Our Story
Behavioral health practices deserve intake infrastructure as thoughtful as the care they provide
Intakeful was founded in Nashville because the behavioral health intake problem is both operationally painful and clinically consequential — and almost no software had been built specifically for it.
Founding Story
Built from inside the problem
Rachel Thornton spent years working in behavioral health practice administration and health technology at a Nashville-area community mental health center. She watched intake coordinators spend entire afternoons on paper forms and phone calls while the waiting list grew — and at-risk patients slipped through screening gaps because no tool was scoring a PHQ-9, let alone routing on it.
The standard advice was: use a generic form builder, or buy a full EHR that includes intake as a module. Neither worked. Generic form builders didn't know what PHQ-9 meant. EHR intake modules were designed for the documentation side, not the triage side. And 42 CFR Part 2 — the additional confidentiality requirements that apply to substance use records — wasn't on the radar of any vendor she evaluated.
She founded Intakeful with a specific thesis: behavioral health intake triage is a distinct problem that deserves a distinct solution, built by people who understand the clinical instruments, the compliance obligations, and the operational reality of the front desk.
Mission
"Behavioral health practices carry a heavier intake burden than any other specialty — and the tools available haven't kept up. Intakeful exists to change that."
— Rachel Thornton, CEO
Nashville, TN
Healthcare corridor, Vanderbilt University Medical Center neighborhood
Nashville, TN
Angel-backed — initial funding closed mid-2025
Built for behavioral health specifically
Not adapted from hospital or primary care intake tools
What We're Solving
The gap in the behavioral health software landscape
Intakeful occupies a specific and under-served intersection: automated intake triage for behavioral health practices. This is distinct from general health intake tools (which don't understand behavioral health screening or 42 CFR Part 2), behavioral health EHRs (which handle records but have minimal intake triage logic), and consumer mental health platforms (which are therapist-network marketplaces, not clinic intake software).
Clinical instrument literacy
PHQ-9, GAD-7, Columbia Protocol, AUDIT-C, PCL-5 — not form fields that happen to be named after screening tools. The actual validated instruments, with score-to-threshold routing.
42 CFR Part 2 design awareness
The substance use confidentiality requirements that go beyond HIPAA. Most health software vendors don't mention it. Every behavioral health practice with SUD services carries this obligation.
SMB practice fit
Built for 5–50 clinician practices, not hospital systems. Visible pricing. 2-week implementation. Month-to-month billing. The simplicity that SMB practice operators need from operational software.
Team
Built by people who understand behavioral health operations
Our team combines behavioral health practice administration experience, health data/FHIR engineering, and practice management software product development.
Meet the TeamWe built this for your practice
See Intakeful in the context of your practice's intake workflow
30 minutes. Real intake flow. Configured for behavioral health. No slides.