Scheduling therapy appointments for his 7-year-old son with cerebral palsy, Brennan Barber noticed a lot of inefficiencies in the system. Coordinating between different therapy practices was difficult, and he realized much of the progress for his son must be made at home, outside of the clinical setting.
“We felt like there’s a lack of accountability,” Barber said, speaking about him and his wife.
Barber knew there needed to be better communication between families and therapists, so in 2023, he launched Theralinq with his co-founder Bethany Darragh, who is a therapist in Wake County Public School System. Together, they designed a platform that enhances pediatric therapy by connecting parents to therapists on one interface.
Theralinq is part of NC IDEA’s latest MICRO grant cycle, which awards $10K project-based grants to young startups. (We’ve previously covered other recipients from this cohort, including Kahmino, Artificially Digital, and Blockchain Power.) Barber said this funding helped Theralinq contract with a product developer to help refine the customer interface and user experience.
Barber himself is no stranger to the Triangle startup ecosystem after spending the past four and a half years at CED, where he is currently the Head of Business Development.
The Theralinq platform now provides at-home exercises that help parents maximize their clinical appointments. Barber said there is usually a limited number of appointments that insurance covers, so continuing the therapy at-home using Theralinq minimizes out-of-pocket expenses for additional appointments.
With Theralinq, parents can manage all of their therapists in one location. Therapists can assign at-home activities at the end of a clinical session using the mobile app, and they can manage patient progress remotely. Therapists can also manage their caseloads in a more streamlined manner by using just one interface for all of their patients.
Theralinq focuses on physical therapy, occupational therapy, and speech and feeding therapies. Early intervention between ages zero to five is when a child’s brain is most plastic and has the most opportunity to develop new neural pathways. Barber said a lot of the progress for these specialties is made at home, using standard household tools and toys to work on skills such as core strength or fine motor skills.
Paying customers include both parents and therapists. Theralinq has worked with nearly 20 beta customers so far, and Barber said the platform has received “good validation” from both parents and therapists. He hopes to commercialize the platform this fall.
Barber has used Theralinq with his own family, and he said it has been helpful for managing at-home practice amidst a busy week.
“Being able to see that accountability, that progress along the way, has been great,” Barber said.
Barber said Theralinq’s model is unique because it provides services to the end users—the parents and therapists—rather than to private clinics or hospital systems. He said Theralinq has a “low-cost” subscription model that is affordable for customers. Barber added that parents are not beholden to one healthcare system, and instead they can manage various therapists on one interface.
“Our platform is really designed with outcomes in mind for these families and their children,” Barber said.
Parents also can use Theralinq independently to “kickstart” the therapy experience, Barber said. Once families get into private therapy, they can connect with their therapist through the platform with their therapist ID.
Theralinq is currently participating in CED’s GRO Incubator, which Barber said is helping with customer discovery and finding product-market-fit. The startup will be presenting at GRO Incubator’s Demo Day on June 27.
