Sober Sidekick, a Bentonville-based app that functions as a social media network for people seeking to remain sober, recently raised $7.6 million in new investment.
The company plans to use the funding to hire more employees and expand its user base.
The platform emphasizes peer-to-peer support and includes features such as a sobriety counter to mark milestones and access to 24/7 virtual Alcoholics Anonymous meetings.
At the core of the app is what the company calls an “Empathy Algorithm.” The notion of a social media algorithm might have negative connotations these days, but Sober Sidekick’s algorithm is designed to help users, according to Jordan Carlisle, the company’s head of product and technology.
On most social media apps, “what you're going to see is content that is the most popular, the most engaged, the most sensational, the thing that makes you kind of want to just continue to sit there and scroll,” Carlisle said.
“And instead, we flip that on its head, and we've said, ‘okay, what do we need in an algorithm to prioritize content based on the needs of the individual when they post it? So that includes things like, what are the things that they're saying that they need help with? How urgent is that?’”
The algorithm is what has ensured that every post since the app’s debut in 2019 has received at least one interaction from another user. The same systems flag posts that might indicate a need for professional support so that Sober Sidekick staff can follow up with resources.
The company now has 17 employees across multiple states. Founder Chris Thompson, Carlisle, and several other teammates are based out of an office at Onward HQ, a downtown Bentonville coworking space dedicated to startups.
The app has approximately 1.1 million downloads and 145,000+ monthly active users, according to the company’s recent funding announcement. User feedback in app stores is largely positive, with 7,300 ratings and a 4.8 star rating in the Apple App Store and 4.8 stars in the Google Play app store after nearly 21,000 reviews.
The app is free for users, and the company’s business model relies on relationships with health insurance companies. Continued growth for Sober Sidekick requires proof it can meaningfully help prevent relapses.
Or, as Carlisle put it, “we win when we improve outcomes.”
The company cites a study finding that users who engage at least five times are 68% less likely to experience a relapse.
