Startup Operations Lead

Reports to: Founder/CEO of Swell

Responsible for: Client operations, therapist operations, team support

Works closely with: Our CEO, future interns, our clients/therapists

Compensation: $40K annual salary plus performance bonus, stock options, & benefits

Experience: Entry to mid-level

Location: Louisville, Kentucky

Apply Here

About Swell

Swell is building an AI-supported mental health platform for the people who can’t afford to pay hundreds out of pocket for therapy (starting with military families).

We all want less people to struggle with their mental health, but unfortunately the demand for therapy has outstripped the global supply of therapists. Very few of those left accept any insurance at all, especially the military’s.

As a result, the most in-need people can’t get help in the 1:1 model now, and millions more who struggle with more mild symptoms are totally left out. Swell is solving that.

What makes us unique in addition to our target market is our full-circle approach to mental healthcare. We’ll meet each person exactly where they are by combining totally new categories of self-guided preventative & early interventional mental health care with traditional 1:1 therapy in one platform.

We launched our video therapy marketplace at our first base (Fort Campbell) in January of last year. Since then we’ve grown over ~12X, secured contracts with major insurers, and facilitated nearly 2000 therapy sessions with military families on our platform.

Now, we’re building out the proprietary self-guided side of our therapy app. This app uses behavioral psychology & AI and to help clients learn skills and frameworks for improving their relationships with themselves and others outside of a 1:1 session.

About the Role

We're a small startup (4 full time employees) with a team that’s very passionate about mental health. We’re looking for a process-driven operations coordinator to join our team. Our ideal candidate is ambitious, detail-oriented, has aspirations of moving into an operations leadership role (or beyond) and demonstrates a dedication to personal development. You'll have access to regular mentorship from high-performing leaders, hands-on experience with scaling operations, and opportunities to take on greater responsibilities.

This role is in-person at our Butchertown/Nulu office, but you'll have the flexibility to work remotely for 1-2 days per week after the initial onboarding period.

We foster a collaborative, transparent, and feedback-driven culture where we celebrate wins and learn from challenges. At Swell, everyone’s voice matters, everyone participates, and we create an environment where everyone can bring their authentic self to work.

Minimum Requirements:

• Must be invested in Swell’s vision & in this role for the long haul (the compensation package includes a generous stock package so that Swell’s success is your success).
• Must be dedicated to creating processes & solving problems.
• Must always be learning & have a curious mindset.
• Must be incredibly resourceful. You don't get to dead ends of "I don't know" and instead look to "I can find out".

What you’ll do here:
This role, like most in a startup, will wear many hats. The ideal candidate can create structure around these responsibilities and a daily schedule that’s sustainable as we scale.

Note: You don’t have to have previous experience doing any one of these things (we taught ourselves how to do most of it) - you just need to be self-activating & willing to learn (quickly)!

Client operations (~12 hours/week):

• Call, email & text clients throughout the day (onboarding & ongoing operations)
• Create & track ongoing client surveys
• Submit insurance billing & do biweekly reconciliation (sounds harder than it is)

Therapist operations (~2 hours/week):

• Credential therapists with insurers
• Track credentialing status and proactively engage therapists in the pipeline

General operations (~26 hours/week):

• Write & maintain SOP documentation
• Support hackathons & other integrations within local startup community
• Support regulatory compliance (ensure we stay on top of licenses / annual reports / etc)
• Report on progress/issues proactively
• Identify and implement strategies to resolve inefficiencies & scale operations
• Contribute ideas and roll up your sleeves for projects outside of your area
• Light office coordination (order & organize supplies / participate in maintaining the workspace)

About you

• You see the tremendous value and impact that improving mental health will have in our world.

• You share Swell’s vision and want to be a part of making it a reality.

• You thrive in a highly accountable, highly visible environment. (We all know exactly what everyone is working on and every person is responsible for meeting deadlines and moving Swell forward.)

• You take initiative. You see a problem, you get into the arena and lead the fix.

• When thinking about the way things are done, you’re willing to challenge norms and ask “how can this be better?” to improve the status quo.

• You have a high EQ and work well with others who do. You are a clear, proactive, and respectful communicator. You respond well to thoughtful, direct feedback.

• You’re ready to be all in on shaping the future at Swell, contributing to discussions around how we work, how we get better, and how we right the ship when we inevitably take a wrong direction.

• You want to work in a startup and grow with Swell. You want to see our product in the world.

• You want to work on tough problems. You’re ready for a high-growth, energy-intensive phase in your life (that’s what the next 3 years at Swell will be like).

Culture

Swell is a relatively flat organization. Everyone who works here will share in Swell’s success both in the long term (through equity) and in the short term (higher cash compensation as we grow).

As Swell is made more successful by individuals with outsized impact, those individuals are rewarded. Promotions and title changes are given based on merit, which usually means the individual has demonstrated an ability to consistently have a higher impact on the company than what was expected in their role.

We hire for high responsibility, high self-awareness, high ownership, and a high propensity to roll up your sleeves and get things done - even in situations when you're not an expert (but you're the only expert you have) and the path forward is uncharted.

Benefits

• Equity ownership in Swell

• Medical, dental, and vision benefits

• 11 company-wide observed holidays + 1 floating personal holiday (to celebrate individual cultural and religious holidays)

• 3 weeks paid time off (2 are company wide - one in the winter and one in the summer)

• Opportunity for direct 1:1 mentorship from the CEO (who's also an experienced ops leader: 2x founder + former TPM & product manager at Lyft, Kinsa & Athos)

• Opportunity to define a set career path with measurable milestones to move up into a leadership role at Swell over time (if you choose)

Note on salary - to keep things fair and balanced across our team, we decide on compensation for roles upfront and then communicate it transparently. This way, salaries aren’t dependent on negotiating skills or subjective traits that leave room for bias. At Swell, salaries are standardized for each role and level within the team, and printed on the job post.

This position starts at $40K. There’s also a $5K (annual) company performance bonus and a generous stock option grant (0.25%). For more experienced applicants, we’ll consider increasing the performance bonus/options grant.

The company performance bonus is based on achieving key company milestones, ensuring that everyone contributes to and benefits from Swell's success.

Equal Opportunity
Individuals of all colors, backgrounds, religions (or lack thereof), sexual orientations, and gender identities who are passionate about helping people bring about meaningful, measurable change in their lives are encouraged to apply.

Apply Here