WellTheory
Improving support networks and care access for individuals with autoimmune conditions.
After connecting around a shared experience navigating autoimmunity, Founder Ellen Rudolph teamed up with Rachel (Paradigm Park) in November of 2020 to collaborate on bringing her vision for WellTheory to life. Pre-product yet aligned around a common vision, the two spent countless hours with autoimmune patients, getting to know their unique perspectives, needs, and aspirations for their health, and their life.
This research culminated in WellTheory’s initial brand and product experience which delivered holistic care to thousands of members, helped to secure a sizable seed fundraising round, and laid the foundation for a scalable solution for autoimmune care.
Project Type
Digital Space
Health Topics
Health Equity, Behavior Change
Year
2020-2023
Role
Rachel worked as an embedded part of the WellTheory team for the better part of two and a half years, leading the charge as a fractional head of design and establishing the foundations of design within the organization. This integral design collaboration helped establish WellTheory as the leader in autoimmune care — they went on to be recognized in numerous publications including FastCo, Forbes, Axios, and Modern Healthcare, and were named one of FastCompany's most innovative companies in 2024.
Services: Design Research, Creative Direction, Brand Strategy, Brand Identity (Verbal & Visual), Content Strategy, Service Design, Experience Design, Product Design
The Problem
The onset and progression of autoimmune conditions is influenced by a complex interplay of genetic predispositions, infections, dietary habits, lifestyle choices, and environmental factors. The journey of an autoimmune patient is a long and winding one, a non-linear process of treatment and improvement. Ambiguity, discomfort, and isolation inhibit progress.
As patients navigate the conventional medical system seeking answers, they’re met with the crumbling facade of the doctor-patient relationship, a relic of an outdated paradigm that seems to specialize in the art of 'not seeing', 'not hearing', and certainly 'not understanding'. Autoimmune patients often face layered and vague symptoms that result in a significantly degraded quality of life. Yet a linear approach to disease diagnosis and management — X+Y=Z — tends to regard these symptoms in isolation, understating their total impact on the patient and failing to treat the interactions between symptoms.
This causes patients to grapple with the phantoms of their conditions — pain that is all too real to them but remains intangible, invisible to the external world. Diagnosis journeys often take upwards of five years. This cloak of invisibility fosters an inner and outer culture of doubt and invalidation, leaving them in a perpetual quest for acknowledgment and understanding. This culture of doubt and ambiguity continues from diagnosis into treatment. Often broad solutions, such as strict dietary regimens, are regarded as ineffective by conventional medicine, which would prefer a specific cure to a specific ailment. The feeling of day to day invalidation often lowers the resolve of patients to maintain treatment plans that would otherwise work over the course of weeks or months.
$100B
Annual cost of autoimmune conditions to the US healthcare system
50M
Americans who have at least one autoimmune condition
4.6 YRS
Average time it takes to receive an autoimmune diagnosis
The Insight
A care model as layered as the humans it cares for.
Thus, a revolutionary shift is needed. One that matches layered, often ambiguous symptoms with a multi-layered physical, social, and mental treatment approach. Such a model would be grounded in empathy, acknowledgment, and understanding. It would recognize the person behind the patient, listen to their stories, validate their pain, and actively engage in a relentless pursuit of solutions across a holistic spectrum of care. This new paradigm heralds the advent of a 'disease detective', an astute listener, a compassionate healer, and above all, an advocate for the patient.
To heal is to be seen, to be heard, and to reclaim one's story from the clutches of a system that has long abandoned the sanctity of a person’s lived experience.
The Solution
A trusted partner in autoimmune healing.
To deploy a truly empathetic experience, WellTheory first pairs members with a health coach and Nutritional Therapy Practitioner, all of whom are living with autoimmune or chronic conditions. This baseline understanding and validation builds trust in WellTheory’s guidance and provides a strong foundation for successful behavior change.
WellTheory then helps members address the cause of their symptoms through a comprehensive nutritional assessment and root cause testing. Building on an empathetic foundation, the full team — practitioners and member together — can bring what is true, even if it is scary, into the light.
Finally, WellTheory helps members reclaim their power. Integrating alongside their medical care, members receive a clear care plan with actionable steps surrounding five key areas of lifestyle influence including nutrition, sleep hygiene, stress management, movement, and relationship to self, others, and nature. Over time, and alongside their Care Team, members develop the skills they need to support their healing, helping them regain trust in their bodies, and themselves.
Kind Words
Rachel would thrive in any environment, but she’s been particularly strong in our early-stage company where she’s been given very little direction and has built so much from scratch for us — brand strategy and guidelines, product design systems, design research protocols, member personas, and much more.
She’ll always be top of my list to call when I’m working through a creative problem.
Claire Rudolph
WellTheory Co-Founder + Head of Product
The Impact
During Rachel's time at WellTheory, the product evolved from early pilots with just a handful of members to a platform achieving a product market fit score of over 60% from more than 500 monthly users. Understanding how members' emotional needs impact their functional needs has resulted in 92% of members experiencing a decrease in symptoms after just four weeks of working with WellTheory.
Finally, early member trust, retention, and outcomes have been instrumental in helping WellTheory secure multiple B2B contracts, ultimately laying the foundation for a scalable, accessible solution to autoimmune care.
$7.2M
Raised in seed funding (led by Accel)
92%
Of all-time members experienced symptom relief in 4 weeks or less
Kind Words
One of Rachel’s greatest gifts is that she has an incredible knack for knowing the right questions to ask, which is paramount in the early stages when you’re asking big existential questions about your business.
I always feel confident throwing Rachel into any ambiguous or ill-defined project. I’ve found it incredibly rare to find an individual in a work environment that I trust so deeply to create such high-quality, thoughtful work output.
Ellen Rudolph
WellTheory Co-Founder + CEO
Project Collaborators
Claire Rudolph
Product Strategy
Ellen Rudolph
Business Strategy
Sara Layman
Brand Activation
Angie Alt
Care Delivery
Jesse St. Jean
Care Delivery
