Company leader
Robin McIntosh
Co-founder
Workit Health
Robin McIntosh is a co-founder of Workit Health, an online addiction treatment program she started in 2015 with Lisa McLaughlin, and she served as its co-CEO. A designer by trade, she brought design thinking to how the company builds care for people with substance use disorder.
A Family of Entrepreneurs
Both of her parents are entrepreneurs, and she grew up hearing "be your own boss" and "always bet on yourself" at home. She knew early that she wanted work that let her be creative, take risks and improve the world.
Design in Silicon Valley
She worked as a designer before Workit, and she and McLaughlin both worked in Silicon Valley, where they watched apps make food delivery and transportation easy. They saw a chance to bring the same ease to addiction treatment. "Having expert help in the palm of your hand can quite literally save someone's life."
Founding Workit Health
She met McLaughlin in the rooms of Alcoholics Anonymous, and both are in long-term recovery. In 2014 they quit their jobs to start Workit, after losing friends to rehab waitlists and strict treatment programs. The two shared the co-CEO title, and more than 85% of the company's leadership team was female.
Addiction as a Chronic Disease
She argues that addiction should be treated like diabetes, hypertension or asthma. "Addiction is a chronic disease." She also faults the country's reliance on inpatient rehab, which she sees as expensive and impractical for people with families or demanding jobs.