonderMind solves both sides of that problem equation.
How has SonderMind been impacted by the current pandemic?
This pandemic created an opportunity for us to profoundly improve people’s mental health. In March, we launched a Video Telehealth platform that made it possible for providers and clients to connect for insurance reimbursable and HIPAA compliant video sessions. While some therapists were hesitant, we now know that more than 98% of our providers have hosted successful sessions with clients. Based on this success, we are launching SonderMind Anytime messaging on September 21st as the next way for providers and clients to connect.
What aspect of your team or company culture are you most proud, and how are you maintaining it?
Pandemic or not, our cultural goal has always been for all employees to feel not only part of the company, but know that they are part of our mission. To do that in a pandemic, we hold monthly and quarterly all company Zoom meetings where we share goals, progress, allow new employees to introduce themselves, and recognize performance with awards. We have less traditional tools as well, like our quarterly all-hands book club. It’s a tightly structured program with group leaders and discussion guides that are designed to build alignment, question the status quo, and open new avenues for thinking and feedback.
What is the most important thing you're working on right now, and how are you making it happen?
We’ve tackled the problem of bringing people and therapists together and we are scaling that across multiple states. But simply connecting is only the start of our story. Our Chief Medical Officer is now building out a Measurement Based Care program. This brings a never-seen-before level of therapeutic accountability to behavioral health. Our goal is not just to connect someone to a therapist, it’s to connect them to the right therapist with the right skills and to track outcomes so that we can clinically prove that people are not just going to therapy-but that they are getting better outcomes. We are doing this in less time and at less cost to them and the entire behavioral health system.
What is the best piece of advice you’ve received as a CEO?
Remember that you are responsible for everything the company does or fails to do.
What has been the most meaningful aspect of your engagement with the Blackstone Entrepreneurs Network?
The most meaningful part of engaging with BEN has been the ability to connect with other Colorado leaders in settings that drive personal and professional development.