Come build the future of online crisis support with us
We're looking for talented, purpose-driven people to join our mission.
At ThroughLine, we provide meaningful help to people experiencing immediate distress – from suicide and self-harm to anxiety, depression, sexual abuse, domestic violence and more.
We endeavour to create a world where everyone can access support, when and where they need it.
A number of years ago as general manager for a New Zealand youth charity, I saw that young people were increasingly using social platforms not just for connection and entertainment, but as a kind of online diary for mental distress.
In response, we created a world-first service that identified people posting in crisis and, based on the latest research in suicide intervention, responded with free crisis counseling directly in-app. This service supported thousands of young people in crisis in over 50 countries, saving lives.
Through this experience, I learnt some important things that became the basis for ThroughLine's work today. Online communities are most comfortable with referring out to help (our initial solution, while good for users, required too high a level of product access). At the same time, while we worked hard to connect people to helpful in-country resources, there was no reliable, global database of helplines to make this easy.
Meanwhile, massive online communities referred suicidal people to helpline list websites where almost half the links were broken (or acquired by online casinos) and the design looked like something straight out of GeoCities. (Yes, this still happens today).
To fill this gap, I founded ThroughLine, with the purpose of easing experiences of emotional crisis online. To start, we solved the connection problem. We built the largest verified dataset of free mental health and crisis helplines in the world, and wrapped it in a user experience that makes it easy to find and connect with the best helpline for you.
Publicly available as Find A Helpline and integrated into global platforms reaching hundreds of millions of users, this product has quickly become the world's leading resource for global crisis support. Each month, over a quarter of a million people, from almost every country in the world, come to us for support with topics like suicidal thoughts, anxiety, depression, sexual abuse, domestic violence, and self-harm. Since our first paper prototypes, we’ve worked tirelessly to create an experience that reduces the barriers between people in crisis and meaningful help (as one example, improvements in our ranking algorithm lifted helpline contacts by 50%).
Now, with one of the largest global concentrations of people in crisis online – and growing rapidly – we have an exciting, challenging task on our hands: build the crisis support of the future. In this future, online crisis support will be seamless, effective and radically accessible – it will also scale to meet the size of the global need.
Our mission is both a privilege and a duty. We exist to do our very best for people in crisis. To achieve this, we must build on the foundation of what is known, while bravely unearthing fresh approaches.
We can't do this alone, so take this as my direct ask for help. Will you join us?
We pay you well so you can get on with enjoying your job worry-free.
Share in our potential growth and success.
We work in mental health, so we take this seriously.
Work from the couch, cafe or cabana on a schedule that works for you.
Build your most productive and life-giving space.
We're early stage, so your contributions will directly influence our direction and culture.
Rare opportunity to build globally impactful mental health solutions.
We are not currently hiring for any open roles. However, we are always looking for talented, purpose-driven people to join our mission. If you are interested in working with us, please check back on our careers page regularly for updates.