LoDo-based WellTok growing, hiring with social networking for healthcare

Health plans offer a host of tools designed to help members lose weight, quit smoking and otherwise improve their health, but there's a chasm separating such programs from consumers, says WellTok VP of Communications and Marketing Brad Samson.

 

"One of the challenges with healthcare has been getting people engaged," says Samson. "It's the equivalent of having a skinny little footbridge across the Grand Canyon."

 

Founded by President Scott Rotermund and VP of Product Strategy Jeff Cohen in 2008, WellTok has sought to close this gap with the power of social networking with its Signature product, CaféWell.

 

"CaféWell is essentially a social health network," says Samson. "The fundamental idea is to leverage the idea of a social network for people's health."

 

Health plans and employers bring on WellTok to implement CaféWell, with the strategy of bettering health and lowering costs.

 

Former TriZetto CEO Jeff Margolis took the reins when the company closed on $18.7 million in Series B funding in April. Samson says Margolis' experience guiding TriZetto to a $1.8 billion buyout guided the decision. "Jeff's got a proven track record."

 

Since closing the deal, WellTok has inked on two of the country's largest health plans (as yet unnamed), and the 45-employee company has been on a hiring spree -- bringing on 12 new employees in the time since -- with plans to hire about five more in the near term.

 

"Two things are happening," says Samson. "We have more money to hire and we have more clients to serve. It's the best problem to have."

Contact Confluence Denver Innovation & Jobs News Editor Eric Peterson with tips and leads for future stories at eric@confluence-denver.com.