Case Study: Scaling a Digital Mental Health Platform
Armon Arani
Case Study: Scaling a Digital Mental Health Platform from Pilot to National Growth
Client
Cognito Health (Canada)
Website
https://www.getcognito.ca/
Role
CEO & Founder
Owned growth, product, operations, and go-to-market
Cognito Health Website
The Problem
Canada’s mental health system is overloaded. Waitlists were long, care was fragmented, and existing digital options struggled with:
High acquisition costs
Low conversion from intake to paid care
Clinician inefficiency due to admin overhead
Difficulty selling into government and enterprise
Cognito needed to prove it could deliver high-quality care, at scale, with sustainable unit economics.
The Approach
I built Cognito as an operator-led growth system, not a therapy marketplace.
1. Designed a conversion-first funnel
Structured digital intake with clinical guardrails
Reduced friction between assessment → care
Clear eligibility rules to protect outcomes and margins
2. Improved clinician efficiency
Streamlined assessment workflows
Reduced unnecessary labs and admin steps
Increased client-facing time per provider hour
3. Built a multi-channel growth engine
SEO + organic content
Meta paid acquisition with CAC discipline
Referral loops via clinicians and word-of-mouth
B2B and government pilots
4. Proved enterprise credibility
Ran and delivered a multi-year public health pilot
Built reporting, compliance, and outcomes tracking
Positioned Cognito as a long-term partner, not a tool
The Results
5,000+ patients served across Canada
50,000+ clinical appointments delivered
$3M+ raised across angel, pre-seed, and seed rounds
$1M+ ARR with a clear path to profitability
Low CAC with improving conversion rates
1 to 11 CAC:LTV ratio
Team scaled to 50+ clinicians and operators
Most importantly: outcomes stayed strong while costs dropped.
Why This Worked
Most health startups optimize pitch decks. I optimized systems:
One owner per metric
Weekly experiment cadence
Clear decision rules
Tight feedback loops between marketing, product, and ops
Growth didn’t come from hacks. It came from execution.
What I Do Now (For Clients)
I help founders and operators:
Fix broken funnels
Reduce CAC without killing volume
Turn traffic into revenue
Build growth systems that compound
Especially in:
Digital health
Regulated industries
Subscription or service-based businesses
Like this project
Posted Dec 29, 2025
Operator-led growth case study scaling a digital mental health platform.
